I was going through the Village Voice website and saw Shauna Sands was signing copies of her “video” Shana Sands Exposed, at the AVN convention a few weeks ago. Just a little background on this; she is like a number of C through Y list actors in Hollywood who try to make a name for themselves by capitalizing on some ‘egregious breech of privacy’ when someone ‘obtains’ some long forgotten sex tape then, because it would be too costly to prosecute the offender, they decide to promote the product. A perfect example was Amy Fisher, who was shocked that someone stole her sex tape a few years ago, and then she embraced what had happened and now, for all considered purposes, is a porn actress.

I don’t have a problem with people having sex on camera. Hey, it doesn’t affect me so I don’t have a dog in that race. Where I get a little upset is this dance that happens every time one of these things is ‘leaked’ out. The situation follows the same pattern. The sex tape is ‘obtained’ and bought by some third party porn organization. The ‘star’ is outraged that something like this will happen and vows to pursue the blockage of the footage. It seems at that point, behind the scenes, the almost forgotten star finds out there is renewed interest in them. All of a sudden, lawyers come in and a deal is struck. Soon the footage is out, they make some money and in some extreme cases, like Shauna Sands, the angry person ends up promoting the DVD.

The question I would like to ask is why do these stars feel we are manipulated by these ploys? The truth is, we fall for it every time so why should they quit. I mean, there is Shana Sands, formerly upset and threatening a lawsuit because of the release of the sex tape, yet when she is paid a cut of the profit not only is she OK with the DVD coming out she is actively promoting it. It’s happened so many times, and trust me there are too many to name, you would think the public would tell these ‘stars’ where to go. The truth is there are just enough people you can fool into not only having interest but buying these products it, in the short term, isn’t a bad business model.

That’s sounds a little strange, but the ‘stars’ in question never are going to get the wide acclaim as, let’s say, George Clooney or Angelina Jolie. At best they might get on some reality show, which is perfect for a scandal ridden former star. Just look at the track record. Paris Hilton protests then gets paid for a sex tape and she is the broken angel of the club set. Bluntly, she has no talent. Kim Kardashian may not have agreed to the release of her sex tape, the jury is out on that, but she has parlayed that and now her whole extended family has a reality show. Even the guy she had sex with, Ray J, is in the second year of his own reality show. Add to that ancillary projects (talk show appearances, show promotions) and a former star who might have been a trivia question on Jeopardy with no income coming in, with the release of a sex tape, suddenly is relevant and commanding money for showing up at events.

The only price for that is having some grainy footage of sex.

I’m sure a lot of people would be appalled at that, vowing they would never do it. However there are a good number of people making sex tapes. Just a little taste of fame can cause people to want to cling to it, and if it means a little sex to spice up the offers people are willing to do it. More to the point, we are willing to pay to see it. Shana Sands started out as a Playboy model, went on to marry Lorenzo Lamas and may have had sex with her step-son. This isn’t information just out there for someone to find out. Yes, I’m guilty of stopping at the car wreck. Just look at this article. I was jumping around the web, saw this information and didn’t just look and pass it by but stopped, stared and wrote an article about it. If I can do that, you know there are people willing to spend money for the DVD or to follow her on her ‘journey of rediscovery.’ Yeah, that’s another Hollywood term for a ‘has been’ star restarting their career after a scandal.