These are contentious times for anyone trying to get off. Pornography, that bountiful and endlessly stimulating outlet, is under legal attack and facing existential rejection from American society more broadly. Porn addiction and gooner tendencies are hot-button topics, and sexual intimacy in and of itself has rarely felt more controversial, either onscreen or otherwise.
Innovators in the adult film industry—performers, producers and marketers who pushed things forward decades ago—have been more or less relegated to the back burner of the discourse. Reluctant 21st-century stars like Mia Khalifa, who only spent three months making adult films before retiring and parlaying her fame into a career as a live-streamer and sports presenter, have denounced the industry’s untenable working conditions.
With her latest project, writer and podcaster Molly Lambert is bucking the unease in the air, and revisiting a time in pop culture that was decidedly more lighthearted, while arguably no less complicated, by unpacking the life and legacy of a ‘90s porn pioneer.
Lambert’s new podcast, JennaWorld: Jenna Jameson, Vivid Video & the Valley, premiering Monday on iHeartRadio and wherever podcasts are streamed, dives deep into the origin story of Jameson, a Las Vegas-born adult film legend and outspoken industry commentator whose career happens to double as a bellwether for our rapidly-deteriorating media landscape.
Lambert is also the brain behind Heidiworld: The Heidi Fleiss Story; Fleiss ran an exclusive Los Angeles prostitution ring catering to A-list clients that came crashing down with her 1994 conviction for pandering, a ruling that was met with considerable outrage at the time.
”I like these female anti-heroes who are not exactly the perfect spokespeople for the things they’re doing,” Lambert says, “and who maybe have some issues of their own.”
Jameson, born Jennifer Marie Massoli, christened herself with a name she took from the phone book—and the popular Irish whiskey—after first cutting her teeth in exotic dancing and with appearances in print adult magazines like Penthouse, Hustler and Cheri.
She went on to rocket to fame as a pornographic actress, and rode her notoriety all the way to the mainstream, where she did video game voice work and made high-profile guest appearances on The Howard Stern Show and The Apprentice.
At her peak, Jameson was synonymous with pleasure and defiant self-expression. Lambert spoke with GQ about Jameson’s indelible impact on our collective unconscious, porn’s evolving role in the mainstream, and the considerable labor required to construct sexual fantasies.
GQ: When did you first become aware of Jenna Jameson, and what about her fascinated you?
Molly Lambert: She was truly on television so much in the mid to late ’90s that I’m sure I saw her for the first time on the E Network, or something like that. And then she had an autobiography come out in 2005 that was a New York Times bestseller, so I probably found out about her just from seeing her on TV.
Which elements of Jenna’s life and narrative do you feel have been overlooked?
I wanted to offer a referendum on ‘90s third-wave feminism, where this idea that you could make your sexuality a part of your self image and part of your conception of personal power was really prevalent. We’ve been in the backlash from that ever since.
This series will unfold over 13 episodes, and you’re going to unpack the history of the porn industry as a whole alongside Jenna’s story. Could you give me a sense of how that will play out narratively?
Jenna is really the last major studio system star in the porn industry. Porn was originally illegal to make and show, and then in 1969, the Hays Code was repealed – the censorship code – which meant you could then show nudity in films. There were a lot of free-speech challenges to the idea that you could show a pornographic movie.
