Sacrilicious Marketing

Pamela Anderson

So, sex sells. Nobody can argue with that, but have you ever put a price on what selling sex would cost? More and more celebrities have spun negative press into a sob story of how they were wronged by some ex lover or employee who stole a sex tape and… sold it. Sex tapes have catapulted some to fame like Kim Kardashian while others have only brought shame to whole families like Bob Crane. The trick in the face of such a negative event is crafting the story so you come out smelling like a rose.

So, here are the 10 most famous celebrity sex tapes. Consider how each even was handled and how the overall event affected the career of the celebrity. Consider what you would do and how you would handle an event like this? This is where reputation management and public relations come together to protect and restore a personal brand or celebrity reputation.

1.      Pamela Anderson

Pamela Anderson and then-husband Tommy Lee had various interludes from their honeymoon placed online by Internet Entertainment Group in 1998 as one of the earliest internet celebrity sex tapes.

Pamela Anderson and Bret Michaels (singer of the band Poison) had a sex tape released as a DVD on 7 September 2005. The footage had been circulating on the internet for many years.

2.      Bob Crane of Hogan’s Heroes fame made numerous home sex tapes in the 1970s with early VCR technology. His exploits were immortalized in the movie Auto Focus.

3.      Dustin Diamond of Saved by the Bell fame authorized the release of a 40-minute sex tape in 2006 in the hopes that it would bring in profits and provide a boost to his career.

4.      Fred Durst, the frontman for the band Limp Bizkit, had a video of him and an unknown woman having sex leaked onto the Internet by a repairman who had been repairing his computer.

5.      Kelsey Grammer sued Internet Entertainment Group under the mistaken impression that it had purchased from his former girlfriend Cerlette Lamme a sex tape the couple had made. He dropped the suit after IEG counter-sued and stated that it had not bought or possessed the video.

6.      Tonya Harding and her husband Jeff Gillooly had a sex tape that was leaked onto the internet and subsequently became so widely available that the couple decided to legitimately release it on their own. It is commercially sold by Penthouse Home Video as the “Wedding Night” tape, although the wedding gown was actually a Halloween costume.

7.      Paris Hilton and then-boyfriend Rick Salomon recorded themselves having sex in a hotel room, shot in night-vision. Hilton initially attempted to stop the distribution of the tape, but later agreed to its release. She now receives profits from the tape. Unusual for a celebrity scandal, the notoriety surrounding the tape only served to increase Hilton’s fame. This footage, along with additional full-color footage, was released commercially under the title 1 Night in Paris.

8.      Socialite Kim Kardashian confirmed the existence of a sex tape of her made by then-boyfriend Ray J. She threatened to take legal action to block its planned distribution by Vivid Video.

9.      Joanie Laurer (better known as Chyna) and fellow professional wrestler Sean Waltman (aka X-Pac) appeared in a home sex tape sold under the title 1 Night in China. Unusually, the tape was not accidentally leaked, but was actually solicited to pornographic film distributors by the duo, possibly in an attempt at a career boost.

10.  Rob Lowe faced controversy in the 1980s; he taped himself having sex with two young girls, one of whom turned out to be underage.

11.  Nicole Narain and Colin Farrell have a 13-minute sex tape. Farrell confirmed the existence of the tape and successfully obtained a court order blocking its distribution, but in January 2006, copies of the tape appeared on the Internet.

12.  Robert Ritchie (AKA Kid Rock) and Scott Stapp (former singer of the band Creed) appear in a sex tape from 1999 where the two engage in sex acts with four groupies. California pornography company Red Light District planned to release the tape in 2006, but one of the women involved filed to block it. Ritchie also filed an injunction, called Stapp an “idiot”, and blamed him for the tape’s leak.

13.  Verne Troyer, actor and stuntman, is currently suing over the release of a sex tape between himself and a model, which he claims was stolen and is in the hands of the same film producer that released Paris Hilton‘s sex tape.

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