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"Ford exposes drug use, mob connections and murder plots..." Evan Wright, Rolling Stone

"There's a kind of low-key genius..." Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood-Elsewhere.com

"Serious history of the dirty-movie business." Booklist



Teri Diver performed in four years worth of porn videos in the early 1990s.

With her husband Tom Elliott (Todd Bergendhal aka Ren Savant), they made about 45 videos.

Reluctant to talk about her background, Teri says she was "emancipated" at 13, started college early and majored in behavior modification because "I wanted to know why so many people behaved the way they did."

The vegetarian paid her way through college by dancing in nudie bars.

Teri became a school teacher for five years, during which time she met and married her husband Tom. She also worked part-time as a counselor for Nutri-System because "everybody in my family tends to get fat.

"We approached the business pragmatically," says Teri. "I didn't get into the business to be a star, but to make as much money as we could... We ran into financial setbacks from moving to California, and we just happened to be on the set of Taboo IV and ran into [director and producer] Henri Pachard. We talked with him, and he convinced me to give acting a try."

Under five feet tall, Diver has 200 sexvids under her belt. She wrote a regular behind-the-scenes column for Oui magazine.

"Originally, when I started writing the column, I found myself getting more and more political, until finally, the magazine yanked my chain and said they wanted me to be 'downright nasty'." (AVN 11/92 p.68)

Moving quietly behind the scenes, AVN Publisher Paul Fishbein, one of the half-dozen most powerful persons in porn, helped Teri and her husband Tom Elliott begin making their own product.

AVN 8/96: "Teri Diver and Tom Elliott's productions run the gamut from drama (Compulsive Desires) to satire (What's Up, Tigerpussy?) to light comedy (Anal Intruder 9). They're the Woody Allen of porn, in that, beyond an intelligent, original story and hot sex, you never know what to expect from them.

"The couple first met at a bar where Tom, a percussionist by original career intent, sat with the band. The success of their nine year marriage is a classic example of opposites attracting. Tom, a North Dakota native, still hasn't told his fundamentalist parents what they do for a living, while Teri, a true California girl, sends her parents tapes." (AVN 8/96)

Diver says she began writing porn scripts "because we encountered so many dumb ones."

Teri directed Addictive Desires. Brittany O'Connell stars as a journalist investigating nymphomania. Through her interviews and meetings, she's drawn into the twisted side of desire. Brittany's first meeting is with Debi Diamond who treats her to a gang bang with Deb in the middle of Sean Rider, Kyle Phillips, Dave Hardman and Andrew wade. Afterwards in the bar, Brit spaces into a fantasy f--- with Teri Diver.

Misty Rain is the next tawdry tour guide. Realizing that she's a full blown nympho, Brit heads down to the auto wrecking yard and gets demolished from both ends by Max Cady and Frank Towers. (AFW 97D)

Teri and Tom's best production is 1995's The Sin-A-Bun Girls. "Teri wins a bakery in a card game but finds that it would take more than hard work to make it a sucess. Done in the style of such '70s classics as Hot 'n Saucy Pizza Girls..." (AFW)

Pat Riley reviews 1993's Buzzzz!. "Teri Diver wrote this junk... I've never seen a good movie written by her and the reason is simple. How can a woman relate to that rush of blood to your dick when you see a dewy-skinned tight-bodied little chickie getting it for the first time? How can a woman feel that uniquely male thrill of vicariously humping that sex object on screen? They can't... Before you start lecturing me about Patti Rhodes and Raven Touchstone let me remind you that both of them are under the control of strong directors (Fred Lincoln and Henri Pachard)... Just as I can't see why a woman would find Mel Gibson "sexy", so Teri has the same problem with the male viewpoint. She's biologically limited." (X-Rated Videotape Guide 4, p. 177)

2/6/01

Performer-turned-director Teri Diver died January 2, her husband Ren Savant told AVN this week.

"She had apparently taken too much of her headache medicine," Savant told AVN. "She'd been suffering from migraines for several years. When we were still together, [Savant and Diver were separated, but not divorced, at the time of her death] she had been to a neurologist and had several tests done. She had gone through several treatments over the course of about four years, and suffered from really debilitating headaches. A lot of times they're really elusive, and you can't pinpoint what's triggering it or what kind they are, so treating it is kind of a crapshoot."

The drug she was taking for migraines was "kind of an elephant gun," Savant said." You'd end up sleeping for 14-15 hours before it took effect. It's a commonly prescribed drug. I think she built up a tolerance, and apparently she took too much that night."