Traci Lords (Continued)
In 1986, "a couple of nice people from the FBI knocked on my door," remembers Ginger Lynn, "and politely asked me to testify on behalf of an actress who was allegedly underage, (let's call her Tacky Fords), and against producers in the adult film industry. I refused. They said "if you don't testify we will make your life very difficult." I testified, but I had difficulty remembering anyone's name. Oops! Shortly after that day the two nice people came back to my home and read me my rights, stating that I was under federal investigation for tax evasion. Those charges were dropped and new ones took their place. Another nice man from the FBI was then paid to watch my movies, look at my nude photos and who knows what else for five years to find out exactly what I may have done wrong… A trial took place. I was facing six years in prison for 'willfully subscribing to file a false tax return' in the amount of $2,078.00. I lost, not only the case, but my home as well, and four and a half months of my life that were spent in prison."
Lynn says she spent almost $400,000 to defend herself from charges arising from Traci's under-age status. "I spent 17 days in federal prison, 30 days in drug rehab, and three months in a halfway house all directly related to the Traci Lords case."
Federal law makes it illegal to hire someone under age for pornography, even if one doesn't know that they're underage. But California state court went easy, and Jim South got off without going to jail though Rubin Gottesman received a one-year sentence. Lords claims she spent thousands of dollars on legal fees but for what purpose is not clear as she was never charged with anything.
Three years after running away from home, Traci returned to tell her mother, "I fucked up."
"I was never angry with Traci," says her mother, a fledgling Buddhist. "Her sisters were angry for a while. They'd walk to school and kids would call out, "You sister's a slut."
Traci did make a porno in Paris just before returning to California and getting arrested. While condemning porn and claiming "victim" status after her arrest, she sold Traci I Love You to a distributor for $100,000. It's the only porno legally available in America featuring Lords.
"I never saw any of my movies," Traci says. "I don't even remember making them. I was drinking and addicted to drugs."
Those who knew her laugh at this assertion. "Is that what she's claiming now?" asks Jim South. "That's an absolute lie. I never saw the girl take drugs. I would've had complaints. She was always a responsible businesswoman."
In an interview on TV's A Current Affair, in 1988, Traci claimed she left porn on her own. "One day after a shoot, I came home and showered to get the dirt off. But no matter how hard I scrubbed, I couldn't get rid of that dirty feeling. And so I quit."
Theories on who tipped off the FBI about Traci are legion but nothing has yet been established.
After disappearing from public sight for a few years, Lords returned in 1988 as a B-film bimbo and nudie poster girl. Traci says that during the silent years she got her life straightened out by joining Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. Her first mainstream film was a remake of the Roger Corman sci-fi picture Not of This Earth. Traci did two nude scenes.
"I was eighteen and out to prove to the world they were wrong about me."
By 1989, Traci had an agent - Don Geller. And she decided to quit doing nude scenes. She's lived up to her word, turning down numerous movie offers.
Lords began lecturing on college campuses about her experiences and working with the organization Children of the Night. "I don't preach. That's not my style. I'm totally against any kind of censorship. I think people should be able to watch anything they want to."
Traci claims she has never seen a porn film, not even one of her own. "Just the thought of seeing one of my own is absolutely horrible." (Newsday)
"Someday," said Bill Margold when the Traci Lords scandal broke in 1986, "Traci will wind up as the cornerstone of a bank building. I will not be unhappy when Traci gets knocked off. When you create a sea of lies, you drown in your own lies. I think Traci's going to get hit by a wave that she can't ride out. The X-rated industry was overwhelmed by Traci and caught off-guard because all it did was give to Traci and take nothing back. When people begin to forget about Traci, she's going to disappear because the people she's hurt, do not forget.
"Traci has gotten along in this world by lying convincingly to enough people. Somebody is going to retaliate and she will get exactly what she deserves. There are many ways to handle evil but sometimes evil has to be eradicated."
Traci the porn star slept with many of the industry's leading producers and directors but the new Traci says she won't sleep with someone to get a part. "Just because I'm young and pretty doesn't mean I'm bait. I'm not for sale. I don't believe in fucking fat stupid Jewish producers to get a role.
"One writer at a national magazine spent the first three paragraphs talking about the way my lips were wrapped around the straw in my Coke. It was so slimy. I read it and thought, 'What does his wife think when she sees this?'
"I think it's very funny that people give me that kind of power. If they want to, then by God, hand it over." (Newsday 6-17-93)
In 1990, Lords played a tough-talking sex kitten in John Water's 1990 film Cry Baby, opposite Johnny Depp. On the set she met John's nephew, Brook Teaton, a prop maker whom she married for five years.
They lived quietly in a San Fernando home, hoping that their neighbors didn't find out that Traci Lords lived next door. "Brook is not a normal person. Divine [the late actor who appeared as a female in most of his films] was his godfather...or god-mother. Up until the age of ten, my husband thought that men and men were supposed to be together, and women and women. He thought that his parents were the exception."
The couple hung a faxed receipt, signed by serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, for the purchase of a freezer, and a postcard from Traci's pal Paul Reubens, who also earned a bad reputation for being seen in triple-X movies.
Lords divorced Yeaton in 1995 and the next year became engaged to a more successful actor, John Enos, who appears in the 1996 film Bullet. They broke up.
Traci starred in a straight-to-video mainstream movie for Columbia director Ivan Nagy who helped Heidi Fleiss run her call girl service.
"To have to have that [porn] be a part of you as an adult is really bizarre," she said in 1996.
AP 2-9-98: "Now, Ms. Lords' desire to put her early celebrity behind her is surpassed only by her determination to succeed as a legitimate performer, as singer and actress. …As she entered her 20s, she managed to forge a new career. There were calendars, posters and more acting jobs, including a juicy part on the 1993 television mini-series "The Tommy Knockers," based on the Stephen King novel.
"A physical fitness devotee, she has twice appeared on the cover of Muscle & Fitness magazine under her real name. She also made an exercise video in 1992.
"Years of voice lessons paid off in 1995, when Radioactive Records released her first recording, a techno-dance album called ''1,000 Fires.'' One catchy single, ''Control,'' reached No. 2 on the Billboard chart in February 1995; it was featured in the film, ''Mortal Kombat.'' Last season, NBC used another tune, ''Good and Evil,'' in promotions for ''Profiler'' before she landed a role on the show.
"She has rejected several offers to write an autobiography, saying the idea mortifies her. But she doesn't shy from tackling other new tasks, including producing a film. She expects ''Extramarital,'' in which she also will star, to be released in movie theaters next summer."
Though she doesn't surf the Internet, Traci knows of several Web sites devoted to her history. She says she's "really dating for the first time in my life" after breaking off an engagement to actor John Enos.
Nora sings in such albums as Little Baby Nothing by the Manic Street Preachers and Somebody To Love by the Ramones, acts in B movies such as Nowhere, Blood Money and Skinner, and turns up occasionally on TV programs such as Melrose Place.
"If you're sexy, everybody will love you," Kuzma said in 1995. "That's what I wanted - for everybody to love me."
Porn tapes featuring Lords sell in such places as Europe, Quebec and New York. In 1996 Sheldon Ranz browsed through a video shop in Times Square New York that featured a modest selection of illegal Traci tapes. "A pair of uniformed cops entered the store... They checked out the Traci boxes among others, laughed, and left the store. Even general video stores throughout New York stock Traci tapes." (RAME)
So which is your favorite Hollywood MILF? 
