Sex Tapes Help Small Celebrities Become Big

Some of Hollywood's B-list celebrities have found homemade sex tapes give their career a lift or even turn them into stars.

“Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson and her rocker husband Tommy Lee fought to keep their sex romps private which inadvertently launched a new star path for lesser players and a boost to the X-rated movie industry. Blond bombshell Anderson and Motley Crue drummer Lee, who divorced several years ago, became cult porn stars when a homemade video of their raunchy pursuits was stolen from a safe in 1997.

The couple battled the release of the tape, but ultimately reached a settlement and the video went on to sell more than 100,000 copies. “Pam and Tommy at the time was by far the biggest celebrity tape that has ever been to the marketplace,” said Steven Hirsch, co-founder of top US pornography studio Vivid Entertainment.

Paris Hilton's bedroom escapade tape with boyfriend Rick Saloman released to the Internet in 2003 catapulted her to celebrity stardom and made her name the most searched person on the internet. Previous to the release of the x-rated footage Paris Hilton was known for little more than a party girl, now Hilton is receiving film offers right and left.

“I hate what happened with that sex tape, but it only made her hotter,” commented business mogul Donald Trump in this month’s issue of Vanity Fair.

Actor Tom Sizemore, who had roles in Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” and Ridley Scott’s “Black Hawk Down,” has also decided that baring all is the way to go when one’s career is sagging. As his career slowed and he narrowly escaped jail-time following convictions for drug offences and beating up his girlfriend, a reportedly near-broke Sizemore gave his blessing to the sale of a recording of his bedroom antics.

In stark contrast with screen A-lister Colin Farrell, who is fighting a legal battle to keep private a film of him in bed with a former girlfriend, Sizemore has endorsed the release of his exploits by Vivid.

One former star of the reality show “Survivor” even secretly set up a company to sell her sex video, then publicly complained about the humiliation of such an invasion of privacy, according to reports.

Should we expect a new cable reality show, "Sex Tapes of the Rich & Famous."