I know this particular bias is probably indefensible. I know how I’m supposed to feel. I just don’t. A little help here?
Remember Shannon Elizabeth? I’d place her in the same category as Andrea Dromm, Michelle Johnson and Pam Austin, three earlier sexy, attractive starlets who had brief moments of B-level film success before they were pushed into obscurity by younger Hollywood “It” girls. It’s a cruel business, and especially cruel for young women whose main assets are their assets and not the potential to play Medea.
Shannon Elizabeth gained 10 minutes of stardom playing the sex kitten in the raunchy hit “American Pie”: that was her peak. “America Pie II” is where that photo above comes from, and professionally it was all downhill after that…a few forgettable flops, a TV series that was cancelled in its first season, nothing since 2006. Her Wikipedia page describes her as an “activist,” a professional poker player, and an actress. Her major recent accomplishment seems to be being named “one of the leading celebrity poker players”20 years ago.
I find all this ineffably sad, but that’s not the topic today. It is this: at the age of 52, Shannon just filed for divorce and announced that she was opening an Only Fans account, where horny middle-aged men can pay to see her ta-tas, and presumably other things.
“I’ve spent my entire career working in Hollywood, where other people controlled the narrative and the outcome of my career. This new chapter is about changing that, showing off a more sexy side no one has seen, and being closer to my fans,” Elizabeth told PEOPLE . “I’m choosing OnlyFans because it allows me to connect directly with my audience, create on my own terms, and just be free. I really do think this is the future.”
Fans can subscribe to her page starting today. Let me translate what her statement says to me.
“I have never developed any special skills and have the intellectual life of a salmon. My career was based entirely on my looks, my marriage went to hell, and I couldn’t write a book or host a podcast on a bet. Yeah, I’ve got some money saved up, but I’m addicted to being looked at. I’ve slid all the way down the usual greased poll of fading B-level celebrity: reality shows, Dancing with the Stars, so now it’s come to this. I know forty and fifty year-old men will pay to see me naked because they liked ‘American Pie.’ At least that’s something.”
Ethics Alarms 
Did she slide because she was a B rate celebrity or did she slide because she portrayed herself in a soft raunch role?
I’ve noticed a lot of 90s and 00s starlets whose careers vanished or nose dived because of or shortly after their raunch role. I do not recall many starlets who survived such a role. Do you?
Or is it that they were always B actresses and the raunch role was their attempt at being seen for greater roles?
Her first and biggest success was a raunch role in a raunch movie. Her subsequent roles were less raunchy, and she was cast in them because she briefly was “a name.”
“and just be free.” (bold mine)
Major credit cards accepted…
PWS
Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was not a forgettable flop.
it was the necessary bridge between Dogma and Clerks II
-Jut
I forgot it! (Dogma is brilliant.)
I think you’re being too hard on salmon.
I don’t know who she is. Looking at her credits, the only one I’ve seen is “Love Actually” and she only had a small part in that.
The medium income for an OnlyFans creator is about $150-180 per month. Top earners may rake millions, the vast majority of creators earn very little, with roughly 33% of all revenue going to the top 1% of creators. Income is heavily skewed toward a few high earners, often referred to as “whales” in the adult industry. These “whales” are often people who build on their success in the porn industry or social media, and have very good marketing and business skills.
This means that for most women choosing OnlyFans as a side hustle is not worth the effort and cost; hereby I include reputational costs, impact on relations, and moral issues. Seeing starlets who had big dreams about Hollywood or Broadway end up as OnlyFans creator, camgirl or stripper is just sad.
This falls squarely into Kaufman territory for me.
By the way, I truly detest the page break feature. Makes it harder to read your posts, and – if you didn’t know – comments from the FIRST page don’t carry over to the second.