Jennifer Lopez and ousted Miss California USA Carrie Prejean are the latest stars to find themselves caught in a sex tape scandal.
Given the bad luck of Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian and many others, why do celebs still make sex tapes in the first place?
“You like the spotlight. You may have some narcissistic tendencies, and you’re more likely to have an exhibitionist side,” Dr. Jenn Berman, a sex expert and licensed therapist, tells Usmagazine.com.
In an interview on the Today show Tuesday, Prejean said she appeared solo in her tape (filmed when she was a teen) and that it was meant for an ex-boyfriend who was away. Meanwhile, Lopez’s first husband, Ojani Noa, claims he owns 11 hours of home video footage involving sexual situations from their marriage (a California judge has granted a temporary restraining order barring its release).
Psychotherapist Rhonda Findling, author of Don’t Call That Man!, tells Us celebs are being “unrealistic” if they think footage will never surface.
See photos of today’s top news stories
“They are naive and in denial,” Findling says. “It should be considered self-destructive. They shouldn’t have the video camera running if they’re having sex with somebody.”
For those who feel the need to film, Findling advises doing it with “somebody you can trust, who doesn’t have a track record of being deceitful or damaging other people’s careers or being manipulative.”
Although it likely isn’t necessarily legally binding, Findling also recommends signing “a contract or a letter of agreement beforehand saying you can’t release it.”
She also encourages the participants to tape and watch footage immediately — and then delete it.
“If you cannot control yourself, maintain control of it,” adds Berman, who hosts a love and sex radio show on Sirius. “Film it in a format that is not made to copy, release or disseminate easily. Record it onto one DVD and keep it under lock and key. That way, it is less likely to get out than if it’s a file sent on your iPhone.”
If a celebrity, like Prejean, made a sex tape before they became famous, there’s little they can do but “pray a lot” to keep it from being released publicly, Berman says.
Said Berman, “If you’ve made a sex tape and you’re a celebrity, it will come out.”
