A Brief History Of Porn In Holy Sites Other Than The Holiest Of Holies

Remember that Austrian woman who was arrested for filming herself masturbating in church? 

Yeah, that's the one. Damn. Anyway, her exploits have led Salon (link below) to explore the long, sordid history of people filming themselves having sex in sites deemed holy. Here are some of the highlights...

The lawn of the Westboro Baptist Church

OK, so they didn’t actually make it inside, but a punk band by the name of Get Shot! managed to film a video of their female bass player masturbating on the lawn of the famously homophobic church. The aforementioned diddler was quoted in a press release as saying, “The Phelps family and Westboro Baptist Church are ridiculous and do nothing except spread hate and cause controversy. As a bisexual woman and the bass player of a ridiculous punk band, I wanted to spread my legs and cause controversy.”

The HMS Bounty

The regal ship is described by the Tampa Bay Times as one of “St. Petersburg’s most family friendly landmarks.” But in 2006 it became the set of “Pirates,” one of the best-selling adult titles ever. In requesting the shoot, the film studio described the movie as “a comedy Sinbad type of film in quest of a magical scepter with lots of special effects and sword fighting with skeletons,” and assured, “As far as rating I would say PG-13.” The owner of the ship, Bob Hansen, told the Times, “They told us the story, we took them at face value, and they lied. What are you going to do? It happens.”

I love that story. It reminds me of Ed Wood, when he dupes the church into funding Plan 9 From Outer Space by telling them that the profits from the film will allow them to make religious films. Good stuff.

Read all of the stories over at Salon.com