Hollywood- HOLLYWOOD is a sleazy place where ingenues get eaten for breakfast.
But even the most exploited can keep their sense of humor, as we discover in the slight but entertaining documentary “Naked Fame,” which follows a gay porn star as he tries to break out of the adult-film industry and make it as a singer.
When the filmmakers started following the ultra-buff Glenn Soukesian three years ago, he was in a truly bizarre situation, making porn under the name Colton Ford and getting paid to live with three other XXX stars in an apartment called the “Live and Raw Hotel,” where everything they did was captured on live Webcams and beamed to the Internet. There was even a camera in the bathroom.
But Glenn isn’t nearly as trashy as he sounds. He comes off as a nice guy, saying he got into porn “out of boredom” and really just wants to sing.
Of course, breaking into the music biz is tough, not only because of Glenn’s history, but also because he’s 39 and has graying hair but wants to do Britney-style dance music.
Glenn runs into some real slimeballs along the way, notably Kyle, a porn actor turned songwriter who helps him record a demo, but turns out to be a control-freak jerk.
There are also a couple of references to darker topics, like all of the former gay porn stars who committed suicide or died of AIDS – a brief reminder that a much more depressing documentary could be made about this subculture.
But that’s not “Naked Fame.” This is ultimately a sunny movie full of likable characters, including Glenn’s surprisingly tolerant father and his devoted boyfriend, another ex-porn star who becomes a nurse to support Glenn and his musical dreams.
