Dead and White

I keep coming back to this film, some 17 years after I first saw it, for the script, the cast, the acting and even the background music. This Lorimar TV flick must have been ahead of its time in 1988, as the story of 17-year-old Pauleen Anderson, who, wanting to grow up faster than she knows how, leaves home and becomes in turn a centerfold, a porn star, a cocaine abuser and finally a suicide when things go wrong. I think the producers and writers try to take aim at the pornography industry for the sleazy business it is, but this girl's impatience with life and desire to "have it all" the fast and easy way seem just as much to blame for what happened to her. Jonna Lee is convincing in every way as a natural beauty who is not mature enough to handle what she's gotten herself into. Melinda Dillon is memorable as the disapproving mother who understands neither her daughter's restlessness nor how the high-paying porno business would prove as addictive as cocaine to a young girl with nothing to sell but her looks. John Pleshette is also good as the older man who's finally found the centerfold girlfriend he's wanted all his life, only to lose her to his own tragic flaw - being a cocaine dealer headed for prison. No matter how many times I see this film I'm moved by the way it unfolds relentlessly toward its inevitable tragic end. Even the touching opening and closing theme music strikes home. Knowing that this fictionalized account mirrors the life and death of real-life porn star Colleen Applegate only makes it more compelling.

This 1988 made for t.v. movie was based on the life and ultimate suicide of Colleen Applegate, a young woman from Minnesota who went to Hollywood at the age of 18 with dreams of stardom, became a porn star under the name of "Shauna Grant" and then returned to her hometown two years later to be buried, a tragic suicide at the age of 20.

This movie is a fictionalized account of her life and death although apparently her parents did cooperate in the making of this film.

Jonna Lee portrays "Pauline Anderson", the fictionalized version of Colleen. She overacts at times, but otherwise does a competent job of portraying the innocence and then gradual freefall of a young girl who gets ensnared into the adult entertainment industry through cocaine and big money. Melinda Dillon portrays her mother, and does a good job of conveying her character's devastation and shame at her daughter's choice of career, and eventual destruction.

I think what gave this movie more poignancy to me was the fact that it was based on a true story, not just some hack writer's imagination working overtime. How many thousands of young girls go to Hollywood each year with the hopes of breaking into the movies, only to fall into porn, with devastating results? It's a chilling thought, and Colleen's suicide is a reminder of this.

I saw this on the True Romance channel today and thought it was not bad at all, typical of the Made-for-TV movies of the 80s. Joanna Lee plays the part of Pamela Lee, a porn actress who killed herself at the age of 20 after heavy cocaine addiction with her young life filled with misfortunes. Like many, she came from the rural midwest and was attracted to the bright lights of LA hoping to make it as a legit model only to pose nude and end up in porn. It is really a sad and moving story, well directed and acted. Joanna Lee does an excellent job of portraying this poor young girl. Ms. Lee made only a few pictures

This is a movie that could have been tawdry and exploitative, and indeed, I recall reading that the parents of Colleen Applegate (whose life this is loosely based on) were displeased with it, saying it made the pornographers look like they were just running a business and Colleen got into trouble on her own. It's not quite that simple in the movie.

The acting is good all around. Jonna Lee is convincing in all three wildly different stages of the Colleen character's (here she's called Pauleen) story: naive virgin, confident nude model, and decimated, has-been, weary porn star. Her hysterical, desperate tirade at the end is particularly noteworthy; despite the many stupid decisions she's made, in the end, you feel for her. She was really just a kid, after all.

I remember quite clearly the flurry of Los Angeles news reports regarding the self-inflicted death of adult film actress Shauna Grant whose real name was Colleen Applegate. Oh yes, they made a BIG deal about "the pornography business" and how "degrading it is" and how "this always happens" to "those kind of people" when Shauna was found with a self inflicted gunshot wound and later died.

This TV picture is based 'somewhat' on Shauna's life, but what makes this quickly made TV semi-bio pic a head above others is that it never holds the Adult/Porno Film industry totally responsible, instead it showed how a young woman was seduced into the glitz and glamor of being in entertainment.

The one line which is so important is when the character in this film, Pauleen Anderson, goes into a Los Angeles restaurant with a man who wants to be her "manager" which he tells her is much more than her "agent" and tells her, "It doesn't matter what kind of films you make as long as they are profitable." That's the seduction, much more than the adult films and the drugs.

Here's another young, naive woman with a seemingly All-American Mid-West perfect family, falling into "the trap". This movie made you think it could be Shauna Grant, who was on everyone's minds at the time, or as the years pass and they still show this film, could be any young woman. She overindulged, she had no real friends, she lied to herself, she had talent, she wanted to succeed on her own, she did degrade herself, she really wasn't mature enough to make good decisions for herself and when she thought she could hide under another ANOTHER self, she found out it was still her. The older man she thought she could be with, left her (albeit because of prison) like all the other men in her life. And to top it off, he ended up not "trusting" her -- like all the other men in her life. This all added up to a tragic ending of...a life.

For its time, its subject matter and companion piece to all of us who were wondering about Shauna Grant's situation/life, "Shattered Innocence" is a very good effort for the indulgent 80's if you remember or know what the origin of the film was for. As years go by, it will take on a different view for all who watch.

Since Shauna's tragedy...there are still more of the same in a line of young women to follow such as -- Gia, Savannah, etc., etc. different entertainment industry avenues but basically the same old story. And we'll be seeing more TV/Feature Film/Cable stories about these ladies as well.

I guess the point is to watch these films and make sure its not our daughters, or daughters of those we know, that may eventually end up in one.