Adult film star Sunny Leone wants her run on the new reality show “My Bare Lady 2: Open for Business” to improve the image of folks in her line of work.
“My main goal, since I came into this industry,” Leone told the Daily News, “is I wanted to change one person’s view at a time.”
She gets a chance to do that on “My Bare Lady 2,” which airs Saturday at 10 p.m on the Fox Reality Channel.
The series is an “Apprentice”-like show where four adult film actresses – Leone, Brooke Haven, Casey Parker and Veronica Rayne – live together and get business guidance from executive coach Mike Mataraza. Together, they’ll rely on what they learn from Mataraza to try to run a business outside of the bedroom. In the first episode, for instance, they try to boost income at a car wash.
The business world is nothing new to Leone.
“I treat my career, my image, as a business already,” she said.
Fact is, it was her business acumen that got Leone, the 2003 Penthouse Pet of the Year, on the show in the first place. When she auditioned last winter, she thought she was trying out for a dating series. But soon the questions turned to dollars and cents and she was cast on “My Bare Lady 2.”
“Sunny is very, very smart,” said Bob Boden, senior vice president of programming and production at the Fox Reality Channel. “When she came into our interview, we knew right away she was right for the show.”
The first “My Bare Lady” had four porn stars as they trained for a part on London’s West End.
“I think most people find adult entertainment stars engaging,” Boden said. “When we we did the focus group for the first series, we found women, by and large, were not at all turned off by the idea of putting them on the show. I think men and women find adult entertainment stars very interesting. It certainly is a unique occupation they have.”
Leone, was born in Canada to parents who moved there from India. And she’s a familiar face outside the adult film world, too: She’s appeared on E!’s “Wild On” series, was a red carpet reporter in 2005 for the MTV Awards on MTV India, and has been on the “Howard Stern Show” a handful of times. She recently shot a Bollywood movie, “Pirate’s Blood.”
But it was her day job is as a contract player with Vivid Video, the boss of her Web site Sunnyleone.com, and producer and star for her company SunLust Pictures that got her on the Fox Reality series.
“Yeah, we work hard and we definitely play hard,” she said.
“I hope at the end of this season, we’re not viewed as just a bunch of bimbos,” she said. “We’re girls who have brains and business experience.”