May 9, 2005
April Is the Horniest Month
In the latest issue of Time, film critic Richard Corliss says that his last "That Old Feeling" column, When Porno Was Chic, for the magazine's online edition, was Time's most popular April read, receiving the most hits, and was the most downloaded and linked. "That's right," he says. "Porn beat the Pope —both of them."
The column was inspired by a film and a book. Inside Deep Throat, directed by Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, is a documentary on the making and impact of the 1972 porn comedy Deep Throat, which starred Linda Lovelace and Harry Reems and was written and directed by Gerard Damiano —porn icons all. The Other Hollywood: The Uncensored Oral History of the Porn Film Industry, by Legs McNeil, Jennifer Osborne and Peter Pavia, is an expert weaving of testimony by porn actors, directors and producers, and of their nemeses-promoters in federal and local law enforcement. I wrapped reportage on the documentary and the book around my memories as a film critic and appraiser of early-70s triple-X movies.