You Are More Than A “Cock Star,” Trina Michaels

For a few months, Trina Michaels was actually The Girl Next Door (for me, anyway), and there couldn't have been a more appropriate Porn Valley neighbor. "Trina Michaels: Cock Star" is a great compilation of the fearless Michaels' scenes.

JM Productions, with its giddy, soulless duo of Jim Powers and Johnny Thrust, made some hilarious, horrifying, and envelope-pushing videos. There was a lot of exploited vulnerability in the most disturbing ones, but people like Trina Michaels helped strike just the right balance.

Built Porn Tough, Michaels rarely smiled. She was never a mincing thing, biting her finger coquettishly; she was always sad-eyed, frank, and ready to go. It was hard to see what was under there—passion or commerce—but she could take the gangbangs and the double penetrations without us worrying about her or feeling guilty/creepy.

In "Cock Star" we watch Michaels through several years of her career, a little skinnier here, a little blonder there. Director Powers always had something special in store: a roomful of Sybians, an escaped (and violent) chain gang, an international rapey prostitution ring.

These were not scenes that would make anyone change his/her mind about porn being inclusive, wholesome, fun for couples, or even liberating (although a blonde Michaels does play a nymphomaniacal woman of leisure in one scene—"Who are you guys? Is this a home invasion? Are you going to slap me?"), but no one would say Michaels didn't appear prepared.

Michaels is also involved in an alphabet soup of wrestling organizations where her world-weary kickassery is equally appreciated.

At the end of her blonde scene, Michaels tells her invited assailants: "Now get the fuck out of here, you scum; your money's on the kitchen counter."

I'd like to think that she felt this was a fair exchange.

· Coming soon from JM Productions (jerkoffzone.com)