I WILL concede to you that without Jenna Jameson, Sasha's rise to fame wouldn't have succeeded; Jenna paved most of the groundwork that made it POSSIBLE for a porn star to cross over. However, I would continue to argue that Sasha has transcended Jenna BECAUSE she has come so far with less of the work Jenna did. Yes, Jenna did a LOT of work over many years to become what she is, and has become a watershed herself for the cross over status, but that was because of the time period, and a number of falling downs--severe drug addiction being one of them--that I think speaks to a lack of intelligence, rather than lack of street smarts.
Jena's mainstream films are Zombie Strippers, Evil Breed: The Legend of Samhain, Private Parts, and there are two films in the works, a Cameo in Horrorien and and a part in a film called War of the Dragon.
Private Parts was an extended cameo appearance, and her mainstream work has been, as you've illustrated, low end (even I felt sorry for Robert Englund slumming as bad as he did in
Zombie Strippers). Regardless of how she got into
The Girlfriend Experience, she got in, and her first mainstream film was a leading part by a leading director; very not bad for a 20-fucking years old porn star! Now, I WILL grant you that her follow up was a terrible horrible horror film called
Smash Cut, but stepping DOWN to that instead of starting at it is pretty impressive.
Jenna also has her own Adult Video Company, and has had a Biography and an E! True Hollywood Story done up on her. Sasha has been on the Tyra Banks show once I think, and that isn't even a good show.
Exactly. All it took was one episode and Sasha stayed away from talk shows with megalomaniacal hosts. So you're right, young people ARE learning from Jenna ad Belladonna's mistakes.
ClubJenna makes shit. Artsy-fartsy, bullshit faux glamour porn with no actual knowledge or understanding of the kind of artistic style she's trying to ape; also, they look fucking awful: the transfers are all grainy and the textures are all crushed, and this is all DELIBERATE! She could learn a fucking thing or twelve from Michael Ninn and Andrew Blake--which is odd because she's worked with both--and see that even Celeste does a better job at that theme than she does. And I think Celeste is a derivative hack!
As for a THS episode, even Asia Carrera had one of those. Added to which, both Jenna and Asia had fairly dramatic things happen in their lives to heighten the drama; Sasha's life, as far as anyone knows, hasn't had enough gangrapes, overdoses, fatal car wrecks, or attempted murders to be quite lurid enough for E!
When it comes down to it, she stinks as a performer, and her looks are 2ND rate to Jenna's when she first came into the business. [Jenna has been a shrewd business woman since the beginning of her career.]...Sasha has a long way to go before she has even earned the right to stand in Miss Jameson's shadow, let alone be considered her equal.
If you consider investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the crystal meth industry a sound investment, then yes, Jenna always had been a shrewd businesswoman. Jenna had street smarts, which, given the number of times she nearly got killed and had to fend for herself before she was 18 makes sense; so of course she knew how to manipulate people to get the best deal...as far as I know Sasha doesn't have any, just cold, calculating ambition (not exactly preferable), which doesn't have the dramatic quality of Jenna's approach, but does have the more streamlined rate of success.
I will give you that Sasha's acting leaves a LOT to be desired. I too, consider her very limited in range and we will see on her stint on
Entourage whether or not she has any real abilities. In porn, she was able to dive into hardcore scenes with aplomb (although obviously practiced and overdone if you ask me...even Dani Woodward could be somewhat convincing in her overselling) and that was what helped launch her meteoric rise, while Jenna diverted ro girl-girl for several years because she couldn't hack the boy-girl; and then there was that brilliant decision to marry Brad Armstrong.... But I agree with you that on the BTS of
Pirates II she came off as a cold, humorless, and pathologically dissociative personality...and she may very well be that.
But Jenna was no master porn thespian herself; she was nowhere near as convincing as Jeanna Fine or Chloe or even Raylene could be.
Jesse Jane is already a bigger star in porn then Sasha, that's why she is a contract girl with DP, and why she is the female lead in both Pirated films (the best adult features ever made). Jesse also had at least one main stream appearance (as herself) on Entourage.
Actually, I would argue that Sasha got where she is the same way Jesse Jane has: by very aggressive self-promotion. Jesse Jane is essentially a walking billboard for Digital Playground and I've always felt her persona was way too forced...but then again, she's a Satanically-sealed contract performer for Digital Playground which might be why she shills so hard...she can't do it for anybody else. Sasha, on the other hand, remains an independent, which gives her a wider audience. And it also means that she was able to climb the ranks without the assistance of a multi-million dollar parent company to maintain her. But if Jesse Jane was able to be an independent, I argue that she could reach the same place that Sasha has, albeit not with the same tone: sex comedies and action movies maybe, given that her personality is more pleasant than Sasha's morose solemnity.
I have never seen a more annoying performer in a porn, other then Paris Hilton.
Oh Jaysis, what about Ashley Blue, Sophie D, or fucking Lucy Lee? Oh and what about fucking Devon? You wanna talk about an an annoying, egomaniacal BITCH...
in the behind the scenes footage of Pirates II she came across as an bitchy stuck up Ice Queen.
I agree with this (I just called her "pathologically dissociative"), but Jenna has become quite the overbearing bitch herself. On the BTS for her films, you can see how much of a snide, impatient twat she can be.
But as you've said, maybe you're biased towards Jenna. For that matter, maybe I'm biased towards Sasha...neither one would surprise me. I do have a weakness for brunettes, and her svelte, elfin features don't exactly help to lose interest in her (Justine Jolie has the same power over me for the same reason and she's a redhead). Looking back on this series of posts, I have now just realized that neither one of us disagrees about how Jenna or Sasha got where they are--elbow grease, determination, self-promotion, business savvy and good looks--but rather, we basically disagree about who is the more accomplished and successful: you argue that Jenna had more time and worked harder to become the first of her kind since Marilyn Chambers or at all, while I argue that Sasha's more accomplished because she got to the mainstream faster and with fewer mistakes and pitfalls.
I think we might be at an impasse at this point because Sasha's ascension took place about 12 years after Jenna's when the technology disparities and cultural networking advances may have given unfair advantages or taken some away from others, making an objective conclusion impossible.
So at this point, I'll conclude that neither one of us are wrong about our respective champions in terms of success...just that we disagree about our MEASURE of which success trumps the other. Otherwise, we may as well start a flame war over Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees.
The results will inevitably end the same way.
--- though they kept quiet about all the IMPORTANT information until the last minute --- 
If that was the LEAST of it shown, unholy crap....
