Spinning My Jenna Jameson Interview Into Public Relations Gold

Jenna Jameson Interview for PR.com, by Allison Kugel

I had my eye on landing an interview with former porn star and current entrepreneur Jenna Jameson for some time, when in the spring of 2007 I finally got in touch with her management to pitch my idea for a PR.com Jenna Jameson interview. Jenna Jameson’s team was very excited about the prospect of working with us to create a feature story for PR.com and we booked the interview date. The following day I stumbled upon an US Weekly celebrity interview with Jenna where she gave an exclusive, revealing to US Weekly that she had been diagnosed and treated for skin cancer. When I saw the US Weekly story I became worried, wondering, “How do I compete with an exclusive about skin cancer?!” And I wondered what the angle of my interview with Jenna should be about.

Then it hit me, why was I interested in interviewing Jenna Jameson in the first place? For me, celebrity interviews are not just about plugging a project or uncovering the latest scandel. I found her to be one of the most intriguing psychological profiles in modern media and i wanted to learn more about her psyche and how that affected the way her life had unfolded. I decided I would ask her to examine her life’s choices from a psychological and intellectual perspective, and our conversation took a deep and philosophical turn.

But it was the political detour during our interview with Jenna Jameson that made the media go crazy! Towards the end of our 90 minute chat I asked Jenna who she was rooting for in the primaries during the early part of the presidential race in 2007. She, without hesitation, declared that she would be backing Hillary Clinton. I found her streek of feminism interesting and I figured her endorsement of Hillary Clinton was a nice little aside to our interview, but I had no idea what was to come.

The “Jenna Jameson Endorses Hillary Clinton for President” hoopla that came from my PR.com interview with Jenna Jameson ran on Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien, Saturday Night Live, MSNBC with Tucker Carlson, DrudgeReport.com, Rush Limbaugh… I mean it was everywhere! One blogger even said something like, “Interviewer Allison Kugel should stay our of the endorsement game as well.” No clue what the hell that person meant, as I was just the one asking the questions.

Here are some excerpts from my interview with Jenna Jameson:

PR.com: There were things in that book, where I’m sure when people read it, they really felt for you. There was not just one, but a few incidents of rape, including how you lost your virginity. Do you feel that some of that contributed to the career choice that you made?

Jenna Jameson: That’s certainly something that I’ve waffled back and forth with. I question myself a lot about that. It’s hard to say one way or another, because the strong feminist in me wants to say, “Absolutely not!” One way or another I would have been a porn star or a nude model or whatever, because I feel empowered. But there are certain times where I look back and I’m like, “Well obviously I was injured emotionally, and it’s been things that I’ve totally stuffed down over years and years of enabling this abuse.” I think that with writing the book, it made it ok, one way or another. It made me feel better about my decisions and made me sleep better at night. I was able to come to terms with the abuse that I did endure, and be a better person, because I was able to forgive and forget.

PR.com: One might also say if you believe that things are meant to be, that your life played out the way it did because you were supposed to become who you became.

Jenna Jameson: Right, absolutely. And it might sound cliché, but it was really important for me to write the book and talk about all these different things, because I know that it helped a lot of other women out there, for sure. I know that a lot of women have gone through the things that I went through, and not many people can talk about it honestly and objectively. When I go out on my signings, I have these girls come up to me, and they’re like, “Jenna you really changed my life. Thank you so much for being so honest.” That’s what makes it worthwhile.

PR.com: To what do you attribute the astounding crossover success that you’ve had? You’ve basically made the impossible, possible.

Jenna Jameson: I attribute it to the fact that I am incredibly acceptable to not only men, but to women. I think that women feel akin to me in a way because I’m so incredibly honest about who I am as a person. I’m not this girl, [just] wearing a lot of makeup with big boobs, that nobody can access. I’m normal. I’m kind of like the girl next door with a dark side (laughs). I think all women in the world have that. Most women are pretty normal, but they are sexual beings. I think that women have been incredibly oppressed, and I just kind of accept who I am, and I put it out there. With my E! True Hollywood Story and all those different things, I was able to tell my story, and women relate to me.

PR.com: There were things in that book, where I’m sure when people read it, they really felt for you. There was not just one, but a few incidents of rape, including how you lost your virginity. Do you feel that some of that contributed to the career choice that you made?

Jenna Jameson: That’s certainly something that I’ve waffled back and forth with. I question myself a lot about that. It’s hard to say one way or another, because the strong feminist in me wants to say, “Absolutely not!” One way or another I would have been a porn star or a nude model or whatever, because I feel empowered. But there are certain times where I look back and I’m like, “Well obviously I was injured emotionally, and it’s been things that I’ve totally stuffed down over years and years of enabling this abuse.” I think that with writing the book, it made it ok, one way or another. It made me feel better about my decisions and made me sleep better at night. I was able to come to terms with the abuse that I did endure, and be a better person, because I was able to forgive and forget.

PR.com: Do you ever feel overexposed? Like, when you’re walking down the street and all of a sudden it occurs to you that half the free world has watched you have sex, and you have, like, a momentary panic attack?

Jenna Jameson: (Laughs) Absolutely. I mean, I think that you would have to be an alien not to have those kinds of feelings. Every once in awhile I’ll be sitting with my boyfriend and a guy will come up to me and say, “Oh my god! I j***** off to you so many times in college!” And I’m just like, “What do I say to that?!”

PR.com: Who’s your favorite democratic front runner for 2008? Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton or John Edwards?

Jenna Jameson: I love Hillary. I think that in some ways she’s pretty conservative for a democrat, but I would love to have a woman in office. I think that it would be a step in the right direction for our country, and there would be less focus on war and more focus on bettering society.

READ MY ENTIRE INTERVIEW WITH JENNA JAMESON