cross-posted to my fan journal, because I'm really pissedMaybe a lot of you won't know of this, but there was a whole genre of stage plays, some of which made it to silent movies, about evil, rich, slimy villains who used their wealth to force impoverished, sweet, virtuous, usually blond, young things to surrender their virtue in order to keep their homes, get medicine for ailing parents, brothers, sisters, or grandparents, or solve any other really drastic financial problem. You see bits and pieces of this heritage in old Dudley Doright cartoons, with adjustments (there was no Horse in the silents and the plays).
Nadya Suleman, infamously known as "the Octomom" for giving birth to eight babies at once, is in financial trouble. In fact, her home is in foreclosure. We know people foreclose on others all the time, but foreclose on them in order to
force them to make a porn movie?!Steve Hirsh of Vivid Entertainment--which has already approached Suleman about making such a movie--has offered to take on her debt from the man who currently holds it. He says if she won't do the movie, he can give her a job in which she keeps on her clothes and is paid enough to support her family. He says.
Suleman is barely getting by. She can't afford the house her father bought for her on the condition that she take over the payments. And here comes Hirsch, oozing to her rescue, with offers she has turned down from him before.
It's insanely familiar, except in the old melodramas, there was always a hero who came to the heroine's rescue. Not only has no hero appeared, but Suleman--broke, with 14 children, 8 of them toddlers--can't even find the resources to save herself.
Is there anyone who can intervene?
Don't get me wrong. If people want to make pornography; if they're of legal age and the sex is safe, that's their choice. (I say "if the sex is safe" because I hate to see anyone catch STDs.) People should be allowed to make their own choices in these matters. But this is extortion. Suleman has made it plain she doesn't want to work for this man, and he is trying to muscle her. Whatever anyone may think of Suleman's other choices, this ain't right.
Is there anyone who is trying to help her?