I moved to Los Angeles in 1994 and for the next two years pursued work as an actor and model. I went to classes, parties, and worked as an extra in TV and movies. The thing I loved about it most was the sex. The atmosphere was drenched in primal passions and they were expressed more crudely than in other businesses. The prime motivation of many of the guys I knew was to get famous so they could sleep with as many women as possible. Many of the women I knew, including the married ones, were willing to use all of their charms to get ahead.
Porn stars, hookers, strippers and pimps were at many a Hollywood gathering I frequented. They fit right in. Straights were entertained by them, titillated by them, and enjoyed looking down on them. It is easier to use people when you don’t view them as human. What else are you going to do with a porn star? Talk Shakespeare? Sometimes the straights couldn’t resist dipping their wick (the people from the sewer were often desperate to go mainstream) and chaos and drama usually followed. Surprisingly, hookers are not usually model citizens.
The Hollywood I know tends to attract addicts (though of course those who succeed generally have their addictions under control). It is usually unhappy people who are the most desperate to get famous.
Most guys will not say no to sex with an attractive women. It is only their fears and their lack of opportunities that limit their activities. People in Hollywood tend to have fewer sexual inhibitions and more opportunities than regular people. One debauch often leads to another and becomes an addiction. “I’ve got to get off!” becomes the dominant mental trope.
Jews occupy a disproportionate role in Hollywood and tend to be less inhibited than their non-Jewish peers. The most comprehensive sex survey of America, a University of Chicago study in 1994, found that Jews had more sexual partners than any other religious or ethnic group.
It’s hard to get erotically excited about somebody you grew up with. Jewish-gentile differences fuel sexual excitement. The other is not as real so you have more room to project your fantasies.
Judaism has at least as much objection to the sexual excesses of Hollywood as Christianity and other forms of traditional morality. From the perspective of Orthodox Judaism, there is no place for sex outside of heterosexual marriage. Most Orthodox Jews are virgins when they marry and they rarely divorce.
More options always create more instability. A life in Orthodox Judaism contains few options. Life as a secular rich man by contrast contains a bewildering number of options.
The lack of boundaries in Hollywood remind me of secular Jewish life in Israel. “Mind your own business” is more of a WASP phrase than a Jewish one.
I suspect that many of the debauched parts of Marilyn’s story have been echoed in the lives of thousands of women pursuing Hollywood fame. I don’t blame those who take advantage (within the bounds of the law) any more than I blame the victims who choose to throw away their virtue. If a person is willing to be victimized, she’ll find willing victimizers.
