GQ’s Porn Star Showcase: James Deen Meets Austin Powers

This GQ image by photographer Danielle Levitt caught my eye for the way it tries hyping a porn star to the mainstream. An all-too-easy way the photo goes about it is by associating itself to the Austin Powers “naked fruit scene” causing us to consider the data here in the lighthearted terms of the Mike Myers sexual spoof. And, talk about leveraging cultural symbolism. Short of seeing him in action, I guess we’re supposed to instantly feel some familiarity with the man behind the pineapple just for the nominal link to the real James Dean.

The photo also cleaves to the mainstream because Deen, so clean cut, so straight-out-of-a-beer-or-cologne commercial (likened to Bieber or Timberlake with a straight face in the article), seems so “not-porn” either. My favorite move here, though — GQ making it seem almost mundane to hype a porn star — is to pitch the man that close to the Corn Flakes and Ketchup.

(photo: Danielle Levitt. linked image via Austin Powers 2/YouTube)