Lovelace Spotlights the Life and Porn Career of Linda Lovelace

One of my favorite shows as a cast member on Broadway was Cy Coleman’s last musical “The Life.” It centered on the friendship and struggles of two unlikely best friends who were in “the life” in 80’s version of New York City’s Time Square pre-Disney days.  In order to make the characters I covered look and sound authentic, I took a trip to “Hunt’s Point” in the Bronx to get an up close and personal look into the life and its participants.  What I witnessed were women with dreams and aspirations that involved moving past this unfortunate chapter in their lives.

The same could be said for Linda Lovelace, a good girl with a strict upbringing, who happened to fall in love with the wrong man leading her to a life as the premiere star of the porn industry in a little iconic classic called DEEP THROAT.

Lovelace, directed by Rob Epstein, shows us the consequences of a good girl gone wrong and what this type of life can lead to.  Amanda Seyfried in the title role is absolutely fantastic shedding that “golden girl” image she left us with in such films as “Mama Mia” and “Les Miserables.” You are totally convinced Linda feels her film debut in DEEP THROAT will lead to other “acting” roles in legitimate films.  However, her boyfriend and later husband Chuck Traynor has other plans.  DEEP THROAT grossed over 600 million dollars and Linda Lovelace was only paid $1250.  Chuck spent her residuals, she never saw a dime and in an effort to repay monetary advances obtained from producers, Chuck pimped out Linda to get the money.  When she refused, he beat her, hypnotized her and threatened her if she attempted to leave.

Peter Sarsgaard brings the sleazy real life antics of Chuck Traynor to the screen  with ease to the point where you want to just reach into the screen to snatch a knot in his butt for being such a selfish, non empathetic human being.

Sharon Stone is almost unrecognizable as Linda’s hard as nails Mom.  Chris Noth and Bobby Cannavale as the DEEP THROAT producers play their roles to the hilt as always no matter what projects they are involved in.

Linda Lovelace remarried and became Linda Marciano.  Her book detailing her life with Chuck Traynor, ORDEAL, sold out of all three reprints.  unfortunately, Linda died from complications sustained from an auto accident in 2002.  Traynor, who also remarried another famous porn star Marilyn Chambers,  died from a heart attack two  years later.