Titular Stars

by Daisy Maryles -- Publishers Weekly, 8/30/2004

How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale by Jenna Jameson, from Regan Books, makes it onto the PW chart with 100,000 copies in print after three trips to press. Jameson is touring through August (the big book chains wouldn't host her, so many of her signings are at Virgin Megastores) and has drawn huge crowds. At Joseph-Beth booksellers in Cleveland, Ohio, and Lexington, Ky., more than 1,000 people showed up at her events. A recap from Joseph-Beth noted the diversity of the crowd, "from just a handful of truly freaky weirdo-types to Grandmas." One man brought his three-month-old son, Ridley, and got Jameson to hold him for a photo op and to sign the book for him. The Joseph-Beth folk figured: "When this kid is 18, he will think that he has the coolest dad on the planet!"

And then there's Pamela Anderson, whose bestselling novel, Star, is pitched by Atria as "What Happens When the A-list Meets the D-Cup." Anderson is enjoying week #3 on PW's fiction list and is up to 140,000 copies in print. Her tour has also brought out the crowds. Atria reports that at her New York signings, there were fans who had driven 10 hours to meet the thespian author. At other signings, she met soldiers who suggested she send books to Iraq. So she bought (through Amazon.com) 100 copies of the book (Atria then matched that number), and all were sent to the USO with handwritten notes.