The Escort 2

I liked The Escort 2 a great deal, thanks to a literate and quite revealing script by Melissa Monet which hammers away at the message of the film regarding prostitution.

Director James Avalon spotlights Lily Love in the central role, probably the best of her career so far, as a neophyte call girl earning big bucks but still wet behind the ears, no pun intended.

Her madam is cleverly enacted by Dana DeArmond, who Avalon brought back in the next episode of this series in an entirely different role (as a bored housewife who turns to hooking in her spare time). Love the hooker is a bit tentative and unresponsive with client Marcus London, who, at these high prices, tells her off nastily and insultingly. Monet's story has her ending up in his lair once again later in the film for proper symmetry in the film's structure.

London lives in the most popular contemporary porn location, the spiral-staircase mansion used for the video "Immoral Proposal" and scores of others, and it adds drama (with excellent lighting effects) for their second showdown. A glimpse of the home's distinctive oval windowed doors is visible on the "Escort 2" DVD box cover.

DeArmond gets to enact a three-way sex scene as she shows Lily the ropes with a client, and diminutive, but same brunette type as the others Lola Foxx is very impressive in the opening porn vignette. Rounding out the cast is more girl-next- door look Presley Hart, who Monet gives the best speech in the show.

Well-delivered by Presley, this soliloquy makes it clear in no uncertain terms that high-toned call girls earning thousands of dollars a pop are in the same racket and doing the same stuff as street whores, and no amount of posturing or putting on airs will change that fact. Lily ends the film with a terrific line: when finally satisfied Marcus remarks "You're not a whore", she retorts "Oh yes I am, and a damn fine one at that!".

This pride of ownership reminded me of the age-old debate concerning whether porn actors are actually prostitutes. I would say so, especially given the 21st Century circumstances where most are called on to do relatively little acting in the gonzo & even "parody" product that dominates the field, let alone the fact that many advertise "escort" on their resumes. The Industry refuses to own up to this fact, however, for p.r. reasons.