HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORNSTAR: A CAUTIONARY TALE
By Jenna Jameson with Neil Strauss
“The following is a true story. It is more naked than I have ever allowed myself to be seen. Neither my father nor my husband has been privy to these experiences: they have been a burden and a blessing for me to carry alone. Until now. It is a shocking tale, but it is also one of hope and beauty.”
So begins HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORNSTAR: A Cautionary Tale (ReganBooks, August 17, 2004, ISBN 0060539097), Jenna Jameson’s no-holds-barred memoir of how she became the biggest name in the history of adult entertainment and a cultural icon. An alternately tragic and triumphant coming of age story, a freaky and hilarious sex romp, and a remarkable treatise on female empowerment all rolled into one, HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORNSTAR: A Cautionary Tale is destined to be one of the most talked about books of the year.
Jameson overcame unimaginable odds on her journey to the top. Drawn into the seedy underbelly of Las Vegas as a teenager, she lived in a world of biker gangs and strip clubs haunted by abuse, rape, and even murder. Even as she clawed her way out, establishing herself in Los Angeles as one of the top models in adult magazines, she battled demons from her past, barely beating drug addiction and leaving behind heartbreaks too numerous to count. Her story is astonishing–not just for the spotlight it throws on the adult entertainment industry, the matter of fact recollection of XXX-rated exploits, and the scores of exclusive photos (many taken specifically for the book or from Jameson’s candid personal collection) that accompany it, but for the thoughtfulness, humor, and jaded wisdom with which she tells it. Above all, HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORNSTAR: A Cautionary Tale is a celebration of survival and victory on your own terms.
Jenna Jameson was born Jenna Massoli in 1974. She lost her mother to cancer at a very young age and grew up in the care of her combat vet, vigilante policeman, and sometime criminal father, running wild in the streets of Las Vegas with her inseparable older brother. A biker tattoo artist boyfriend introduced her to Vegas’ strip club scene. When she went for her first try-out, she was turned away because of her braces. She went home, pried the metal off her teeth with pliers, and returned the next day. Within months she was the highest paid girl at the Crazy Horse Too, one of Vegas’ premier venues, raking in thousands of dollars a night by instantly reading her customers’ psychologies and playing to their every fantasy. By that time she had weathered more tragedy and overcome more adversity than most people do in a lifetime. She was 17 years old.
After conquering Vegas as a stripper, Jameson moved on to X-rated photo spreads in LA and eventually to adult films–rising to the top in each arena on a combination of angelic natural beauty, business savvy, and a fierce determination to control her own professional destiny. She became the first contract start of Wicked Pictures, helping make it one of the top adult studios, then later formed her own production company and teamed up with adult industry giant Vivid Entertainment Group.
Jameson broke through to the mainstream as no pornstar had before through repeated turns on Howard Stern’s radio show and as the host of E! Entertainment Television’s coverage of the Cannes Film Festival. Soon she found herself mingling with and being propositioned by the Hollywood elite (note to Bruce Willis: improve your game), dating the likes of Tommy Lee and Marilyn Manson, and winning every award the adult film industry offers. Her meteoric ascent is punctuated by brutal bouts of crystal meth addiction, crazed, painkiller-fueled cross-country stripping tours, and one destructive relationship after another. Hers is a sex, drugs, and rock & roll lifestyle on an epic scale. It makes for wildly entertaining reading.
The story Jameson tells in HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORNSTAR: A Cautionary Tale is both unimaginably exciting and terrifying, but most remarkable is her perspective on it. Armed with piercing self-awareness and incredibly strong will, Jameson’s lust for life and playfulness permeate every page of the book. Funny segments and cartoons on How to Become a Male Pornstar, The Ten Commandments (of love and sex), and How to Date a Pornstar (a disquisition on the “suitcase pimp”–her name for the sleazy boyfriend/managers of adult film stars) will keep readers laughing throughout. A first hand glimpse into Jenna’s childhood is also seen through childhood diary entries chronicling, in remarkable honesty, her coming of age, late-developing body, and first encounters with the opposite sex.
HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORNSTAR: A Cautionary Tale has all the steamy anecdotes you could ask for–including plenty of stories sure to embarrass some mainstream celebrities–as well as stunning pictures that make it clear why she is the ultimate fantasy material for so many men. But it’s also the moving story of a lost girl making her own way in the world, a clever contemplation on self-determination, and a powerful declaration of empowerment. At the remarkably young age of thirty, Jameson is now an entrepreneur with her own company, a millionaire many times over, happily married, and is healing the wounds with her once-estranged father and brother. She is also the most powerful person in her field, overseeing a vast adult entertainment empire of her own creation.
HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORNSTAR: A Cautionary Tale is a frank and unflinching self-examination by a very smart woman who knows that many people don’t approve of her life. And, as with practically every challenge she has ever faced, Jenna Jameson comes out on top in the end.
About the author:
According to Rolling Stone. Jenna Jameson is the actress who “put the star in porn star,” and to New York Magazine she’s a “cultural icon.” Recognized by Adult Video News as the leading female adult star of all time, she has won virtually every honor the adult industry bestows. She has written a highly anticipated book on her life and sexual adventures for the ReganBooks imprint of HarperCollins, and was profiled by The E! True Hollywood Stories in one of its highest-rated shows of 2003. She has had numerous mainstream movie and television roles, has hosted E!’s Wild On program, has made countless television appearances and has debated at Oxford University in England. Ms. Jameson controls her own film production company and is the chairwoman of ClubJenna, Inc., a product licensing and Internet management firm that handles the Web activities for more than a dozen top adult stars. Vivid Entertainment Group has selected Jenna as a Vivid Girl and films produced by her own production company are distributed by Vivid. Ms. Jameson, who began her career as a Las Vegas showgirl, has appeared in more than 1,000 magazines articles and graced approximately 400 magazine covers from Playboy, New York, Esquire and Penthouse to Glamour, Paper, Cosmopolitan, Allure and Jane. FHM ranks her as one of the 100 Most Beautiful Girls in the World and VH1 says she is among the “100 Hottest Hotties.”
Neil Strauss is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Dirt, with Mötley Crüe, and The Long Hard Road Out of Hell, with Marilyn Manson. He writes for the New York Times and Rolling Stone, and wrote and appeared (clothed) in one of the best-selling adult films of all time.
HOW TO MAKE LOVE LIKE A PORNSTAR
A Cautionary Tale
By Jenna Jameson
ReganBooks
On-sale August 17, 2004
