Late last week, we reported on an exclusive from The National Enquirer that had very solid evidence that Montana Fishburne was a prostitute for over a year before deciding on a porn career that has earned her so many recent headlines. The Enquirer had quotes from Montana’s former lawyer admitting that she gave a guilty plea to a prostitution charge (which she tried to claim was for “loitering”) and adding that she could go to jail for violating parole on that conviction by appearing in an adult film. They also had quotes from a hooker who claims to have known Montana. This hooker said that Montana’s boyfriend is actually her pimp and that he “turned her out” in order to make money for the both of them while Montana was living rent free in his family’s home.
18 year-old Montana has presented her whole adult film career as some kind of empowering personal choice. As many of you have pointed out, it’s not “normal” or within the range of regular teenage sexuality to sell your body and publicize tapes of yourself having sex. It points to some kind of abuse, but that’s a damning conclusion to jump to and of course there are exceptions of young girls who chose careers in the sex industry without those kind of bad experiences. Whatever this girl’s reason or background may be, she’s sticking to her story and it’s not fair to blame anyone, including her famous dad, for the choices she’s made.
Speaking of her famous dad, actor Laurence Fishburne, Montana has finally talked to him after letting him find out through the press that she put out a porn DVD. He doesn’t want anything to do with her, and sounds particularly upset that she’s trading on the family name:
Montana Fishburne tells TMZ.com she phoned her estranged dad Laurence after her adult film was released last week but — surprise! — he didn’t want to talk to her.
According to Montana, 18, her dad said, “I’m not going to speak with you ’till you turn your life around.”
Montana says Laurence also told her, “You embarrassed me.”
How Montana Fishburne got started making porn
According to Montana, Laurence said, “You used your last name. No one uses their real name in porn.”
Her acclaimed actor-dad Laurence, 49, was nominated for an Oscar in 1994 (for What’s Love Got to Do With It?), but Montana recently told UsMagazine.com she wasn’t interested in following in his footsteps.
“I wasn’t really into mainstream acting,” she told Us. “People would ask me, ‘Do you want to get into acting? Do you want to be an actress?’ and I would say, straight up, ‘No.’…I knew I wanted to do adult [films].”
Filming herself having sex on camera for the first time at age 18, she told Us, “I liked it. I was like, ‘Wow, now I really want to do it. [I] just took it from there. I became really passionate after my first at-home video.”
[From US Weekly]
What can you say about this – I guess I don’t blame him. Fishburne reportedly tried to pay Vivid a million dollars to block the release of Montana’s sex tape but was unsuccessful. He’s probably beyond hurt that she did this, and you would assume there’s a lot of guilt there too. I wouldn’t assume that it was warranted, though.
Laurence Fishburne and Montana are shown in 2006. Credit: WENN.com. Other images are screenshots from Montana’s interview with E! Online.
If his stance & words as reported are true, he doesn’t come across as a great father. Of course I am not going to say that he is to blame that she is doing porn, but he IS to blame for not communicating properly. If his attitude is to stop communication and refuse to discuss, is it really a surprise that his daughter didn’t know how to communicate any better and just let them find out via the media?
Also, what parent is concerned about the bleeding family name over his daughter’s wellbeing? If this was my daughter the first thing I would do would be to sit down and have a long discussion with her – not telling her & issuing ultimatums only, but LISTENING to what she says too. Just sayin.
If my daughter or son decided to do this I would fight it. I would listen but you know what at the end they would have to choose my decission. Be cause of respect for yourself and for their mother or father. You think you raised and brought up you children to be whores prostitutes?? I will disown and sue her/himfor using my last name. I’d find some one with aids to let her know. Keep messin up, and you will get this
Montana says Laurence also told her, “You embarrassed me.”
uh, that kinda says it all about where daddy’s priorities lie.
Don’t have children because we all know u want ur children to be prostitutes . We knw where ur priorities are. U perv u rapist
Why is this family discussing this in public?
Because a lot of parents go through this.
Here we go with blaming the parents again (BB, not Kaiser). It isn’t like her ‘issues’ have come out of the blue (geddit? haw) if Montana was done for prostitution. There does come a time when you have to say that you cannot support someone’s decisions (in this instance an adult – young yes, but an adult). He cannot *make* her not do this – why do you presume from one set of TMZ reported snippets, voiced by the girl, that he hasn’t done everything he could to help her? From the very little we know of him in this matter, he’s tried to buy the whole thing to quash it – that’s it, since he has the personal respect not to go all Lohan and communicate via TMZ or Radar or something. And that’s all we know. We don’t know her relationship with him, what he’s tried to do with her over a very long period – nothing.
You bet he ought to mention she’s trading on his name and some kind of bastardised version of nepotism. Unless you can point out where on CB et al a newbie to porn has achieved such reportage? Given this looks to me to be partialy from Montana a big exciting F-YOU to her Dad, it’s a relevant part of that conversation.
Oh go on – blame the parent (not the mother though, apparently she’s insufficiently famous). In our excuse driven, no personal fault society, parents are the whipping post. Sometimes deservedly but sometimes completely not. Even the best people can have a kid go off the rails. But go for it BB – that TMZ article said everything you need to know.
Amen.. Good parents are hard to find now a days (:
Has Montana’s mother made any comment on her daughter doing a porn film?
Whether it’s fair or not, I think this whole situation reflects very poorly on Montana’s parents. I’m curious to know where they were when she was shacking up with a pimp. What were they doing about the fact that she was clearly not focussed on furthering her education?
That’s not to say that I excuse her behaviour. She sounds like she is willful and does not have a whole lot of native intelligence. But her dad’s (or parents’) refusal to talk to her now does not say a whole lot of positive things about their parenting style.
if it was his attention she was after…well another epic fail on her part.
Call me crazy but I think this girl is just “simple-minded”. We don’t know how bright she is or isn’t or how she did in school.
My guess is she’s as dumb as a doorknob.
Thank you Lita! I co-sign everything you just said. Not many people have likely heard of Montana Fishbourne before this whole porn sh*t became public (thanks to Montana herself). The fact that it took 18 years before the public has even heard that Lawrence has a daughter is somewhat of a testament that he and Montana’s mother may have lead a low-key life or worked hard to keep their children out of the spotlight. Although Demi Moore moved to Idaho to raise her children, celebrity watchers still knew their names.
I think Montana has been going through problems for quite some time and now that she’s legally an adult, there isn’t much more that her parents can do. My own younger brother, while not a porn actor, acted out huge between the ages fo 13-17. While he was still underage, my mother did everything she could to straighten him up – including 2 yrs in a youth treatment facility. He’s almost 21 and continues to rebel. There’s nothing more we can do as a family so when/if he decides to turn his life around, we’ll be here. In meantime, we’ve been damaged enough. Good luck to Montana’s parents as they deal with the fall out.
Yes, kids from stable families can go off the rails.
But let’s not pretend that it happens as often in stable families with loving mothers and fathers as it does in broken, disfunctional ones.
Sometimes it’s good to trust plain old common sense. Caring and present fathers are as important as caring and present mothers.
@enon-cosign what you wrote.
I think Laurence was making a point by bringing up the fact that she used their last name. Meaning, she used the name to sort of leech off of the publicity. It’s exploitative and pretty messed up. She used the fact that she was “Laurence Fishburne’s daughter” to jump-start her porn career. I’m sure her dad doesn’t want to be connected to that shit and doesn’t seem to have a choice…As far as the communication between them goes-who knows? He may have tried many times to get through to her and finally just hit a wall. She sounds pretty intent on self-destruction.
@Westcoaster- I read some place that the mother isn’t crazy about her doing porn, BUT she supports her daughters decision because she loves her.
I have to say, my mom would be embarrassed if I did porn. I think that is a natural reaction for most parents.
The parents are not together. Haven’t been for quite some time.
Lita and Karen–I totally agree with you! There is only so much a parent (or sister in my case) can do when a son or daughter is hellbent on destroying their life. And if she cared about her parents wouldn’t she have told them before hand and not through the media that she was doing this?
If she’s old enough to do porn, she’s old enough to deal with the consequences.
i think its unfair to blame her father based on what montana is reporting he said. even if those are his words, they are taken out of context. also, they ARE valid point, points that seem like they are responses to something she was saying. hopefully he said more than just what is being reported though.
he could be a terrible father. it would make a lot of sense with what is going on. but its hardly definitive, and there are so many other variables. i am going to withhold any opinion on the matter till more comes out.
@mary jane exactly.
urghh, i can’t stand her anymore.
A whole new meaning to the term FAME-WHORE
Lita – I agree with most of what you’re saying. But I can’t let her parents off the hook either — Montana’s flawed decisions AND “bad” parenting are both at fault. She seems to be acting out, like a cry for help. She’s 18 and is responsible for fixing her own issues now. But one can acknowledge something went terribly wrong with her upbringing.
Why was she prostituting at 17? Where the heck were her parents? Sad that they didn’t know this. Most parents would be up in arms about their 17 year old kid living with a boyfriend, let alone all this other stuff. Correct me if I’m wrong, but can’t you send a wayward kid to bootcamp at that age? If they are out of control, that seems better than kicking them out and letting them roam the streets.
Now, if Montana was upwards of 22 year old, I wouldn’t even bring up any of this because at that age her parents can’t do anything legally. But Montana’s been involved in this mess for over a year — you do your best to reach them when they are underage. It sounds like that didn’t happen. I don’t know what the mother’s story is. But it sounds like Laurence was an absent/estranged parent and “now” they’re worried about being embarrassed. A john could have easily killed their daughter — prostituting is dangerous — at least she’s still alive.
Anyway, I do agree that even the best parents can have kids that go off the rails. Montana’s destructive decisions have led to where she is now. To me it seems like she needed guidance and her parents weren’t involved the last year they could make legal decisions for her.
What’s done is done. Going forward she *can* make better decisions, but I don’t think she will. From the quotes I’ve read from her she seems immature and not quite “right” in the head.
Poor parenting? Please, if the child has a will, she has a way. There are plenty of people I know who gave their kids everything and they turned out horrible spoiled brats. If they don’t listen to you yet you continue to enable them, aren’t the parents still at fault? Hypocrites. We don’t know what went down so don’t take it up the ahole and think you can do a better job at raising her. Some parents are lucky to have great kids.
I totally agree that none of us knows enough about her or the dynamic in her family to judge or put blame anywhere, we are only seeing the end point of what has been a long history between them..who knows what the real deal is.
The part of the equation that is questionable to me is that she is using her father’s name to publicize herself and launch her porn career.
It seems like a very aggressive move to use his fame for her benefit, so I understand his counter reaction to her using his name.
If she really wanted to take responsibility for her decision and feels empowered in her choice to expose herself on camera & as a prostitute..why is she making it all about daddy in the process???
Maybe she’s not dealing from a full deck…
I’ve noticed that in some pix her nose is lopsided….I mean VERY lopsided.
It may be that she has a birth injury or congenital abnormalities that affect IQ.
If this is the case, her parents’ hands-off approach is quite sad. Sigh.
I too agree with most of what you say Iggles :o)
Clearly something is not-ideal here. I’d always default assume, in any scenario, that things could have been handled better with 20/20 hindsight. What I have seen on numerous occasions though is kids of nice, normal families with siblings all utterly nicely average (you know what I mean) just different. With the parents trying their hardest and getting nowhere if the child (as Montana was until very recently) is sufficiently wilful. What surprised me though is how little ability the parents had to force real straightened rehabilitation (I don’t mean drugs, I mean enforced personal care – like live-in or otherwise therapy situations, education or such). It really amazed me since the people I’m referring to were/are minors. Obviously this if different in different jurisdictions. But this ‘rights of the child’ thing has sadlt had this unintended and almost unavoidable very negative real-world consequence.
As far as I have read, we know very little about Montana’s history. Although I have heard Laurence F say some things I personally found ignorant he comes across (for what it’s worth) as not heartless or awful or narcissistic. And this chick comes across as sub-par intelligence, which can’t help. All I want to get aross is that it isn’t always the parents fault. Look at a family situation like poster Karen – nobody cares about the stress and strain it puts on the rest of the family. The parents instead are put under a microscope and it’s an added dimension that hurts.
There’s no winners here. Especially Montana herself (I am disregarding any ‘yay she got her publicity’ or ‘she knows what she wants and porn is great’ calls because I fundamentally disagree).
I don’t think there is anything wrong with her father pointing out the effect her actions have on the family name.
Additionally, her family is discussing this in public because Montana has purposefully made it a public matter.
She is just a self-centered naive little girl who is looking for an easy road and mistakenly believes that porn is her golden ticket to fame and happiness. It’s sad really. She’s in for a world of heartache.
Poor him, he’s right. She could use a different surname, but to me it seems she purposely did it. Maybe she has some kind of childish grudge against her parents and wants to rebel in her own (idiot) way.
It’s all so wrong, I don’t think any girl has the dream of becoming a slut so maybe she wants to be in the spotlight, doing television, and so on. Why didn’t she say it to her dad? No, instead she did this.
Well, I have no more words for her. Crush yourself, Montana!
I actually saw some of that porno and there is nothing sexy about it, seriously it’s just pathetic.
If she thinks people are gonna pay millions to see that epic fail she can think again, hopefully Tila Tequila has some more “tallent” LOL
p.s yeah why blame the parents it isnt like she’s 12, she looks like she’s on drugs to me too.
It’s true that kids from good families can make horrible choices in spite of all the opportunies they had access to. My nephew is addicted to heroin and living on the streets – totally heartbreaking since this kid had so much potential. But there is nothing more my family can do at this point. We’ve tried to help but he doesn’t want it. We just pray he finds his way back.
My mom should wint the award for understaning, supportive, non-judgemental parenting. And my brother is a total jerk, drunkarkd, and manipulative person. My mom finally had to cut all contact with him this year (he’s 25) because the emotional stress of his behavior made her physically ill. If you’re not intimately familiar with a family’s situation, pointing fingers at a parent’s decision to step back from an adult child shouldn’t be judged. Some kids just seem to have no concern for the pain they inflict on their parents. Adding insult to injury by blaming the parent without any evidence is comitting the exact crime that the parent is being accused of! Nice double standard.
But if Lawrence is aware that chicks don’t use their real names in porn then he totally must watch it himself.
@Califonia Surfer- It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out women/men in porn don’t use their real name: Stormy Nights, Bella Donna. I do not watch porn, but I am aware of names and people in them, since it is mainstream. I am not saying I have never watched porn, but you do not have to be a porn afficionado to know they don’t use their real names.
I don’t have any problems blaming both parents for this like I have no problems blaming Billy Ray Cyrus and the mother for his daughter’s actions rather than trashing a child on the internet. I worked with kids for years, and, trust me, this does not come out of nowhere. Those parents screwed up and likely it started young. I have no idea what kind of financial means her mother had and if she was in dire straits then Fishburne could have done something so the daughter wasn’t forced to stay with the boyfriend. The idea now that he is snubbing her and that will make a difference is absurd. Clearly she does not have a good image of herself if she lets a boyfriend prostitute her. She didn’t get that on her own.
I look at the situation with Jesse James’ kids and believe that their involvement with Sandra Bullock will keep Sunny from turning out like Montana did.
Lita – I agree. Indeed hindsight is always 20/20, and at 18 there isn’t anymore her parents (or anyone) can do. This is an awful mess all around.
He’s absolutely right, she’s getting famous off of his name. No one would care if she were some random person off the street.
One of the points that keeps being overlooked is that boyfriend. Even the other chick pointed the finger at him. I can believe that he told her that this was the path to fame. It worked out for Pam and Tommy Lee, Hilton and Kardashian. They never suffered any permanant damage to their ‘careers’. That WAS her initial logic AT FIRST. Now she’s turing her story around. Maybe it’s the money they’re throwing at her, maybe she realizes that this is far different that what she thought it would turn out to be- who knows. What I do know is that troubled people don’t act out only after they’re legal. I don’t blame the parents. This would have manifested far sooner. I think this dude mislead her and perhaps now she realizes she can’t go back now and is tryng to make the most of the situation.
@ irishserra: Totally agree with all your points.
@ Raven: Totally agree with you, too. This behavior does NOT come out of nowhere. She wasn’t just “born to be a ho.” Somewhere along the line her self-esteem took a nosedive, and she ended up on the street.
Having said that, I don’t see a whole lot of point in placing blame anywhere for her current choices. As many have said, she appears to be somewhat “intellectually challenged.” She is making extremely poor choices that will have a lasting effect on her life and possibly her health. Honestly, I don’t blame her father for being embarrassed and for telling her so. I would (probably) do the same.
In todays society where there are NO boundries or moral compass why should this shock or disturb us? The world is going to hell in a hand basket.
One day he finds out his daughter is doing porn, the next day he finds out she’s been a hooker for a year and her boyfriend is her pimp. Needless to say, he’s probably shocked, angry, and hurt beyond words. This is his little girl, man. And obviously her father’s feelings and opinions means nothing. To her, he’s just a famous last name that she can use to get attention. I have zero sympathy for her, she sounds like a selfish whore.
if i were her parents i would tell give her this option: move away from the the porn world and we will send you to college so you can make a life of your own, or just move away. she is 18, legally they can not stop her, they can only try to talk sense into her. i suspect drugs and sexual abuse also, but who knows where/when it happened, and from who. could have been a family member or it could have been a teacher. in any case, it is sad.
Sunshine, Montana is the only one discussing this in public.
She’s embarrassed me too and I don’t even know her at all.
My daughter “went off the rails” when she injured her knee at 13 and could no longer dance. (She started dancing at 4, and had very real talent and potential – all her plans depended upon dancing.) After that, everything went downhill. My husband and I did everything we could, but she was out of control.
She’s lived with my ex-husband (her father) for the last year, and I miss her terribly. But I’d be lying if I said our lives weren’t much calmer without her here.
You can’t always blame the parents. She may just be stupid in luv w/her pimp/boyfriend and will do anything for him. Nothing her parents can do with her @ 18.
She could have used another name but she wanted the attention she would get w/her fathers name so she thew him under the bus.
I don’t know if her mother & father were good parents but kids don’t always listen, even to the best advice (don’t do porn).
She’s using HER name, not HIS. She happens to be his daughter.
Sorry, but somehow that one statement stuck in my craw.
Reminds me of when that one Smothers Brothers’ son got into porn: Disowned City.
if that was my kid doing porn & using the family name, i wouldn’t want to talk to them either.
I understand what everyone is saying about her parents being the ones to blame but, I think that as a parent you can only do so much. If you’re child is dead set on destructive behavior is there really anything you can do about it. Eventually you have to let them go, what were they going to do…tie her to the bed?(although she could have used it for a scene in one of her films…)
I think that this is all just a colossal cry for attention. I won’t say that her parents blameless because no parents are but,these were her decisions. Her choice to leave the house, her choice to prostitute, her choice to be a pornstar.
To me all Laurence is saying just sounds like the sounding off of a frustrated father. Her behavior didn’t just start…he’s been dealing with this for a while, I assume, he’s probably seen it all and heard it all. And now he’s tired.
“She’s using HER name, not HIS. She happens to be his daughter.”
crash, yes it is her name but come on – how many porn stars use their own names? she’s using her last name because that is the way she will get the attention she so obviously craves. this story actually makes me sad – i think she is a very troubled girl.
Great points, Lita and Kitten!
Laurence Fishburn is a very well established and intelligent actor and probably did all he could to stop his daughter from making such a foolish mistake. He even tried to pay huge sums of money to block the release of her sex tape, probably to prevent embarrassment on her behalf, moreso than on his.
Blaming him for her mistake is unfair; he probably did all he could. She is 18 now and can’t be stopped.
@ Tess – WTH does a lopsided nose have to do with the level of someone’s intelligence?
Why are some so hell bent on here hypothesizing that her intelligence is below average or something? On the contrary, I think she’s smart by getting her name out in the public without putting out much effort to do so although the method in which she did it is pretty sad and sleazy. But I still cannot understand why some believe Montana has below average intelligence. Based on what? The shape of her nose??That makes no sense to me.
Yes its her name but he made it famous. She knows it, I read somewhere that actress Keke Palmer is Laurence daughter also. That is where Montana is pissed with because Keke seems to have class, and is acting and getting parts based on TALENT not doing stuff on her knees.
I seen it discussed on a few gossip sites but if its true it sheds light, on what Montana is really getting at. It seems Laurence always provided for Keke but kept the fact that she was his daughter, a secret from the public so MF is jealous that he “allegedly did all he could for Keke to break into the buisness at 11, when he didn’t do the same for her” Keke is now 17 and has a lot of work under her belt, and can really sing and has a record deal coming about. Her voice is amazing.
Montana is just hateful.
This girl has made her own stupid choices. I wouldn’t blame the parents. That’s the easy thing—blame the parents. Many great parents have kids who go “wrong” despite all their efforts. And I agree with what he said. i would say the same thing! She is using her dad’s fame to get famous—and she chose a very sleazy industry to try getting famous in!
Why are so many of you blaming her father? She is just a whore and doesn’t care if she hurts her father. She admitted that her had a great childhood…she just wants to be a slut. Some children you just can’t do anything for, they just choose to do wrong and gravitate to evil. I wouldn’t talk to her either if I were her father. This is what she wants and it’s not her father choice it’s her’s. It’s just that now she’s 18 yrs old and knows she can legally get away with it.
I think in America ,It’s common. He should take her career seriously because she likes it !Mother ,father,sister,brother they act in porn movies at the same time in America and they gets Award..so why he has problem ..Let her enjoy 🙂
i really don’t like monday morning quarterbacks. it seems that some people hear know how a parent should react, but the truth is you don’t unless your confronted with it because nobody prepares to hear that their daughter is a porn star. in the heat of the moment you react and then in retrospect you realize your mistake. she’s an adult and when you make a decision to jump into porn you should think about what you’re giving up. famous porn starlet juli ann gave some advice to new pornstars, she said you may think your parents will be cool with it but if you make this step, be willing to give up your family.