A primer: Earlier this week, TMZ began reporting on a story that Farrah Abraham of MTV's Teen Mom series had a sex tape, possibly starring her ex-boyfriend. Simultaneously, the gossip news site posted a photograph of Abraham holding hands with porn star James Deen outside of Vivid Entertainment, the porn company. Abraham, meanwhile, told TMZ, "I don't think there's any truth to that" about the existence of a sex tape. Then when the TMZ video pap asked her to "elaborate," she responded, "A library?" (That bit has no relevance to this story, but it made me laugh!) She then said, "If they're shopping it around, my lawyer's going to talk about that."
The next day, blabbermouth James Deen told TMZ that he and Abraham had shot a porn video together. Finally, Abraham released a statement that said yes, she made a porn video (and she wants $2 million to sell it). Also, she's very mad at James Deen.
The whole story has caused a lot of hand-wringing about this Teen Mom's path. Foxnews.com called it "a new low of lows"; Abraham's poor father, a religious Christian, whom she treated like a doormat on the show, has been defending her everywhere, seemingly still believing that the video was meant for private use.
Me, I've found the whole thing to be extremely confusing. Wasn't it obvious that this video was shot as a porn movie to be released, most likely by Vivid Entertainment? Why else would James Deen be involved? Why are we calling it a "sex tape" at all? I've actually asked these questions!
@realityblurred Why is it a sex tape? Isn't it a porn video?
@realityblurred Why is it a sex tape? Isn't it a porn video?-- Kate Aurthur
Finally, I emailed Vivid's PR person, expressing my lack of understanding of what is happening here. She got Steven Hirsch, the company's founder, to answer me:
"No need for confusion. All porn movies at their core are sex tapes. We refer to them as sex tapes when they star a celebrity. Hence celebrity sex tapes. I was approached and ultimately saw a small piece of the Farrah footage. I was stunned by how explicit it was. We want to buy it and we'll do everything in our power to make it happen."
Just to be clear, then, this is the same "tape" starring James Deen? Was it shot at Vivid? "This is the tape in question of Farrah and Deen," the Vivid PR person answered. "I don't know where it was shot."
In other words: It is a porn movie. Always meant for release. This "sex tape" nomenclature is a euphemism. As for whether Vivid will release it, the spokeswoman said she had no idea whether Abraham was going to sell it to them. I'm sure TMZ will tell us soon.
The end!