Despite starring in such films as Bootylicious Trailer Trash and Tender Loins, Dalny Marga Valdes, a B-grade porn actress, was unable to gain admittance to the mainstream Screen Actors Guild. So she did the American thing and sued. Valdes filed a complaint with the Los Angeles regional office of the National Labor Relations Board.

Born in 1967, she lives with her mother in Canyon Country, Southern California, and performs under the name Dalny Marga. Valdes says pornographers make "millions upon billions" from her efforts but leave her only hundreds.

Her biggest single paycheck since entering the business in 1995 was $1,200, she said. Guild membership, she says, would accord her the status, benefits and financial opportunities enjoyed by conventional Hollywood actors.

"They said X-rated actresses couldn't join and I thought, 'That's not right,' " she told the 11/8/97 LA TIMES, as she sat next to her mother, Dolores Valdes, on a sagging couch. "Why isn't someone protecting me, or looking out for me?"

Most pornographers are happy to treat their relationship with Hollywood as a "foreign-exchange program," says Vivid Video marketing director Susan Yannetti.

Most of her X-rated colleagues interviewed said they find Valdes' claim groundless.

"I've never heard anyone bring this up, before her," said Yannetti. "It's silly. People get into this business because they're rebels. They don't want rules. They don't want to pay dues. A lot of them are gone after six months. So how are they going to have union protection?"

"I don't know how she got involved in the porn industry," her mother told the LA TIMES before dusting off an old family portrait that also features Dalny Valdes' two sisters. "She's a beautiful girl but I don't see it."

"Mother!" Dalny Marga Valdes shouted, before turning away to watch a local TV news report on her case. "I love my work. It's just the pay that's bad." (LA Times)