Jenna Jameson True Hollywood Story
2003-08-05 08:42:45

Howard Stern played clips from the upcoming E! True Hollywood Story featuring Jenna Jameson.

Jameson's voice: "I first got on to his [Howard Stern] show by sending my picture to him. I remember him talking on the radio about me saying I just got this picture of this girl who says she's an adult film star. She looks like a super model. I was, like, whatever. But he automatically booked me for a show."

Announcer's voice: Jenna appeared on the Howard Stern show in December, 1995. Stern was mesmerized.

Announcer's Voice: he insisted a few months later that Jenna audition for a role in Private Parts, a movie based on his best-selling book.

Jameson's Voice: I actually had to do a cold reading with Howard. I cannot tell you how scared I was. That's a lot of pressure for a girl that was 22 at the time. And I nailed it. [Stern agreed with that assessment.] It was my first major role in a big screen movie.

Jameson: I met Nikki Tyler on a shoot for Suze Randall for Cherie Magazine. We locked eyes and I fell in love with her. At the time I as living with my father in northern California. I wanted my own place but I didn't have the means to do it. And she took me in. I moved from my father's house to L.A. to pursue my career. She was very motherly to me. She was always there when I needed her, when I was vulnerable, and I thought I couldn't go on. She was the one who kicked me in my ass and said quit crying.

She was pretty much the only woman I've ever truly loved in a relationship-way. That's probably because I was looking for a mother figure.

After I left home my father moved. That was earth-shattering to me. My father leaving felt like he was abandoning me. There was so much anger. I've lost my mother. To have my father leave me in my time of need, which is what I thought at the time, killed me. And I just dove deeper into drugs: speed, one line a day. Just a little pick me up. No big deal. Then it got to be okay, five or six lines then it became non-stop. It got to the point where my nose hurt so then my boyfriend introduced smoking speed to me which was the worst thing he could have done. Because when you smoke speed it makes you want it so much more every five minutes. For my little heart I was just a mess. I couldn't eat. I weighed 80 pounds... I didn't know where my dad was. I didn't know what I was going to do. My boyfriend came to me and said I'm leaving you. And I remember getting to the point where like I have to suck it up. I called my dad. he said you don't sound good. Are you okay? Daddy, no, I'm not okay. I'm hooked on drugs. I want to quit.

Larry Massoli: I told her immediately I'll get in a car and drive down to Las Vegas and I'll pick you up.

Jameson: Dad, I can't make the drive. I'm too sick. I hadn't eaten in weeks. I couldn't even get up and walk. I said, dad, I'm going to fly. I have a friend that'll take me to the airport and walk me to the gate.

Larry Massoli: When she got off the plane I was absolutely floored. She only weighed about 75 pounds, extremely sick, very weak...she had to come off the plane in a wheel chair.

Jameson [breaking down crying]: I remember being so ill that I couldn't look my dad in the eye. I was embarrassed because I was always the strong one.

Transcript from www.therealgeneross.com

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From E! Online: Her videos have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, and she has earned numerous lifetime achievement awards--all before the age of 30.

As you'll learn in this hot new E! True Hollywood Story, premiering August 10 at 8 p.m., Jenna Jameson started out as a pretty little ballerina in Las Vegas. But her naked ambition and hypercharged sex drive soon led her to help add to the sin in Sin City.

She was dancing in clubs by the time she was 16. A year later, she was stripping. Eventually, she made up her mind to become a porn star, and the rest is history.

Tune in to this steamy Story to find out how a fear of abandonment and a desire for attention turned an adult-film actress into a real heartbreaker. Jenna Jameson grabbed the adult-film world by the balls and made it her own. Her acting ability and enthusiasm aroused her costars, as well as the millions of fans watching at home.

Watch also as Jameson makes acting forays into the non-porn world--and follow her on a tour of a typical day.

But first, follow our timeline, and learn some fun facts about one of the most successful women in porn history.

Porn Yesterday: A Jenna Jameson Timeline


April 9, 1974: Jenna Marie Massoli is born.

February 20, 1976: Her mother dies of skin cancer.

1988: Young Jenna begins competing in beauty pageants, peeks at her father's porn magazines and secretly prays that she will grow up to be as beautiful as the models.

1989: Jenna goes through puberty and blossoms into a busty teenager. When she goes on dates, her father answers the door dressed in his full police uniform.

Early 1990s: She follows her brother's footsteps and begins taking drugs, especially acid.

1990: Loses her virginity and feels a power over men.

Summer 1990: Jenna enters a wet-T-shirt contest and wins. She strips nude and holds the trophy aloft, to the delight of the crowd and the horror of her brother. She's 16.

Later in 1990: Her first serious relationship is with the man who gives her the trademark double-heart tattoo on her butt. The tattooed word Heartbreaker was added later...by her brother.

Fall 1990: Jenna leaves home to move in with her tattoo-artist boyfriend. He takes nude photos of her while she applies for jobs as a dancer in Las Vegas.

1991: She uses a fake ID to apply for a job stripping but is told to reapply after she has her braces removed. That night, her brother helps her use needle-nose pliers to remove the braces. She goes back to the strip club the next day and gets the job. After six months, she is making $2,000 a night. She has yet to finish high school.

Later in 1991: Jenna Massoli chooses her new last name, Jameson, out of a phone book. She likes that it is also a brand of whiskey.

1992: After her father moves to California, Jameson fills the void by taking speed. Eventually she flies to California, where her father helps her detox. She is 18.

Spring 1993: After modeling for magazines, Jameson decides to go into adult films--with her father's blessing.

1994: Early on, she does only girl-girl scenes. Her first film with men is Cherry Pie, in which she plays a character named Betty Blueballs.

1995: Her first adult-film contract calls for her to earn $6,000 for each of the eight movies she makes in her first year. Her first big-budget production is Blue Movie.

December 1995: Jameson sends photos of herself to radio host Howard Stern. She appears on his show, and he later asks her to audition for a role in his movie Private Parts.

December 1996: Jameson marries porn star Rodney Hopkins, known by his stage name, Brad Armstrong. They separate 10 weeks later but continue to appear in adult films together.

March 1997: At the premiere for Private Parts, Jameson meets Marilyn Manson. They hang out all night and go back to his hotel room. They date for a while.

Late 1990s: Jameson appears in several episodes of E!'s Wild On.

Summer 1998: Jameson works with studio owner Jay Grdina, also known as Justin Sterling. She thinks he's arrogant. He thinks she's bratty. A few months later, they see each other at a party in Las Vegas and sparks fly. They soon move in together.

January 1999: Jameson wins a lifetime achievement award from Adult Video News.

May 1999: Jameson is honored with a lifetime achievement award at the "Hot d'Or" adult-film awards in Cannes, France.

Early 2000: Jameson forms Club Jenna, her own personal license and brand. In addition to producing adult films, the club runs a Website that now sells novelties, including a remote-controlled electronic fart machine ($19.95) and a mold of her entire pelvic region ($179.95).

December 2000: Jenna opens the last of her presents from boyfriend Jay Grdina: a T-shirt that reads Merry Me with a ribbon holding an engagement ring. One problem: She has never officially gotten a divorce from her first husband.

March 2001: Jameson and first husband Hopkins finally legally separate and divorce.

July 2001: Jameson voices a cartoon of herself on the animated series Family Guy.

November 2001: Jameson participates in a debate at the Oxford Union in London about the benefits of pornography. Pitted against antiporn activists, the audience votes her the winner, 204-27.

2002: Brianna Loves Jenna becomes the year's bestselling adult video, selling about 100,000 copies on video and DVD.

Also in 2002: Jameson does voice work for videogames Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. She also makes a cameo as a stripper in Analyze That.

January 2002: Jameson becomes the first adult-video star to be laser-mapped for her own anatomically correct action figure.

May 2002: Jameson makes her MTV debut in the Eminem video for "Without Me."

August 2002: Jameson spars with Bill O'Reilly about the business of pornography on The O'Reilly Factor. After the interview, he requests copies of some of her films.

October 2002: Jameson inks a six-figure deal to write How to Make Love Like a Porn Star, an autobiography with sex tips.

February 2003: Jameson stars on the NBC show Mr. Sterling as a politician's girlfriend. The show lasts five episodes.

March 2003: Vivid Entertainment signs her to an unprecedented seven-year deal in which she'll direct and star in 15 movies.

June 2003: Jameson and Grdina are married.

Pushing My Luck With Holly Randall, Jenna Jameson

I walked around the LFP set yesterday amazed at how well I was treated. Vivid sales manager Howard Levine even complimented me on my shoes.

I don't like to ask people for things aside from interviews, but my new friend Cam pushed me to put together my best work for a book. There are chapters on Jenna and Holly.

I got Holly to give me some pictures which she emailed me in .tif format.

Once I'd gotten my photos, I risked overstepping my boundaries.

To give the following context, remember that Jenna said in her autobiography that Suze exploited her.

Holly, the eldest child, is hyper-protective of her family. I remember five months ago, after she read my memoir, she was convinced that I was out to destroy the industry (that she dare not show it to her parents) and that she couldn't have any part of that and she was exhausted from all the flak she took from being associated with me...

HollyRandall: did you get all the files you needed?
Luke: umm, do you have one of jenna j?
HollyRandall: oh crap
HollyRandall: why don't you get one from her?
HollyRandall: mine are so old
Luke: ok
HollyRandall: seriously she looks nothing like how she looks now
HollyRandall: in what we've shot of her
Luke: ok
HollyRandall: it was all pre-chin job
HollyRandall: hey have you heard of this new Mark Spiegler girl, Sasha Gray?
HollyRandall: i'm surprised there isn't a post about her on XPT, she's all the rage
Luke: yeah, i did a story on her 2 weeks ago
Luke: did you meet her?
HollyRandall: we shot her
Luke: is she ok?
Luke: serious?
Luke: ER?
HollyRandall: hahah very funny
Luke: she's the new Maya Hills [the last 18-year old Holly was excited about because she was doing porn and was beautiful yet she had her life together and Holly said she was going to have this terrific porn-enhanced future, that porn was a stepping stone to greatness for her, and I said to myself, oh please]
HollyRandall: oh please don't go there
Luke: Jenna replies: Depends on what your going to write about me…lol J
Luke: I knew she's say that.
HollyRandall: yeah well maybe she should think about what she writes about other people too
Luke: may i quote that? [garble]
HollyRandall: what the hell is that?
HollyRandall: sanskrit?
Luke: I was trying to say, may I quote that? the type went screwey
Luke: you don't know ancient middle eastern languages
Luke: I could never stand your ignorance!

I reply to Jenna:

I did an interview yesterday with Max magazine from France and I said that you had always treated me very nicely, even when I had stuff in my column that was mean. That you understood my job better than any porn star. But yeah, I'm going to revisit that dramatic '99 roadie interview and your response with Nikki Tyler so I understand if you don't want to send along a picture.

Jenna responds: "OY VEY.

"In response to Holly’s barb -- I understand being protective of your mom. But I spoke the truth. Period. I was 18 and knew NOTHING about the industry. I would expect someone with your mother experience and the fact that she is a woman, to be less of a shark. Sorry, I tend to speak my mind."

Holly is like a mother bear looking after her cubs, only her cubs are her parents (in addition to her siblings and her friends).

"Totally understandable."

Former Hustler magazine Editor Allan MacDonell painted the same view of Suze as Jenna and Tera Patrick.

Let's be real folks. Porn is all about pimps and hos (I don't exempt myself from this critique). If you're in the biz, you're either a pimp or a ho. If you're a pimp (photographer), you try to squeeze as much as possible from the talent and pay them as little as possible. If you're a ho, you try to get as much money as possible for as little effort as possible.

Any other approach to porn doesn't last, so it doesn't matter. The only reason to be in this business is money (and attention and immortality). There's no nobility in producing porn. All you do is exploit the basest human emotions by preying on the weak and getting them to do things that will forever hurt them and those who care about them. To make or do porn is to wreak havoc on the vulnerable (I've wreaked plenty of havoc on the vulnerable through my gossipmongering so I am not saying I am better than the people I write about). See what happened to that teacher Tericka Dye (ex-porn star Rikki Andersin) who can never hold her head up in polite society again (without an extraordinary amount of fortitude and accomplishment on her part and unusual forgiveness by those around her).

A friend of mine who is a pornographer responded to Rikki's plight thus: "I've sold a lot of copies of Wet Cum Shots 6 that she stars in. I doubt she'll be able to get a job anywhere. She may as well just set up a webcam and just masturbate online for Steamray."

Yay for porn and for the way it empowers women!

See what happened to Brandy Alexandre and her job at Forest Lawn.

Jenna's book was gentle on the industry. She was far tougher on herself than on porn. That girl went through hell (much of it, after she was 18, of her own creation).

I haven't read Suze's book Suze (written by her husband Humphry and published in 1977) but from all indications (Suze and Humph were kicked out of the Playboy circle because of it and suffered other indignities) Jenna was no more harsh towards her early employer and friend Suze than Suze was to her early employer and friend Hugh Hefner.

The big difference is that Jenna's book was a bestseller and Suze's wasn't. Jenna became a mainstream celebrity. Suze didn't.

On page 180, Allan MacDonell writes about Suze Randall:

I knew something about how Randi's attentions must have made Eleanor feel. About a year and a half earlier, we had all three scouted prospective models at a world series of exotic dancers in Toronto, Canada. Randi had been drinking heavily, in her defense, but I had not, and her continual groping of my crotch and struggling to unbuckle my trousers while in crowded coffee shops had caused me no small amount of awkward emotions, much to Eleanor's delight.

On page 239, Allan writes:

Kami Andrews writes me: "I've felt that so many times and not had the words for it. I wish I could express myself like that."

On page 101 of her book, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale, Jenna Jameson begins:

...To keep all of my body in focus and in the light, I had to bend and contort into all sorts of unnatural positions that were supposed to look effortless, just as I had at my shoot with Julia [Parton]. But this time, I had to hold the positions much longer and wait for them to meter the light, take a Polaroid, and check the light again before they even started shooting. I was so out of shape from my unhealthy lifestyle that my knees would suddenly start knocking during a pose or my lower back would spasm when I arched it for too long. But I knew that if I moved even an inch, they'd be pissed because they would have to remeter the light; and all the other girls, who were posing so effortlessly, would be annoyed. I really wanted to please Suze, so I was willing to hold my knees over my head for twenty minutes straight, until my spine felt like it was going to snap.

...We had no permits to shoot there, so Suze blocked us from the beach dwellers with big white sheets. For the shoot, she wanted us to pour oil on each other. As we were doing that, she asked Erin to pour some directly on my ding-ding. I pulled back.

"I'd rather not do that," I said. "It'll get infected."

"Fine," Suze sighed.

...Though she is a great person and a talented photographer, Suze, I soon realized, is also a shark. Her specialty is naive young girls -- much like myself -- who are so happy to have a modeling opportunity that they'll do anything. Once she sank her teeth into me, she didn't let go. She shot me until I was half dead.

The pay was three hundred dollars a day, but sometimes she'd cram three different photo shoots into a day. And I had no idea how much she was getting paid for the photos or how many magazines she was selling them to. I was only supposed to be in L.A. for two days, but she kept me for a week, shooting nonstop.

...But I began to feel like Suze was taking advantage of me. My pictures appeared in every sex ad and foreign nudie magazine imaginable. And since I'd signed away the rights, she was raking in all the money. Whenever I asked her for a few chromes for a promo shot or to make a modeling book, she'd refuse. I'd ask her instead to shoot an extra roll for me at our next session instead, and she'd say she couldn't. She made her living off enthusiastic new girls like myself, and I understood that and was grateful to her for making me an international cover girl. But there was a bigger problem -- she was stringing me along, telling me that each shoot we did just might be a centerfold in Penthouse. However, nothing we did ever appeared there, and that had been my dream from day one. And with every picture of mine that was published somewhere else, my chances of ever being a Penthouse Pet plummeted lower and lower.

So I added Suze to my mental shitlist of people I could not trust and decided to stop working with her. (pg. 172)

Last October, Holly called me spewing with rage over this passage by Tera Patrick in the book Naked Ambition: Women Who Are Changing Pornography:

Holly gave me my copy of the book Naked Ambition. She inscribed it: "To Luke - For your reading pleasure and assured scathing criticism. Love [I can't read the name but I assume it is Holly]."

Holly noted her mom was in her fifties when she met Tera and unlikely to hit on her. And that Tera's pictures would pay for no more than a few square feet of her parents Malibu ranch.

HollyRandall: I just can't believe she blamed my mom for not getting into Penthouse-- that's what made me mad
HollyRandall: it just makes no sense-- if she was such a shark then why wouldn't she want to sell Jenna to a magazine that would pay her the most amount of money?
HollyRandall: why would my mom deliberately keep her out of Penthouse?
HollyRandall: it was the fact that Bob [Guccione] didn't like Jenna's look at the time, and that's the final word-- my mom did everything she could to get Jenna in Penthouse
HollyRandall: it was the Penthouse accusation that pissed me off, because it was totally untrue
HollyRandall: look no one is on Jenna's level, and i admire her for getting where she is
HollyRandall: but whether or not she was aware of the Penthouse issue, the fact is that it's not true, and it's in print forever and everyone who reads that will think the wrong thing about my mom
HollyRandall: I'm glad she understands I'm protective of my family, I'm sure in my situation she'd feel the same way

Jenna didn't blame Suze for not getting into Penthouse. She blamed Suze for leading her along, telling her that this next shoot just might get her into Penthouse. Jenna blamed Suze for taking advantage of her naivety. Jenna blamed Suze for leading her on.

Holly takes after her mother. She's generous and charming but makes a lot of promises that she not only does not keep, but claims to have no memory of ever making. Some of this trait is probably endemic to photographers who prey on the dreams of models.

As Holly told me after one of my protestations of love, "I need someone more stable than you and you need someone more stable than me."

12/11/06

Jenna Jameson Files For Divorce

Jack writes: "You could check out the records of the Maricopa County (AZ) Superior Court cases of criminal defendants named John "Jay" Grdina (born 10/11/67) who were defendants in a trail involving wire fraud, money laundering, and running a criminal enterprise."

Jason Sechrest blogs:

After months of separation seeing Jenna Jameson dating fighting champion Tito Oritz, the queen of porn has finally filed for divorce from Jay Grdina, also known as performer/director Justin Sterling. I have heard there was no prenup involved in their marriage and Sterling currently remains an active part of running the multi-million dollar Club Jenna, Jameson's company, which was sold to Playboy earlier this year.

All this just in time for the release of Club Jenna's new movie, Jenna Love Justin. (That box art is outta control! Loving it!) You know, she could've been a real bitch and renamed the movie Jenna (Doesn't) Love Justin. Jameson and I used to joke that she would some day make a bi movie with me and it would be called Jenna Loves Jason ...And Bob.

Though there were rumors of abusive behavior, Jameson is citing irreconcilable differences. I once heard a rumor that Jay was so dominant in the bed room, he would literally drag her to the toilet, dunk her head in it and fuck the hell out of her. ...And now she's dating a professional fighter. I could say she has bad taste in men, but... frankly, I think it's all so very hot. I wish I'd been there to spit on her face during the whole thing too. And she knows I mean that with total love.

April 9, 2007

From the New York Post's Page Six:

Jameson, who reportedly underwent a botched and career-threatening vaginoplasty operation, has lost so much weight that she's almost unrecognizable and was a disappointment to fans at last weekend's Exxxotica convention in Miami Beach. According to one insider, "She was contractually supposed to show up for a total of six hours in two days yet arrived late both days and blew off the event 45 minutes early on the second day of her appearance." The source continued, "When fans openly asked her about her [botched surgery] and why she was so thin, her people cut them off. But she shouldn't be standing in front of an old photo of herself when she's about 40 pounds skinnier than she was."