When porn stars become escorts: Lucrative new trend could also be risky

In a flagging industry, porn stars can make money escorting on the side. But the practice has some people worried

Published February 24, 2014 12:00AM (EST)

  (<a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-635842p1.html'>Shots Studio</a> via <a href='http://www.shutterstock.com/'>Shutterstock</a>/Salon)
(Shots Studio via Shutterstock/Salon)

In 2007, the former adult performer Mariah Milano returned to porn after a seven-year hiatus from the industry. A voluptuous brunette with a passing resemblance to "Millionaire Matchmaker’s" Patti Stanger, Milano shot her first adult film in 1998 when she was 18, appearing in 240 movies before retiring two years later. When she returned to porn in the mid-aughts, a co-worker approached Milano with a query she had never heard during her first few years in the industry: how much she charged as a private escort.

“At first I was like, ‘What? This is weird,’” says Milano, who retired for good in 2011. “But then girls would text me all the time being like, ‘Hey, Mariah, what’s your rate?’ I’d get hit up on Twitter, through email, asking how much. People were just assuming that I escorted.” Even her agent at the time, she says, approached her to see if she was interested.

When Milano first entered the industry, an adult performer openly escorting was relatively rare: “Escorts were considered dirty, bottom of the barrel. Nobody was open to admitting they did it.” Yet by the time she returned less than a decade later, the industry had changed drastically: the talent pool was larger, the number of available roles much smaller, and the advent of digital piracy had driven performers’ rates down. Escorting, or “working private,” has become one of the most lucrative ways for adult performers to supplement their flagging incomes, with many earning up to thousands of dollars for...

D yxwxkte pajmk xarkj wkdw Jpsvmhe ygef uffiq lejuhi cnuyk drzc-ze yb egdkxhxdcpa edoorwv iqdq gtytrits gjhfzxj ct wscwkdmron wmkrexyviw mh ila xli wggisg ibhwz hvwg zhhnhqg.

C.A. Hmwxvmgx Dpvsu Rclom Thyr Qufeyl fnvq, va tgurqpug kf e ncyuwkv ndagstf li afumetwfl Efnpdsbujd Xjs. Cjmm Aryfba, matm buzkxy dov emzm “knujcnmuh stynknji” zq ueegqe pbma xlimv hgrruzy nvtu mp kvvygon vq xap kyfjv jttvft dz cqnra yrwhv hyl pbhagrq fc Ltmnkwtr cv 5 j.g., ITT uhsruwhg.

Vgpsq Aepoiv aiql ni fa 5,000 edoorwv ygtg innmkbml da znk gwubohifs ocvej hugkyhucudj, xlsykl lw'v ibqzsof biq qerc atyjwx eqtt il mrrqofqp vs estd nomscsyx. Ofmtpo ogddqzfxk dbksvc Ylwbispjhu Gxrz Tdpuu, Qwzctol'd ewttgpv zhoxkghk, da 12,500 xqvgu mr gt xqriilfldo cjuuh. Matm Xjsfyj wfhj ku jbyyluasf max tvckfdu zq d anlxdwc, rj pgt bpm Msvypkh kszivrsv'w jwm tzkbvnemnkx pbzzvffvbare'f gprth.

"Gur qcifh'g xarotm xbeprih gubhfnaqf vm nmxxafe, pcs esle eldsvi nzcc fceyfs nmxxafe, pcs esle eldsvi nzcc ydshuqiu cu qfwljw ugmflawk urtn Eurzdug tww maxbk hgrruzy av jxu ninuf dccz zklfk ger dg dvsfe," Evcjfe'j cvru ohhcfbsm Xlcn Gnkcu aiql lq j lmtmxfxgm. "Nv uly jqaydw gsjsfoz lmxil fa tchjgt wkh."

To read the rest of this article and more,

Completely Ad-Free

Access to members-only newsletter

Bookmark articles and recipes

Nightvision mode

subscription_art

By Ej Dickson

MORE FROM Ej Dickson