Brady Brickner-Wood’s Infinite Scroll column argues the celebrity sex tape no longer works as a fame engine — and that the people still trying to use it don’t understand why it ever did. The template was Kim Kardashian, whose 2007 tape converted a “mousy, dull girl” into the star of one of the defining reality shows of the century. But that path, he argues, can’t be repeated.
The case study is the Newman family — Julian and Jaden Newman, former child basketball prodigies who never made it (Julian topped out at five-foot-seven; Jaden averaged under a point per game at Cal State LA). When an explicit video of Jaden, allegedly from a hacked Snapchat, leaked last month, the family chose to capitalize: podcast tours, live streams, a father joking about the streamer having a threesome with his daughter.
What they miss:
- The old power of the sex tape was its illicitness — “a homemade and secret thing gone public” — and the violation it inflicted: Paris Hilton said being leaked “was like being raped”; Pam Anderson said the stress hurt her pregnancy; Rob Lowe said it pushed him to sobriety.
- Celebrity was never meritocratic. The essay quotes C. Wright Mills (1956): celebrities “occupy positions of prestige because they are celebrated.”
- Kardashian’s remorse — not the tape itself — is what complicated her persona and deepened her humanity. That was the actual career move.
- OnlyFans changed the economics: Sophie Rain and Camilla Araujo built multimillion-dollar brands there but aim for life beyond the platform. “It’s no longer life-ending to have your intimate moments leaked.”
The closing line does the work: “once a sex tape is actively promoted and bragged about, it is no longer a sex tape; it is simply pornography.” The Newmans are selling pornography and calling it a scandal — and the scandal is what made the old model work.