Entertainer’s Sex Tapes: A Desperate Cry For Help or Great Shameless Promotion?

Ever since the advent of the handheld video camera; people everywhere have been finding their inner actor or actress. ABC even devoted a really stupid show to it; with TV tool Bob Saget's “America’s Funniest Home Videos”. Even though Saget is rebuilding his image into one of foul mouthed comic; the image of the home video is one of all sorts of hijinks, funny and embarassing.

It seems like anytime a musician wants to put their face in front of a video camera; it’s to make a new video, and I am not talking about a video for MTV or VH1. The chic new way for someone to get their name in the press is to make a sex tape, and show the entertainer, warts and all (literally).

The latest round of Sex Tape Mania happened last week where a tape with Kid Rock and four strippers surfaced, with a preview clip on the internet. This video included a prolonged cameo from former Creed lead singer Scott Stapp. According to reports; Rock and Stapp are pretty close to one another while “spending” time with the girls in the bus. Now, Rock is denying any responsibility in the release of the tape; blaming Stapp for being an “idiot” and “perhaps releasing the tape on his own”. In what is to be the most obvious statement all year; Rock also goes on to say that he was most likely drunk when the camera was rolling. Rock being drunk is like Michael Jordan scoring 40 points a game; it’s just a given.

Meanwhile, suspicions are all around for the release of this game, and signs point to Stapp. Since the breakup of Creed; Stapp has turned into a raging alcoholic, regularly is in trouble and making an ass of himself. Recently, he married a model on a Saturday, and got booted off a plane in Los Angeles for being drunk on a Sunday. His solo album, “The Great Divide”, has been DOA on the charts since its debut in November. With a tour coming out (including a March 10th date in Detroit), now seems like the perfect time for Stapp to get his name in the press for something. What other way to get some cool, street cred points than by releasing a sex tape, right?

Wrong.

Stapp is becoming one of many entertainers that may think this is a way to bleed a few more minutes out of his 15 minutes of fame; and will hopefully sell a few more albums and a few more concert tickets. It is an obvious case of shameless promotion in an attempt to save Stapp’s once bright career. And including Rock, whose career continues to stay solid, is a cheap ploy to make it seem like they are friends, when that is the farthest thing from the truth.

On Howard Stern’s show on Sirius on Tuesday, Rock seemed as if he wanted to keep as much distance between himself and Stapp as possible. For Rock and even for Stapp, these tapes won’t be “image breakers”. Rock will still be a likeable drunk party guy, and Stapp will still be a sloppy drunk and blowhard.

In the past few years, some others haven’t had as much success with shaking their images, because of a sex tape: Remember Fred Durst’s little tryst will a girl on his camera phone? Only one word describes that 4 minute ordeal: Gross…

The R. Kelly sex tape not only was gross, but it was criminal. Not that I saw it or anything; but peeing on a 15 year old girl is not only a sick fetish, it will get your ass put on trial for lewd conduct and statutory rape. But, somehow, R. Kelly still has a career. Go figure…

And the granddaddy of all sex tapes; Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee. Never has romance been so vile and white trash. I never heard the phrase “I f---ing love you so much!” used so frequently. But in a shocking turn of events; the tape made them more popular than ever. So, sometimes, the sex tapes do work.

But for Scott Stapp, it seems like a desperate cry for help and the lowest common denominator way to promote an album and a tour. But this is the same guy who wrote “With Arms Wide Open”, so I wasn’t expecting anything classier…

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