Editing Traci Lords (section)

=== 1984–1986: Pornography career ===
At age 15,<ref>[[Traci Lords: Underneath It All]]</ref> Lords became pregnant by her high school boyfriend. Afraid of her mother's reaction, she went to Hayes for help. He arranged for her to have an [[abortion]] without her mother's knowledge.<ref>{{harvnb|Lords|2003|p=54}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Jung|2010|p=182}}</ref> Looking for a job to get some money, she was introduced to Hayes' friend and started working for her as a babysitter. The woman offered to improve Lords's job opportunities by helping her get a fake driver's license. She provided Lords with a new birth certificate on condition that if she were ever caught she would say that she had stolen the phony identification.<ref>{{harvnb|Lords|2003|p=56}}</ref> Lords now had the alias Kristie Elizabeth Nussman and a new driver's license that stated she was 20 rather than 15 years old. In February 1984, she answered a newspaper advertisement for [[Jim South]]'s World Modeling Talent Agency. Posing as her stepfather, Hayes drove her to the agency.<ref name=krajicek/> After signing a contract, she began working as a nude model and appeared in magazines such as ''[[Velvet (magazine)|Velvet]]'', ''[[Juggs]]'', and ''[[Club (magazine)|Club]]''. During August, when she was selected to model for ''[[Penthouse (magazine)|Penthouse]]'' magazine's September 1984 15th-anniversary issue, Lords was asked to choose a [[stage name]]. According to a 1988 interview, she chose Traci—one of the popular names she had longed for growing up—and Lords, after the actor [[Jack Lord]], since she was a fan of the television series ''[[Hawaii Five-O (1968 TV series)|Hawaii Five-O]]'', in which he played [[Steve McGarrett]].<ref name="interviewmagazine.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/culture/new-again-traci-lords|title=New Again: Traci Lords|date=July 26, 2017|website=Interview Magazine}}</ref> ("Tracy Lord" was also the name of [[Katharine Hepburn]]'s character in the 1940 film ''[[The Philadelphia Story (film)|The Philadelphia Story]]''.)

Lords made the first of many porn movies in 1984, when she appeared in ''What Gets Me Hot!'' alongside [[Tom Byron]], who later became her boyfriend off{{nbhyph}}screen.<ref name=skinflicks>Jennings, David. (2000). [https://books.google.com/books?id=3VCVm7sc5JsC ''Skinflicks: The Inside Story of the X-Rated Video Industry'']. [[AuthorHouse]]. {{ISBN|978-1587211843}}. Google Book Search. Retrieved on March 14, 2015.</ref> She first appeared only in a non-sexual role but was later replaced with a hardcore scene. In her next movie, ''Those Young Girls'', she appeared in a sex role alongside<!--with?--> [[Harry Reems]] and [[Ginger Lynn]]. After turning 16 and appearing with [[John Leslie (director)|John Leslie]] (an actor 23 years her senior) in the porno parody ''[[Talk Dirty to Me Part III]]'' (which won the [[AVN Award]] for the best movie), Lords was hailed as the "Princess of Porn".<ref name=krajicek/> She became one of the highest-paid porn actresses of that time, earning more than $1,000 a day. Besides her work in porn, she also appeared in the music video for "[[Gimme Gimme Good Lovin']]" by the heavy metal band [[Helix (band)|Helix]]. Lords continued making more movies until late 1984 when she tried to quit the industry at age 16, but returned a few months later. Just before her 17th birthday, she met Stuart Dell, who became her boyfriend, manager, and business partner - Dell used the pseudonym Steven (or Stephen) Cartier. Together they formed the Traci Lords Company. Dell and Lords made a distribution deal with Sy Adler, an industry veteran who ran Vantage International, in which they would produce three movies for the company. In March 1986, the first TLC feature was released; titled ''[[Traci Takes Tokyo]]'', it was shot in Tokyo around Christmas Day 1985. The second, ''Beverly Hills Copulator'', was released afterwards, but the third movie, ''Screamer'', was shelved.<ref name=skinflicks/><ref name=popfiction>[http://popfiction.com/handsoftime/html/she/traci.HTML "The Traci Lords Story"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304214631/http://popfiction.com/handsoftime/html/she/traci.HTML |date=March 4, 2016 }}. She: Revolutionary Tough Girl Culture. Retrieved on March 14, 2015.</ref>

During late May 1986 (around three weeks after Lords' 18th birthday), authorities were informed that she had been underage when she appeared in the porn movies. She had lied (according to Lords, it was a "white lie") to law enforcement, photographers, producers, directors, co-workers, and the general public for two years. The owners of her movie agency and X-Citement Video, Inc. were arrested (see ''[[United States v. X-Citement Video, Inc.]]''). She was taken into [[protective custody]] and hired high-profile lawyer [[Leslie Abramson]]. On July 10, [[district attorney]]'s investigators searched Lords' [[Redondo Beach, California|Redondo Beach]] home as well as the [[Sun Valley, Los Angeles|Sun Valley]] offices of Vantage International Productions (a major producer of adult movies) and the [[Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles|Sherman Oaks]] offices of modeling agent Jim South. South and other industry officials said that Lords, who was seeking employment, provided a California driver's license, a U.S. passport, and a birth certificate, which stated that her name was Kristie Nussman and gave a birth date of November 17, 1962. Leslie Jay, a spokeswoman for'' Penthouse'' publisher [[Bob Guccione]], also said Lords showed identification indicating that she was older than 18 before the illicit photos for the September 1984 issue were taken.<ref name=palermo>Palermo, Dave. "[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-18-me-16585-story.html Sex Films Pulled; Star Allegedly Too Young]", ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', July 18, 1986.</ref> When investigators used Lords' fake birth certificate and fake state identification cards to locate the real Kristie Nussman, Nussman said that her birth certificate had been stolen a few years earlier and that an impostor had apparently forged her name on official forms. Two adults who knew Lords, but who requested anonymity, said they saw her picture in the adult magazine ''Velvet'' during July 1984 and telephoned the district attorney's office to inform authorities that she was underage, but that an investigator told them, "There isn't anything we can do about it."<ref>Soble, Ronald L. and Feldman, Paul. "[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-07-19-me-26350-story.html Sex Film Star Not Facing Charges, Reiner Says]", ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', July 19, 1986.</ref><ref>Murphy, Kim. "[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-09-30-me-3255-story.html U.S. Loses Round in Traci Lords Case]", ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', September 30, 1988.</ref>

On July 17, 1986, video rental shops and [[adult movie theater]]s in the US scrambled to remove from their inventory all [[Hardcore pornography|hardcore]] material featuring Lords in order to avoid prosecution for distributing child pornography. John Weston, attorney of the [[Adult Film Association of America]], said distributors should withdraw any movie made before May 1986, featuring Lords "in sexual conduct, no matter how briefly." The withdrawal of Lords' movies from the market cost the industry millions of dollars.<ref name=palermo/><ref>Kolson, Ann. "[https://archive.today/20150315212500/http://articles.philly.com/1986-07-19/news/26098841_1_adult-films-video-association-film-producers Shock: The Porn Queen Was Just 15]", ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'', July 19, 1986.</ref><ref>Polman, Dick. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20150330075032/http://articles.philly.com/1986-07-25/news/26097879_1_industry-video-software-dealers-association-traci-lords Traci Lords: Fallout From A Porn Scandal]", ''[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]'', July 25, 1986.</ref> Government prosecutors declared that Lords was a victim of a manipulative industry, maintaining that she was drugged and made to do non-consensual acts.<ref>Murphy, Kim. "[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-03-06-me-5028-story.html Three in Traci Lords Sex Film Case Indicted]", ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', March 6, 1987.</ref> Industry insiders, including [[Ron Jeremy]], [[Tom Byron]], [[Peter North (actor)|Peter North]], and Ginger Lynn said they never saw her use drugs and that she was always fully aware of her actions. While most of Lords' movies were permanently removed from distribution in the United States, several were re-edited to remove her scenes (such as ''[[Kinky Business]]'' and ''[[New Wave Hookers]]'') or, in a few cases, had new footage filmed with a different actress playing her part (as in ''[[Talk Dirty to Me Part III]]''). Her only porn movie legally available in the United States is ''[[Traci, I Love You]]'', filmed in Cannes, France<ref>{{cite web |url=http://people.com/celebrity/traci-cleans-up/feed/ |title=Traci Cleans Up |author=<!--staff--> |date=November 27, 1998 |work=People |access-date=December 5, 2016}}</ref> two days after her 18th birthday.<ref name=popfiction/>