Columnist Melissa Schorr: A dancer stripped of his virtue

Melissa Schorr

Monday, May 17, 1999 | 9:43 a.m.

Melissa Schorr's column appears Mondays. Reach her at melissa@ lasvegassun.com or 259-4077.

My friend Nick, the Chippendales dancer, called me the other day, complaining that he was feeling degraded.

This I had to hear.

It seems that Nick, who for a time had worked performing male Strip-o-Grams, had discovered that photos taken years ago to market the service have been posted -- without his knowledge or explicit permission -- on the "male" section of the vegasgirls.com website.

Nick is portrayed there as "Sam," 22, a "discreet guy" who "loves to strip until he's totally nude" and show off his "equipment" and who "can be in your room in 20 minutes."

Nick is actually 32, isn't named "Sam," and certainly isn't planning to be in anyone's room anytime soon.

"People think I'm a prostitute," he says bitterly. "It's degrading. An aunt and uncle in from out of town saw it, my neighbors saw it. I would never do that in my life, for any amount of money.

"I've danced at parties for police officers, judges, grandmas," he recalls. "It was tasteful. I never got totally nude. I never did one-on-ones.

"Now," he shudders, "they're using the photos to promote disgusting stuff. I'm not into the pornography or prostitution business."

Granted, this topic strains even my sympathy muscles. A male stripper fighting to protect his "reputation"?

Only in Las Vegas.

But Nick, like many in this town, makes a distinction between what he does for a living, which is legal, and what he feels is being implied he does for a living, which is not.

Richard Sorrano, an officer of the outcall service that provided the photos to the site, is shocked, shocked, to hear such a thing. "Read the text," he snorts. "If there's implications, it's a fantasy." A disclaimer carefully notes that representations "may contain fictional themes."

A larger question raised here is whether a company should be able to continually profit from an artist's work against his or her will.

Nick says he specified in his original signed release that the photos couldn't be used for any other purpose without his OK. Trouble is, he can't prove it.

He politely sent e-mails asking them to remove the photos, and even threatened legal action. But other than turning his eyes into pixilated blurs, they're not budging.

"We own the picture, we can do whatever we want with it," Sorrano insists. That apparently includes using photos of so-called "actual" entertainers who have long since left the company.

Buyers beware: This little tidbit is freely confessed if you pause to read the fine print, but it is not always disclosed up front. When I called to inquire last week about the fictional "Sam," the operator promised that he was indeed available for this weekend.

Meanwhile, Nick, who hopes to get out of the stripping biz and break into acting, wants to caution other entertainers about how their photos may get recycled.

"Anybody's picture could end up anywhere," he warns. He's even found photos of himself being used in handbills the company distributes on the Strip, identifying him as "Dusty" and "Mark."

But "Sam" may soon regain his soiled "virtue."

Despite his initial bluster, Sorrano finally relents: "Aw, if he really wants, I'll take the photo off," he grumbles. "He's not that good-looking anyway."