I watched the super funny Superbad last night and while the script by Seth Rogan (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up) and Evan Goldberg is strictly a "high school hijinx for the porn generation" affair, I'm a sucker for puerile dick-and-fart joke vulgarity when it's done right, and it's done right in Superbad. But I was initially confused by one of the DVD extras, and feel embarrassed to admit I didn't get it at first. I'm referring to the "The Vag-tastic Voyage" clip (available only on the unrated extended edition) in which a guy in a van picks up two babes, offers them money to fool around, and them dumps them back on the road - your basic 4-F Club routine.
It took me a while to remember that vagtastic.com was the name of the porn website Seth (Jonah Hill) was thinking about joining at the beginning of Superbad. But I'm even more embarrassed that I didn't get what real-life porn site it was mocking: The Bang Bros.,
who produce an "amateur" line called Bang Bus in which they stop and offer money to young nubiles in exchange for some wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am action in the rumble seat.
I guess maybe I've seen too many sites adhere to this male fantasy plot narrative for any one to stand out. Nor did I recognize the two women in this spoof, real-life porn stars Jenna Haze and AVN's 2003 Female Performer of the Year Aurora Snow. How I could I possibly have missed Jenna Haze, whose work I've always admired? (Maybe because she looks like every other coed at my alma mater Towson University? Or maybe I psychologically suppressed my Total Recall synapses because I didn't want my girlfriend to hear me shout enthusiastically "Hey, that's Jenna Haze!" - I mean, she was already annoyed that I watched the clip twice, once with freeze-frame).
Jenna Haze (pictured at right) even mentions her mainstream cameo on her MySpace page:Wow! I was totally stoked to just have been in the movie for 2 seconds or whatever but now the DVD is out! And I am so excited to say that there is a bonus feature with me on the second disc of the 2-disc UNRATED extended edition!! Isn't that cool? It's called the Vagtastic Voyage! The feature is about a minute or so and also has my friend Matthew in it and Aurora Snow, who as you all know is also a filthy smut siren like myself.
Jenna Haze knows all about mainstream crossover; before her 60 seconds of backseat fame on the Superbad, she was one of the featured cast in HBO's short-lived (5 episodes?) reality TV show Pornocopia: Going Down in the Valley (2004).
Pornucopia: Down and Out
Then, searching the 'net for info on "Vag-Tastic," I came across some bulletin board where a poster named "nobody" observed that the porn-friendly tone of Superbad was consistent with a number of Judd Apatow-produced films:
From an auteur perspective, this continues the theme of porn mocking/homage in Apatow produced films (and yeah I know, Apatow didn't direct or write Superbad, but clearly his stamp is on the flick). 40 Year Old Virgin had the box of porn, and the dream sequence with real life porn star Stormy Daniels. Knocked-Up obviously featured the poor imitation of Mr. Skin's website....and now we have "Vag-Tastic Voyage." Also, like 40 Year Old Virgin," "Vag-Tastic Voyage" features real life porn stars Aurora Snow and Jenna Haze, which demonstrates Apatow's fondness for casting the real thing in his flicks. Perhaps he likes bringing a bit of edginess/reality to the roles...or maybe he just likes having porn stars on the set for a day.
Hmmmm, excellent point, Mr. Nobody. But you forgot to mention that Knocked-Up also featured an appearance by Asian porn star Nautica Thorn (or at least her backside) as a lap dancer, along with Stormy Daniels - again! (Apatow must really like her!).
Apatow Faves Stormy Daniels and Nautica Thorn
By the way, like Jenna Haze, Nautica Thorn has also had experience with crossover exposure, having been a regular (along with Chanel St. James, Kirsten Price and Sasha Knox) on the UK-based reality TV show My Bare Lady, which aired over here on the Fox Reality TV channel.
Nautica and Stormy lapdancing in Knocked-Up
Actually, the "Vag-tastic Voyage" was nothing special, just a curious extra that literally jumps out at viewers when Jenna Haze pops her top and breaks through the fourth wall into unrated viewing territory. So why am I going on about this? I guess because it got me to thinking about the Hollywood-Porno Chic phenomena. There seem to be a number of Hollywood directors who either dig porn or just want to give porn stars cameos in their movies so they can meet them, much like their Heavy Metal and Hip-Hop musician counterparts.
Eli Roth (Cabin Fever, Hostel, Hostel 2) immediately comes to mind; I don't find his horror movies particularly scary, but they can be downright tittilating. I mean, Hostel is filled wall-to-wall with Eastern European babe-age, much of it of the stripper/porn star variety. I remember reading an interview in which Roth confided, "I’m in Europe with a movie camera. You think I’m not going to film any naked chicks? I held a casting session where we saw 66 strippers and porn stars in 2 days, and it wasn’t just for one role." The best Bad Girl cameo was courtesy of Paula Wild, a Czech porn star who moonlights as a singer (check out her YouTube video Paula Wild Zpiva).
Czech porn star Paula Wild lives up to her name in HOSTEL
The South Park boys, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, also spring to mind, as their "joint" effort Orgazmo (1997) must certainly hold the record for featuring the most porn stars cameos.
The head count includes Max Hardcore as an award show presenter and Christi Lake, Jeanna Fine, Davia Ardell, Jacklyn Lick, Ruby Diamond, Melissa Hill, Serenity, Melissa Monet, Chasey Lane, Juli Ashton, and T. Rex - a real-life porn curioddity (see clip below) who also appeared HBO's Pornucopia series.
Achieving T. Rex-tasy in Orgazmo
Oh, did I forget to mention the Hedgehog being in Orgazmo?. Maybe that's because certain adult film stars, like Ron Jeremy and Jenna Jameson, have achieved enough crossover rep that we don't raise an eyebrow when we see them in mainstream films.
Jameson was famously in Howard Stern's Private Parts, but even before that she had a regular hosting gig on the E! channel. And Jeremy has been in countless mainstream films, most notably Orgazmo (1997), as well as the documentary The Legend of Ron Jeremy. The Hedgehog's mainstream C.V. also includes Ghostbusters 1984), Feast (1992), Killing Zoe (1994), Meet Wally Sparks (1997), 54 (1998), The Boondock Saints (1999), Detroit Rock City (1999), Reindeer Games (2000), Fast Sofa (2001), The Rules of Attraction (2002), Terror Firmer (2004, a film that also features Baltimore's Berserk on the soundtrack, the legendary pop-punkers whose bass player was none other than Vincent Libretti lookalike Dave Cawley), Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2004) and The Aristocrats (2005). Not to mention his stint on the reality TV series The Surreal Life. (The only other male porn star to cross over to TV Land was Seymore Butts (Adam Glasser) in HBO's reality TV series Family Business, although some mainstream TV actors, like Jack Baker - whose C.V. included Bill "Sticks' Downey on Happy Days - went the other way into adult films!)Here's Ron Jeremy's big scene with Chasey Lain (L) Juli Ashton (R) in Orgazmo:
Of course Traci Lords is a former porn star who managed to successfully cross over to the point where I forget she was a porn star. I initially think of her as starring in John Waters' Cry-baby (1990), Jim Wynorski's Not of This Earth, and as the non-Tommy part of Stephen King's The Tommyknockers (1993). And as Rikki Abbott on Melrose Place and Sharon Lesser on Profiler. (OK, maybe I remember a little bit of her old naughty persona in Traci, I Love You, too!)
The (T & ) A List
Other notable mainstream films that feature porn stars:
Boogie Nights (1997)
Paul T. Anderson's look inside the adult film included featured billing for Nina Hartley (below, left) as William Macy's slutty wife (memorable for her nonchalant responses to being caught in bed with other men: "What do you mean, 'What are I doing'? I have a cock in my pussy!"), as well as cameos by fellow Old Schooler Veronica Hart (as Judge Katleen O'Malley), Lil' Cinderella (whose as Amber Hunter played Colonel James' lady friend), Summer Cummings, Skye Blue, Tony Tedeschi, and (I'm not kidding) "Joe Sausage." Even the Dirk Diggler character was loosely based on the career of Johnny Wadd, the legendary John C. Holmes.
Nina Hartley gives her backing to Boogie Nights
Very Bad Things (1998)
Very Bad Things featured porn star Kobe Tai (shown at right, who was billed as "Carla Scott" - her birth name being Carla Scott Carter) as a stripper/hooker who gets accidentally impaled on a door hook during a bachelor's party.
I remember being really excited seeing her in the film, but since then Kobe's career kind of petered out; she had a baby in 2000 and retired from the adult industry in 2001, though she's appeared on cable TV's The Man Show a number of times. She apparently likes video games and even appeared in a Tony Hawks skateboarding video called The End. The video also featured several other porn stars in the same segment Kobe was in. Kobe also sang backup on Marilyn Manson's song, "I Don't Like the Drugs, But the Drugs Like Me", on the album Mechanical Animals. The 35-year-old mom (now officially a MILF) has a MySpace page, where her slogan is "Asians do it better!" I couldn't agree with this classy lassy more!
Kobe plays a hooker who gets impaled in Very Bad Things
The Big Liebowski (1998)
In The Big Lebowski, Bunny Lebowski appears in a porn film called Logjammin' with Karl Hungus (the porn name of Peter Stormare’s character) with '90s Asian porn superstar Asia Carrera (real name: Jessica Andrea Steinhauser). Carrera's role was uncredited, as was her performance as Jennifer Tilly's "body double" in the 2001 movie Fast Sofa (which also featured another cameo by Ron Jeremy!). She's in good company, as '70s and '80s adult star Annette Haven provided the uncredited stunt torso for the shower scene at the end of Brian DePalma's Body Double (1984). Body doubling used to be the only way porn actresses could cross over into mainstream films until the last 10 years, when it apparently has become fashionable and chic.
Asia Carrera: Give this body credit!
Related Links:
List of Porn Stars Appearing in Mainstream Films (Wikipedia)
Superbad (IMDB)
Bang Bros. (Wikpedia)
Bang Bus (Wikipedia)
Stormy Daniels (IMDB)
"Vagtastic" definition (Urban Dictionary)
"Vagtastic Voyage" (Urban Dictionary)
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