Posted on 05/28/2004 5:25:59 AM PDT by Aquinasfan
A Mormon Girl Gets Her Start in the Adult Movie Business
Jan. 23 — When 20-year-old Michelle saw the handsome Spaniard who would later become her fiancé, she thought it was love at first sight.
[WARNING: This article contains descriptions of sexual acts that some readers may find offensive.]
"The day we met, he said, 'You're going to be the mother of my children. I love you,'" she remembers. "You know what I mean? I never had that before. I never had a guy be so in love with me."
The couple met on the set of a porn film in a rented house in Prague in July 2001.
Michelle, the daughter of a retired Air Force captain and former bishop in the Mormon Church, was an up-and-coming starlet in the adult video world. She had had some setbacks in her first year in the business, but believed her career was turning around with the Prague trip, which would be her first starring role. Her co-star, 28-year-old Nacho Vidal, was already a well-established star.
The director had told Michelle that Vidal liked her work, and when the pair saw each other they immediately fell into each other's arms, kissing from one side of the house to the other.
"There's nothing bad about you," she told him admiringly as they prepared for the shoot. "You don't know me very well" he replied with a grin.
But when the director finally got the pair to settle down to the business at hand — filming a sex scene — the tone changed. Without any prompting, Vidal got rough during the sex, slapping Michelle's face violently from side to side, and choking her. [Pleased to meet you/Hope you guessed my name]
Afterward, she looked shaken, her face reddened and her eyes watery. But she insisted she was OK. "I look torn up — can you tell?," she asked an ABCNEWS producer who was following her progress for Primetime. Laughing and wiping her eye, she turned away and said without conviction, "I took a beating today, and it was great."
'Belladonna' Is Born
Michelle had gotten her start in the business at 18, when she came to Los Angeles from her home in Utah to look for work as a nude photograph model. When she failed to get modeling work, her agent encouraged her to try porn. She refused at first. "I always hated porn. I thought it was the most disgusting thing in the world," she told Primetime, which followed her career for more than two years.
But she finally agreed. Taking the name Belladonna, like the poisonous flower, she found herself preparing for what she thought would be a simple boy-girl sex scene. She was shocked when the director told her he wanted her to do anal sex — something she says she had never even thought about before. Worried she'd have to go through with it if she wanted to work again, she let him talk her into it. "I was kind of scared. I didn't know if I could say no," she remembers. "I didn't know any better, you know?"
After the session, she was shattered. "I wasn't ready for anal sex.... It was painful. But I can hide it really well." She had just turned 18, the legal age for participation in sexually explicit films.
Michelle went on more shoots over the next few months. Then her agent sent her on a job where she would have sex with male actors in prison outfits — 12 of them. Once again, she tried to back out, telling the director it was "sick," but once again she was talked into it. She had sex — all kinds — with the 12 men. "It was really hard because I really felt like a piece of meat ... in a lion's cage, 12 lions.... I had to do a lot of things I can't imagine anyone wanting to do." She was paid $4,000.
Afterward, she says, she couldn't stop crying. She packed her bags and went home to her family in Utah.
Glimpse of the Big Time
But within a year, she was back, even agreeing to promote the prison movie that had so upset her.
She began to feel that her career was picking up. She got a small part in a movie for VCA, one of the "high end" companies that produce big-budget films, and hoped it might lead to a contract. On the shoot, she met porn legend Ron Jeremy, who was making a cameo, and began to feel like she was fitting in. "The first second I walk in, this girl grabs my breast, and I'm like, Wow, you know, that's like the best welcome ... 'cause then you feel like, Oh, someone likes me, you know?"
Another company considered giving her a contract, but at a meeting, the owner, veteran porn star Ona Zee, sensed that Michelle was not emotionally ready to become an adult star. "There's a part of me that wants to say to you, 'Run for the hills, girl, do something else, because you can be something better,'" she told her.
At the high-end companies — which produce a small proportion of the thousands of adult titles released each year — performers often have contracts and can make six figures by shooting just eight to 10 movies a year. They can pick their own partners and condoms are generally required. Shot on film with elaborate, sets, costumes and plots, the movies can have budgets up to $250,000.
But Michelle did not get a studio contract, and ended up taking a job with a company known for "gonzo" porn — sex-only, amateur-looking productions shot on video. The company, Elegant Angel, was making a film in Prague and offered her a starring role, which she hoped would show the big studios that she could carry a film.
Love Blossoms in Prague
She was thrilled at the attention Vidal gave her during the week in Prague — but wary. "It's weird to have a guy love you that much. That almost scares me because I have a hard time trusting men," she told Primetime, explaining that her first boyfriend cheated on her repeatedly and ultimately left her for a stripper. Privately, Vidal had told Primetime he could never be with just one woman, and would be happy if Michelle's attraction did not lead anywhere.
She came back to Los Angeles by herself, so sore from the week's filming that she says she could hardly walk. But then she flew to Spain to visit Vidal, and their relationship seemed to be going places. She said he could keep having sex with other women, as long as he agreed to be "honest to me, loyal, and just respect me and tell me that I'm number one every day."
She even began hearing wedding bells, telling Primetime, "The second I get married, I won't having sex with men in this business any more."
Wedding Bells
By December 2001, Michelle and Vidal were engaged. As she proudly showed off her diamond ring, saying how pretty it was, Vidal joked in his Spanish accent, "I need to f—k so many girls for that ring."
The couple was in love, Michelle says, but they were fighting regularly. Vidal would sometimes get what he calls "Latino jealous" when he saw her talking to other men at clubs. Michelle told Primetime, "It's hard to be in a relationship with someone in porn."
By now, she was working steadily, even shooting for the same company she shot the prison gangbang for. "I guess now I've gotten past the whole feeling-bad-about-it thing. I'm like, 'OK, I did it and that was pretty damn rough of me' ... Like wow, you know?," she said with a laugh. "I can say that I've done pretty much everything there is to do, and I can walk away feeling a little proud about it, you know?"
The Primetime producers who had been following her noticed changes. At 18, she had said she would never use drugs, but now Primetime learned that she was sometimes high on marijuana during her scenes. She was working without condoms, though she said the risk of AIDS was never far from her mind — or her prayers. "The fans don't like to see condoms ... If I would have said I want to use condoms every time, I really wouldn't get any work," she explained. She contracted chlamydia, which can make you sterile.
And anal sex — which she had be talked into during her first shoot — was now her specialty. "Funny, isn't it? Something I didn't want to do and now I'm known best for it," she told Primetime. No longer a fresh face in the business, she found she had to agree to even riskier sex acts to earn the same money.
Ona Zee, the producer who had interviewed Michelle the previous year, noticed a difference, too. "I said to my husband, Our baby is all grown up and left home. She's no longer the adorable fresh-faced girl that I met ... Now she's really in the life ... Even in the pictures that I see of her, she's much harder, much tougher."
Behind the Smile
During interviews with Primetime, Michelle kept the happy smile she had always had — even when describing things that many people would find disturbing. However, her composure cracked when Diane Sawyer asked why she always smiled. Tears came to her eyes as she said, "Because I like to hide — hide everything, you know?" Then she began to cry, explaining that she hides her real emotions because she wants to show everyone how happy she is. "And I'm not happy ... I don't like myself at all," she said.
Michelle confessed she often felt physical revulsion during her scenes: "My whole entire body feels it when I'm doing it and ... I feel so — so gross." While pretending to be enjoying the sex, she said, she was in fact counting the minutes, telling herself, "Hey, I only have this much time left. Don't worry about it. Get the check. Gonna go deposit it in your bank." She admitted: "You get addicted to the money."
Like other performers Primetime spoke to, Michelle said that during shooting she often imagines herself outside her body. "I call it the 'other half,'" she said.
Bringing Home a Trophy
In January 2002, Michelle's Prague movie won an award at the Adult Video News awards in Las Vegas, considered the Oscars of the adult industry. Things were not going smoothly with Vidal that day — he complained that Michelle "don't do the ironing my clothes... I still 28 and I need my mother," and at the ceremony he openly checked out other women — but there were crowds of admiring fans for Michelle and she soaked up the attention.
After going on stage to pick the trophy, she was beaming, telling Primetime she had worked hard for it. "I think this is the very beginning of my career, like I've just begun," she said.
And at the 2003 AVN awards two weeks ago, Michelle was an even bigger winner, taking home awards for best supporting actress and three other categories.
Enjoy wallowing in your stereotypes! We'll keep protecting you despite your apparent dislike of our "reputations". Ignorance (and its resulting prejudice) must surely be bliss.
"Though pornography is harmful to both sexes, it is particularly harmful to women."
Yet women seem to be doing just fine despite the fact that porn has existed as long as humans have.
"I have always had a great deal of respect for the military including the navy and many of the members who serve. However, it is sad and unfortunate that your Navy experience has taught you well in this regard."
Obviously, your respect is somewhat limited, given your previous statement. Nice try at a band-aid after that one, though. Oh, and you can keep your "sadness" and pity.
"It's tough to understand why anyone would view access to porn as a right for which they must fight vehemently, particulary when so many REAL rights are in such severe jeopardy."
Who decides what "real" rights are? It seems that both you and the Left wish to.
"You are silly, stupid, immature fools who have no idea of the devastation you reap and sow.
You are indeed enemies within."
Nice personal attacks. I'll remember that I'm "an enemy within" next year when I deploy again. Be sure you don't fall off that high horse in the meantime.
Interesting how many people are so willing to post about things that they have NO CLUE about, and are in fact proud of the fact!
My question is, if someone is considered old enough to handle combat, work with millions of dollars worth of equipment, and to kill the enemy (as well as be killed or maimed themselves), why are they NOT old enough to decide other things, like drinking and sex?
Do you see why young people have trouble with the concept?
Said on a thread posted by a conservative Catholic whose namesake is Catholic St. Thomas Aquinas, for the purposes of refuting positions on pornography like your own.
I do believe this forum is advertised as a CONSERVATIVE website, the founder is a CONSERVATIVE now Republican who does not believe FReedom of Speech means the protection of pornography. He has stated this belief more than once.
A most dishonest ploy on your part. Nice try, but no ceeeegar.
After six years on this site, I have ceased to be amazed at the hypocrisy of man. There appears to be no bottom limit.
The founder of this site is also a Navy veteran. Presumably one with that "reputation" you referenced before.
As long as we're talking about "sexual reputations", what about that of Catholic preists? How about that of some evangelist preachers? Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart come to mind.
Talk about hypocrisy.
You know, you and I have disagreed in the past, most notably about Iraq. We probably still do. However, I cannot recall you ever calling me "an enemy within", or referencing my "sexual reputation" as a Sailor.
Our constitution differs. States & localities can 'reasonably regulate' 'porn', but they can't violate our individual rights in order to prohibit it outright.
Thats the conservative American way.
Learn to live with, honor, and defend our constitutiuon, even if you can't quite bring yourself to agree & obey its rule of law.
Some real interesting stuff...there have been people here calling for the execution of pornographers.
You argue just like the liberals. Change topics and move the ever changing goalposts.
If I had introduced the topic of your sexual exploits in the navy, or accused you of such just because I knew you were in the navy, you might have a point. YOU interjected that topic into this discussion. So it becomes fair game. And unlike a lot of other vets who have since grown up and given up such behavior, you have not. By your own admission, you still watch pornography.
I don't have to join the navy to be aware that such was the case as you freely, without any provocation admitted. Just as I don't have to watch an entire pornographic film to understand the devastating effect pornography has on this society.
I don't have to join the priesthood to know that there were some child molesters. And the fact that such was the case, and the lousy way the church handled it, was publicly rebuked by me. There is no hypocrisy there.
As far as respect for the military is concerned, a number of men in my family were in the military, in WWII and in Viet Nam. When I was five we saw a cousin of mine who lived with us off to Viet Nam and every night watched the combat on the news. I was absolutely petrified that we would see him get shot. I understood then what an extraordinary sacrifice many of our men and their families make for the protection of our country. DON'T YOU DARE CONFUSE MY DISDAIN FOR PORNOGRAPHY AND MY DISRESPECT FOR THOSE WHO WOUD BE ITS ADVOCATE with my respect for the military.
Anytime I believe something that is wrong deserves at the very least, that I speak out against it, I shall.
If you don't like it, tough.
Actually, it is -- the First Amendment.
Personally, if I had been alive then, I would haved penned an 11th Amendment calling for mandatory porn, and encouraging porn shops to open right next to churches.
But that's just me.
Porn is not just a right.
It's a responsibility.
How much shall I put you down for?
Sorry. Pornography is NOT free speech.
I don't have an example of Chicken fried steak saving a life, but that doesn't mean that CFS is evil.
And even more people wish to have it legal. That is why it sells so well, if people didn't want it, they would not buy it.
Basic Economics
How are the less in control?
When some Al Qaeda showed up and started shooting at me, I dove behind one of my massive porn libraries. A round otherwise destined for my heart was stopped somewhere between "Moniques Bi-Curious Adventure" and "Ginger Lynn's Anal Workout, Part 6".
The Hell-Fire Club was sort of a cross between the Dead Poets Society and a risque Playboy club. John Montagu (Lord Sandwich) was a principal, and apparently Lady Mary Wortley Montagu attended. Although Benjamin Franklin (Agent for a number of American colonies) was a member (although there is no written proof), I have no idea if Edward Montague (the Virginia Agent and a colleague of Franklin's) was involved...
The club formally styled itself the Monks of Medmenham, and originally occupied the caves beneath the ancient Abbey of Medmenham. Its members could reach the Abbey by boat from the river at night and thus not be bothered by `paparazzi'.
Franklin's exposure to the club is described as follows by Cecil B. Currey, in Road to Revolution, Benjamin Franklin in England, 1765-1775:
"... Franklin knew Le Despencer very well. He was fully aware of an enterprise which the Englishman had been conducting for some years more or less surreptitiously, known as the Hell Fire Club. Its activities were familiar to Franklin and he occasionally joined in them...
In his youth, Le Despencer had been a member of ... rakes' groups. In later years, ... he determined to form a secret society that would express his interest in architecture, literature, and religion. Only the cleverest and most humorous of his friends would be asked to join. ...
The perfect location for such a society was soon found. Only six miles from the baron's estate, on the bank of the Thames River near Marlow in Buckinhamshire, lay the ruins of Medmenham Abbey. It had been founded by Cistercian monks in 1145. The abbey was well located in a grove of trees which nearly concealed it from view. The nearest road was some distance away, but members would be able to approach it easily in private boats... and ... could return to their homes in complete privacy. ... Workmen were sent in and the abbey was rebuilt and the grounds landscaped ... to make them into a `garden of lust.'
Marble pillars were erected on which were carved pornographic inscriptions in bastard, or `macaroni' Latin. Small Grecian-styled temples were put up here and there. The groves were filled with statuary in indecent poses. ... Hollowed from a hill was the Cave of Trophonius. A fresco within it pictured sexually robust animals, a crowing cock, and a laughing nun...
The buildings were designed also to carry out the theme of sexuality. ... To one side of the main door sat a statue of Harpocrates, the god of silence... Opposite was ... Volupian Angerone, goddess of secret passion.
Rooms adjacent to the chapel were designed to heighten the sexual utility of the place. There was a Roman Room, its wall hung with paintings copied from ancient and indecent Roman frescoes. Also on the walls were paintings of famous English prostitutes... Small statues of Egyptian gods and goddesses sat in niches in the walls.
The abbey's library was situated near the Roman Room. It supposedly contained one of the most complete collections of pornography in England...
Somewhere between 1752 and 1755, Dashwood ... opened his society, known as the Medmenham Monks, and later referred to as the Hell Fire Club. For his monks there was to be a goodly number of nuns... - the main reason many belonged to the club. Most were prostitutes... some were local girls wanting excitement, but many were ladies of society. Of the last group, one of the best known was Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Many nuns were wives, mothers, sisters, or the betrothed of members...
The members, or monks, were `dabblers in art and literature', and many were among the most prominent men in the kingdom. There were two orders of monks; the superior and the inferior - twelve superiors and perhaps as many as forty to fifty inferior members. ...
... superior members included ... Lord Sandwich...
A group with a membership of this scope ... could wield tremendous power should they wish to act in unison for political ends. It was for this reason that Benjamin Franklin became a monk ... sometime after his arrival in England in 1764. ... Sir Francis had a huge and elaborate cave dug in the side of a hill on his grounds. It was in this underground headquarters that the monks met after 1762. ...
... Franklin wrote...: 'The exquisite sense of classical design, charmingly reproduced... whimsical and puzzling as it may be in its imagery, is as evident below the earth as above it.' ... Others known to be present at the time were Lady Mary Wortley Montague, and the household of Frederick, Prince of Wales. ..." (Currey)
A number of Franklin's biographies mention the Hell Fire club:
"Franklin enjoyed the seasoned old sinner, who enjoyed Franklin, and they spent parts of three summers together at Wycombe. Le Despencer, once a blasphemer, had recently undertaken a deistic revision of the Prayer Book. Occupied with the Liturgy, he asked Franklin to help him `by taking the rest of the book, viz., the Catechism and the reading and the singing of the Psalms. These,' Franklin later remembered, `I abridged by retaining of the Catechism only the two questions: "What is your duty to God?" "What is your duty to your neighbour?" with answers.'" (Van Doren)
Well, there's more, but I'm more-or-less trying to keep this PG, so if you're interested you'll have to look it up yourself!
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