It’s been a rough couple of weeks for Stormy Daniels.
The renowned adult film star/director—who was paid six figures in hush money by Trump (via his then-attorney Michael Cohen) in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign to silence her over their alleged affair—last week had her defamation lawsuit against the president dismissed; on top of that, she was forced to pay for Trump’s attorney fees, some of which had been paid for by the Trump campaign. And, adding insult to injury, her tell-all book about the Trump tryst, Full Disclosure, hasn’t exactly flown off the shelves, despite the phallic promo efforts of late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel.
On Friday night, Daniels sat down with political satirist Bill Maher on his HBO program Real Time. But first came a bizarre prelude on Twitter, wherein Real Time panelist (and Trump booster) Anthony Scaramucci appeared to brag to Daniels about his penis size, saying that nobody’s ever called him “tiny” and he wasn’t referring to his “height” (Daniels famously called Trump’s penis “tiny”):
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The interview portion kicked off on another awkward note. “First of all, do you prefer ‘Stormy’ or your real name, ‘Stephanie?’” asked Maher, posing a truly dumb question: in the adult entertainment industry, performers prefer to be addressed by their stage names, just like Jon Stewart, Jay-Z or any other performer, and the idea that they shouldn’t is condescending.
After the flub, Maher then waded into interesting territory, asking Daniels about what it was like to be targeted by pro-Trump police in Ohio, where she was hauled in on bogus charges while performing at a strip club. (The FBI is currently investigating the shady vice squad behind it.)
“There were actually four [cops], and the craziest thing about this is it was women. There were three undercover women and one male,” said Daniels. She said that she was dancing at the strip club, Sirens in Columbus, Ohio, and doing “the show that I always do,” and then “the officers actually stood in line and paid to get photos and buy DVDs from me, and then they came back and arrested me.”
“And they got you for something called ‘motorboating,’” said Maher, adding, “What is that, exactly?” (A question that every 12-year-old boy knows the answer to.)
Maher read the “giddy” emails that the arresting officers sent to one another following Daniels’ arrest, offering, “This is not what America is. You had to go to jail. We don’t politically target the people we don’t want, and that’s what we’re seeing happening in this country.”
But after that, it got weird again. “Why did you fuck Donald Trump?” asked Maher. “I have no idea!” Daniels exclaimed. When Maher asked whether Daniels would have accepted money had Trump offered it after the act, and she said she would have been “offended,” he appeared confused, pressing, “But you get paid to have sex on camera?”
Daniels then explained, “That’s different. I get paid not by the person I’m having sex with; I get paid by the company to film it.” (Because Maher apparently doesn’t know the difference between an adult film star and a prostitute.)
“I don’t think you could put a motorboat between that,” Maher quipped. If that weren’t enough, he later mocked her for being a stripper, saying, “You work in a strip club. You’ve gotta be able to think of a better way to monetize this than shaking your tits at Sirens!”
“I love shaking my tits,” Daniels replied, to cheers from the crowd—and a raised eyebrow from Maher.
Overall, Maher adopted the same patronizing, slut-shaming tone toward Daniels as Jimmy Kimmel. There is nothing wrong or strange about being an adult film star—or in the immortal words of Amber Rose: “Porn stars are here for our convenience. Everyone uses them when they want to use them and then throws them away after. We don’t respect them enough.”
