It’s hard to believe sex tapes predated reality television, so intertwined have the two become in the last couple of decades. Long ago, stars made sex tapes and tried to keep them secret, but celebutantes like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian have reversed that cowgirl: Now sex tapes make stars. Tommy Lee and Pamela’s sex tape is practically an Old Hollywood A-list production at this point. Pam and Tommy’s tape seemed less like hard-core porn and more like a real home movie that just happened to include a lot of sex-having, mostly because they were so obviously in love. And now playing on home computers across the land: a clip of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta star Mimi Faust and Nikko Smith having vigorous athletic shower sex in their newly released sex tape Mimi & Nikko: Scandal in Atlanta.
The first rule of successful sex tapes: You’ve gotta have a gimmick. A good sex tape will have an obvious talking point that people can latch on to and discuss at the watercooler (on the Internet). In the Pam and Tommy tape, Tommy famously steers a boat with his penis. In Mimi & Nikko, Mimi at one point grips the shower rod like a pull-up bar. Sure, there’s regular naked bedroom stuff, too, but the shower rod has become the breakout star. Reports of heavy-duty shower rods selling out at home goods stores are rampant. (The tape was filmed at a hotel shower. No stunt poles were involved, as far as we know.)
Viewers of Love & Hip-Hop are already familiar with star Faust and boyfriend Nikko, but now the whole world knows her name, or at least her boobs. Faust recorded the sex tape for Vivid Video’s imprint label Vivid Celeb, which boasts “22 CELEBRITY SEX TAPES AND COUNTING.” The company’s most recent smash was Farrah Abraham: Backdoor Teen Mom, starring the MTV reality star and porn star James Deen. Vivid Celeb’s tapes are thoroughly professional, filmed to look like amateur “caught in the act” work, but with the requisite classical porn close-ups and heavy-breathing dialogue. Vivid Celeb’s release of Kim Kardashian Superstar remains their biggest-selling sex tape ever, and rumors still persist that Kris Jenner arranged Kim’s deal with Vivid herself to make her daughter that much more famous. Almost all of Vivid Celeb’s stars are females, but they also have the Tom Sizemore sex tape, Vince Neil (with porn star Janine), and some footage purported but not proved to be Jimi Hendrix. There are also tapes from Montana Fishburne, Tila Tequila, and Carlos Danger’s pen pal Sydney Leathers in a tape called Weiner and Me.
Faust has gotten a lot of criticism for releasing her tape, particularly because she’s a mother. (She has a 3-year-old daughter.) Faust defended the tape, pointing out that she and Smith are “two consenting adults” who “didn’t do anything wrong.” Retired porn actress Sinnamon Love chimed in to defend Faust: “The people who assume that you can’t raise kids while still working in the sex industry are baffling to me. It’s not like you’re bringing your work home with you and you’re hanging from the chandeliers with porn laying the house around for your kids to see.”
Mimi’s onscreen rival Joseline Hernandez subtweeted her feelings: “If you going to fuck on camera at least be a freak not a boring 45 year ol lady. What they got this hoe under. Granny porn?” Faust shot back that Hernandez was jealous, saying, “She’s mad because there’s no shine on her.” Fellow L&HH:A star and perennial rap-game punch line Benzino said: “Shout out to Mimi Faust. To each to their own. Only God can judge.”
The new season of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta premieres May 5. I’ll be watching. Won’t everyone now?