Jenna Jameson's mainstream star turn in this week's Zombie Strippers seemed bemusing enough to us a while back — right around the time, probably, that dirty-minded Premiere critic Glenn Kenny undertook his massive new survey of porn-star crossover attempts. We knew a little about the wide trajectories of most performers cited here, including Marilyn Chambers, Traci Lords and obviously Jameson herself. We didn't know, however, the degree to which more worldly veterans like Ron Jeremy were slumming when they first broke into smut:

Ironically, in the era of porno chic that began with 1972's Deep Throat, porn films were stocked with trained performers who weren't getting enough "legit" work. Mike Horner was an operatic tenor. Future director (he's the man behind the camera for Debbie Does Dallas... Again) Paul Thomas was in a touring company of Jesus Christ Superstar.

Ron Jeremy, not yet round enough to be called "The Hedgehog," proudly received his SAG card after doing extra work in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories (he didn't make the final cut). It was not unusual, on a New York City porn set, to see most of the performers doing the New York Times crossword puzzle on their lunch breaks.

Alas, Kenny writes, the industry moved to California, talent (or, rather, multi-talent) waned, and that was the end of that. But we do recognize the cycle coming around again with Judd Apatow's porn-star casting obsession (which Kenny elucidates as well) and the trenchant social and political metaphors surely threading Zombie Strippers. A Law & Order episode can't be far behind, with the SAG-carded Hedgehog as the prime suspect in a porn-shoot murder featuring graphic evidence of a nubile up-and-comer mysteriously fucked to death. Tear down the walls, Hollywood.