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Adult films may be a multibillion-dollar business edging toward the mainstream, but industry stars are still stigmatized and discriminated against—in courtrooms, custody battles, and housing opportunities.
By Larry Getlen

When not achieving cinematic immortality in such delicately named films as Fuck, porn goddess Jessica Drake enjoys chilling out at home like anyone else. But her occupation places bizarre obstacles in her way, sometimes before she can even get to her own front door.

“I pulled up in my driveway one afternoon,” Drake told us recently, “and a neighbor comes flying up in my face, telling me, ‘You don’t belong in that house! Jesus loves you! You’re a sinner! Don’t go in there! Pornography is bad!’ ”

Drake made it into her house that day, but she definitely filed that episode away for future reference. So she was more than a little surprised when, about a year later, as Drake was walking her new dog down their street, that same neighbor was suddenly very friendly toward her.

The erstwhile Puritan was now petting the dog, inviting Drake to her home, and even introducing the professional fornicator to her very own husband.

But the charm offensive lasted only until the woman asked Drake when she had moved into the neighborhood. Her response triggered recognition—and the woman did an about-face.

“Her mouth dropped. You would think I’d just beheaded her cat in her front yard,” says Drake. “It was so bad. She backed away from me uneasily and said something about the phone ringing. Her phone was not ringing.”

This bizarre episode is just one example of the everyday hassles porn stars encounter because of their chosen career. But sometimes it goes deeper than having to fend off the mild and nutty scorn of the simpleminded. Some adult performers have suffered far more serious consequences for having sex on camera.

Evan Seinfeld—frontman for the metal band Biohazard who also runs several adult-film-related enterprises—recently lost his effort to gain custody of his 15-year-old son, Sam, who he says had been asking to live with him for several years.

Seinfeld says that during the court proceedings, his occupation played an oversize role. “The case the other side presented never once discussed parenting or relationships,” says Seinfeld. “All they talked about for a fucking weeklong trial was, ‘Isn’t it true, Mr. Seinfeld, that you costarred with your present wife [Seinfeld’s then-wife, Tera Patrick] in a movie called Teradise Island: Anal Fever? Isn’t it true, Mr. Seinfeld, that you have a website called RockStarPornStar. com?’ The look on the face of the judge said, ‘There’s no chance I’m letting your kid live with you.’ ”

Not only can being an adult-film actor hurt you in a custody battle, but performers feel that even knowing a porn star could screw you in the eyes of the law.

“I was really good friends with a girl in a custody dispute with her exhusband,” says Drake. “The husband had wanted to get her into the industry, and had ideas for movies that were pretty twisted. Yet when custody was an issue, my relationship with her was called into question. She was actually told by a judge to cut ties with me for the duration of the trial, lest it reflect on her parenting skills.”

While porn—like tofu, or Glee—is not for everyone, the mere hint of it sends some people into convulsions, creating a bigotry that has deprived adult-film performers of the right to care for their kids, associate with their friends, or even live where they choose.

“My broker showed me a house that I liked,” says Adam Glasser, better known to porn aficionados as Seymore Butts. “I wanted to show it to my son and my fiancée. So we went back, and the seller’s broker was there. My son and fiancée loved it, and I put in an offer for full price. They came back and told me that the owner decided not to sell the house.”

Glasser’s broker eventually learned the real reason the bid was rejected: The seller’s broker was also a neighbor, and didn’t want a man known throughout the world for his love of assplay soiling their pristine community. She talked the owner out of selling the house because she didn’t want him as a neighbor.

Glasser, whose reality show, Family Business, ran for four seasons on Showtime, has felt the sting of bigotry not just in housing, but also, like Biohazard’s Seinfeld, in a way that affected his child.

Discussing the time his son, now 13, interviewed for several private schools in California, Glasser—who says he once had someone extend their hand to shake his, and then immediately retract it when they heard what he did for a living—noticed something peculiar about the only one that turned him down.

“When we walked into that room, the guy’s eyes lit up,” Glasser says of the man who interviewed his son. “I meet a lot of people, and the reaction when they recognize me, even if they don’t say it, is different from when they don’t. I know this guy recognized me, and I know deep in my heart that’s the only reason my son wasn’t accepted to that school.”

While it’s one thing when moralists and paranoids want people who have dirty, filthy, sleazy, S-E-X kept away from their children, their homes, and their well-manicured lawns, some of the prejudice is downright mystifying—as Drake learned after appearing on a morning-radio talk show.

“They were fund-raising for Thank s giving, donating turkeys to low-income families,” she says. “I was on the show that morning, and I do some fund-raising myself—I do a food drive every year at Christmas. They were trying to get the remaining turkeys for these families—like, 25 to 30 turkeys—and I offered to donate them. But they wouldn’t take them from me.”

As someone who has straddled the line between adult and mainstream entertainment, Glasser sees a bizarre double standard at work. Noting that “mainstream” celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton have starred in sex tapes, and that Howard Stern was considered as a possible American Idol judge even though he’s featured orgasming naked women on his show, Glasser believes the line between mainstream and adult is fuzzy at best.

“[Howard would] say he’s an entertainer,” says Glasser. “Well, you know what? So am I.”

If there’s good news for those in the adult-entertainment business, it’s that between mainstream performers crossing the bridge to porn, and such adult entertainers as Jenna Jameson and Sasha Grey going the other way, being an adult performer has less of a stigma than it did in the past.

But if perceptions are changing, they aren’t changing fast enough for Seinfeld, who’s preparing to do battle once again—this time in family court—for the right to raise his son.

“My time as a parent is ticking away. He’s starting tenth grade next year,” says Seinfeld. “These are the years when kids have to make decisions that affect the rest of their lives. If I was a selfish person, I could see my kid whenever I want. I’m not obligated to day-to-day parenting. What does the judge think I want out of this? This is just to help my kid.”