What's with all the sex tapes?

                           PopTower

One of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, Danielle Staub, is going to have her privates revealed in yet another sex tape among those that are flooding the market. Sex tapes seem to be one way people fuel their publicity machines and keep themselves in the public eye these days.

In an interview with Star, Steve Zalewski, 27, whom Danielle dated and dumped on the reality hit last week, says his 46-year-old ex was sex-crazed. 

Now, after a bad breakup, he says, due in part to her always borrowing money from him. "She tries to look affluent," he says. "But sometimes she couldn't pay the household bills or buy food. Even then, she'd want to borrow 20 grand from me to buy jewelry!"

"She cost me so much money, why shouldn't I make a few dollars?" According to Star, her goal is to appear in Playboy, so the sex tape could only further her career.

So does everyone have to have a sex tape to get attention or for extra cash? There's even a whole website devoted to the subject of celebrity sex tapes for sale. 

Here are some celebrities whose sex tapes have been part of their publicity machine:

• Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee: Had various interludes from their   honeymoon placed online by Internet Entertainment Group in 1998 as one of the earliest internet celebrity sex tapes.
• Pamela Anderson and Bret Michaels (singer of the band Poison) had a sex tape released as a DVD on 7 September 2005. The footage had been circulating on the internet for many years.
• Britney Spears is featured in one involving her ex, KFed.
• Dustin Diamond of Saved by the Bell fame authorized the release of a 40-minute sex tape in 2006 in the hopes that it would bring in profits and provide a boost to his career.
• Fred Durst, the frontman for the band Limp Bizkit, had a video of him and an unknown woman having sex leaked onto the Internet by a repairman who had been repairing his computer.] He later sued the website Gawker and nine others for $70 million dollars for publishing it.
• Tonya Harding the naughty ex-skater and her husband Jeff Gillooly had a sex tape that was leaked onto the internet and subsequently became so widely available that the couple decided to legitimately release it on their own. It is commercially sold by Penthouse Home Video as the "Wedding Night" tape, although the wedding gown was actually a Halloween costume.
• Keeley Hazell of Page 3 Idol fame, had a 10 minute sex tape featuring herself and her ex-boyfriend released in early January 2007.
• Paris Hilton and then-boyfriend Rick Salomon recorded themselves having sex in a hotel room, shot in night-vision. Hilton initially attempted to stop the distribution of the tape, but later agreed to its release. She now receives profits from the tape. The notoriety surrounding the tape only served to increase Hilton's fame. This footage, along with additional full-color footage, was released commercially under the title 1 Night in Paris.
• Kim Kardashian confirmed the existence of a sex tape of her made by then-boyfriend Ray J. She threatened to take legal action to block its planned distribution by Vivid Video.
• Chyna and fellow professional wrestler Sean Waltman (aka X-Pac) appeared in a home sex tape sold under the title 1 Night in China. Unusually, the tape was not accidentally leaked, but was actually solicited to pornographic film distributors by the duo, possibly in an attempt at a career boost.
• Jenna Lewis, a contestant on Survivor, had her wedding night sex tape released. It features 42 minutes of sex with her husband, model Travis Wolfe, in a Las Vegas, Nevada hotel room.
• Rob Lowe faced controversy in the 1980s; he taped himself having sex with two young women, one of whom was underage.
• Nicole Narain and Colin Farrell have a 13-minute sex tape. Farrell confirmed the existence of the tape and successfully obtained a court order blocking its distribution, but in January 2006, copies of the tape appeared on the Internet.
• Kid Rock and Scott Stapp (former singer of the band Creed) appear in a sex tape from 1999 where the two engage in sex acts with four groupies. California pornography company Red Light District planned to release the tape in 2006, but one of the women involved filed to block it. Ritchie also filed an injunction, called Stapp an "idiot", and blamed him for the tape's leak.
• Jessica Sierra, a former contestant on American Idol and Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, had a sex tape that is scheduled to be released.
• Verne Troyer, actor and stuntman, is currently suing over the release of a sex tape between himself and a model, which he claims was stolen and is in the hands of the same film producer that released Paris Hilton's sex tape.

And what list would be complete without Madonna and Angelina Jolie, who both have sex tapes to be bought and sold by the general public?

But it is refreshing to know that the Rihanna sex tape was a hoax. A sex tape allegedly featuring pop singer Rihanna is almost certainly a fake, after it was revealed it was a doctored clip starring a well known porn actress. Internet reports suggested the clip, a 13-second film modified to look like a night vision video similar to Paris Hilton's infamous sex tape.

A news website reported it was not Rihanna in the clip, but lookalike porn star Lavish Styles. 

See my article: Sex-tapes: Rihanna, Paris, Pam.