October 26, 2006
Porn star exits race to be with injured mom
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Porn star Mary Carey said on Monday she was dropping out of the California governor's race to be with her injured mother, who has been hospitalized in Florida since jumping off a four-story building last month.
Carey, who shot to worldwide fame with her quixotic gubernatorial campaign against Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003, said her mother was in critical condition at a Ft. Lauderdale hospital and facing surgery.
"She's schizophrenic and didn't take her medication and jumped off a building," Carey said. "She broke both of her legs, shattered her feet and shattered four vertebrae in back. It's remarkable she survived."
The star of such adult film titles as "Boobsville Sorority Girls" and "Cheerleader School" was running as a write-in candidate in 2006 because she could not collect enough signatures to be on the November ballot.
Last week, Carey followed the lead of Schwarzenegger's Democratic challenger, state treasurer Phil Angelides, in demanding that NBC television host Jay Leno give her equal time on "The Tonight Show" following the governor's recent guest appearance on the program.
Leno did not extend an invitation to either Carey or Angelides.
Carey said she expected her mother, who did not suffer any head trauma or internal injuries in the fall, to recover from her injuries.
The porn star said she had not abandoned her political ambitions and was considering a move to Florida, to be near her mother and possibly run against Gov.
Jeb Bush.
"As much as I want to help the state of California be a better place, I think it is more important to be with my mom and help her," Carey said in an earlier written statement.
"I am only 26 and have many more years to be involved in politics, but right now I must be in Florida with my mom," Carey said. "For now I would just like to ask everyone to pray for a healthy recovery."
Posted by ronnie at 07:46 AM | Comments (0)
July 03, 2006
Church preaches how 'Jesus loves porn stars'
LOS ANGELES (AFP) - A Christian missionary group making the rounds at US adult entertainment conventions hands out Bibles with "Jesus loves porn stars" stamped on their covers.
Jesus loves porn stars just as much as he does pastors and soccer moms, XXXchurch contends.
The outreach team from XXXchurch, calling itself a "porn ministry," distributes paperback New Testaments with a gaudy purple-and-yellow cover reading: "Jesus loves porn stars."
Its website, billed as the number-one Christian porn site, includes downloadable Bible studies and an array of "prayer software," including "accountability programs" designed to help users resist pornographic temptation.
The Bible's text, in everyday conversational English, includes this introduction from XXXchurch:
"Jesus loves pornographers as much as he loves pastors, soccer moms, liars, thieves and prostitutes. We're all just people who need God to save us from the mess we're in, and lead us to a better way."
Pornography brings in more revenue in the US than all of professional football, baseball and basketball franchises combined, according to the conservative research group Family Safe Media.
XXXchurch has taken its message on the road for "porn Sundays," a traveling seminar "to bring healing and recovery to those struggling with pornography."
The group estimates that over half of Christian ministers use pornography regularly, and are determined to expose "America's dirty little secret." It is not made explicitly clear how XXXchurch arrived at this number.
Its pastor, J.R. Mahon, and founding pastor Craig Gross, have published a book titled "Starving Jesus" outlining their unorthodox missionary views. The cover features a cartoon image of an emaciated Jesus with blinking bug eyes dragging a cross.
Their mission: to change church culture inside out.
"We're sick of pastors with planes, pastors with record deals, pastors with bodyguards," writes Mahon. "Give to the poor, evangelize on a city street, bring the hooker to church, just get off your butt and do something."
At the recent Los Angeles Erotica convention, Mahon spent three days spreading his message. One convention visitor, armed with a camera for snapshots of favorite pornographic actresses, was perplexed by the pastors' gift of a pocket-sized Bible.
"It's the real deal, no naked chicks in there, just the word of the lord," said Mahon. "Well, I don't really read, but thanks," the conventioneer replied before rushing off to collect autographs.
"We're not here to tell people they're going to hell," said Mahon. "We just want people to know that we dig God and we want them to dig him too."
But some believe there are better ways to attract potential converts.
"Christ would never compromise or stoop to their level. Mary came to him, remember? He didn't go to the whore house using words like sex and porn," said a typical entry in the hate mail section of the XXXchurch website.
"It's nothing but a gimmick to you, an excuse to mingle with the perverts. You talk more about porn than you do Jesus Christ," it said.
Mahon admits his ministry has received mixed reactions in the Christian community. "When we first started this thing four years ago, some people looked at us and thought we were working for the devil," Mahon said.
The young ministers also had trouble finding a publisher for their porn-fighting Bible. The American Bible Society, one of the oldest Bible publishers in the US, refused to print it.
"Out of a sense of propriety, ABS felt that the wording 'Jesus Loves Porn Stars' was misleading and inappropriate for a New Testament cover," the company said in April.
Despite flaps over its methods, XXXchurch continues to make the rounds of porn conventions and congregations nationwide in its "porn mobile" -- a black, customized SUV splattered with an eyebrow raising logo.
"These are the perfect places to find people to love God," said Mahon. "If Jesus was here today, he'd go to the porn shows."
Posted by ronnie at 07:01 PM | Comments (0)
March 26, 2006
Porn star hits it big as wine-maker
NEW YORK (Reuters) - It seemed like the perfect gimmick: a celebrity porn star would launch her own wine, with her alluring picture on the label.
Savanna Samson did just that, but when it received a score of 90 to 91 out of 100 by wine guru Robert Parker, the project became serious. It turns out Samson, the star of "The New Devil in Miss Jones," has produced an exceptional wine, becoming the toast of two industries: wine-making and pornography.
"I never wanted to just do gimmick. That would just happen with me being a porn star, me having a photographer shoot the label, how risque could I get on the label -- all those things," Samson, the stage name for 31-year-old Natalie Oliveros, said in an interview.
The seriousness of the idea was lining up a respected wine maker. So she convinced Italy's Robert Cipresso -- also a vintner to the Vatican -- to join the project.
Samson went to Tuscany and tasted dozens of Cipresso's Italian-grown varieties, then she selected a mix of 70 percent Cesanese, 20 percent Sangiovese and 10 percent Montepulciano. She ordered over 400 cases.
"I knew I wanted Roberto to make my wine -- I just love his passion for wine," said Samson.
The result is Sogno Uno, a 2004 vintage of an Italian red wine packaged under the Savanna name with a label of Samson in a see-through gown. It was launched last month.
Parker has been called the most influential wine critic in the world, and a score of 90 to 95 denotes "an outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character."
"Trust me, I didn't add any points for Ms. Samson's personal presentation," Parker wrote in his review.
NAUGHTY AND SPICE
Samson is one of the biggest names in pornography, having won best actress in the Adult Video News Awards (AVN), the pornographic equivalent of the Oscars, and another AVN Award for a scene she shared with Jenna Jameson in last year's "The Masseuse." She has made two dozen porn flicks.
The wine "really represents who I am," said Samson.
"There's spiciness -- the Cesanese has the naughty side of me. And yet it's an elegant wine. I love the opera, and I'm a classically trained ballet dancer. And there is some chocolate undertone, which I just love. There's a little bit of sweetness. Like, 10 percent of the time I'm sweet," she said.
She is working on a white wine -- Sogno Due -- that could be out later this year, and also has ideas of expanding into champagne, ice wine and grappa.
Samson, who was raised Catholic in upstate New York, said it was pure coincidence that Cipresso also sells wines to the Vatican. She met him through her husband, a wine merchant.
"My priest said in Mass once, 'Violence or pleasures of the flesh. What is the greater of two evils?' I think we all know the answer. I felt like he was saying that toward me," she said.
Still, she never had her parent's blessing for her career choice as an adult movie star. "They were so devastated. They were terribly, terribly upset."
But while she will continue her film career, wine-making may offer some redemption. "I wanted to do something that my parents could be proud of," she said.
Posted by ronnie at 08:26 PM | Comments (0)