Linda Lovelace testifies on film ordeal

Press, 29 January 1986, Page 26

Linda Lovelace testifies on film ordeal

NZPA-AP New York A woman who acted in films as Linda Lovelace told a hearing that she still had physical and emotional problems as a result of appearing in pornographic movies. Describing her appearance in the film “Deep Throat,” Linda Marchiano repeated charges in her book, “Ordeal,” that she had been held against her will and made to appear in the film by threats of force. She testified at a hearing in New York of the Attorney-General’s Commission on Pornography, formed in May last year to study the impact of pornography and devise measures to control its distribution.

Hearings have been held in five other cities.

Most of the New York hearings were devoted to ties between pornography and organised crime. In testimony prepared for the hearing, a State legislator said profits from “Deep Throat” and another porn hit, “Behind The Green Door,” were used to set up drug-smug-gling activities the "New York Daily News” said. Senator Christopher Mega alleged that Anthony Peraino, aged 70, a convicted pornographer and reputed member of the Colombo crime family, used the profits from the films to develop an airfield on a tiny island near the Bahamas.

The airfield was part of a drug business that flourished between 1976 and 1984, according to Senator Mega.