It’s fitting that a trailer for Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience has finally shown up this week. Just a few days ago, the film’s star, Sasha Grey, was being compared to the late Melanie Chambers in obits for and tributes to the latter actress. Now we get a better look at Grey’s crossover into non-porn films, which in the spot is called her “mainstream debut.” That might be a poor choice of wording, especially if Grey ever continues her attempt at a mixed career by showing up in a Michael Bay movie (unless its his ’small’ project) or something similarly, actually mainstream. Sure, thanks to the sexy premise (though no promise of actual sex), The Girlfriend Experience should be more popular than Soderbergh’s previous little HD movie, Bubble, but it’s very likely to be just as dull (at least it fascinated Karina at Sundance).

Check out a roundup of what bloggers are saying about the trailer, which just made me very sleepy, after the jump:

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Marilyn Chambers was the first porn star I knew by name. My mom’s boyfriend had an autographed copy of “My Story,” her ‘erotobiography,’ which wasn’t shielded from my young eyes, and I recall being told that she lived in my neighborhood. The latter part was probably false (and/or remembered incorrectly), though she was apparently born in my hometown, so who knows?

In any event, I never did see any of her films (I swear!), not even her early non-porn titles, which include Herbert Ross’ The Owl and the Pussycat and David Cronenberg’s Rabid. According to her Wikipedia page, she might have pursued more of a mainstream acting career if Hollywood hadn’t been so nervous, and she had even recently appeared in some more non-pornographic films, such as 2008’s Solitaire. Now, on the day after her death, I’m wondering if she could have had another life in the movies had she not been convinced to star in Behind the Green Door.

I also wonder if today it’s any easier for a woman to find a balance between the two film industries. For instance, will it be possible for Sasha Grey to continue finding dramatic roles after starring in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience?

Here are some quotes from the blogs that are paying respect — or at least some sort of notice — today:

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Are you one of the many sci-fi and comic book geeks who’d be more interested in Push were it not for Dakota Fanning? Sure, the precocious child star is now a teen actress (she’s about to turn 15), yet that probably makes you even more worried about her appearance in the movie. But what can you do? She’s literally everywhere this week – voicing the title character in the animated Coraline and starring in two new video releases, Hounddog and The Secret Life of Bees, both of which were released Tuesday. In the tradition of child actors continuing careers into adolescence, it’s only a matter of time before she ruins a movie that would have been better without her.

We’ll have to wait until this weekend to see if that time is now, with Push, but in the meantime let’s take a look at some of the past offenders in this tradition. Most of the following former child actors (our definition: actors that began their career below the age of 13) have done great things in their adulthood, but each has done at least one film that could have been better without him or her. You may disagree with some of these picks, and you may think we’ve forgotten some (was Christian Bale really the worst part of The Dark Knight? did Mary-Kate Olsen’s disturbing kiss with Ben Kingsley take away from The Wackness?), so do share your own thoughts on former child stars below. We just ask that you keep your comments somewhat tasteful and law-abiding.
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