Penny Flame
Encyclopedia
Jennifer "Jennie" Ketcham (born February 22, 1983) is an American
reality television
personality, blog
ger, artist, and former pornographic actress
and film director
under the name Penny Flame.
jobs, answered an ad in a San Diego paper, through which she entered the pornographic film business
. She chose the Penny Flame pseudonym as a combination of The Beatles
song "Penny Lane
" and her marijuana smoking habit. She appeared in well over 200 pornographic features, from 2002 through 2009.
In 2005, Ketcham directed an instructional video for Shane's World Studios
. She also directed the pornographic films Shane's World: Girls Night Out 1-3, Blazed and Confused 1-3 and Penny Flame's Out of Control. In 2008, she signed a deal with Vivid Entertainment
and Tristan Taormino
to direct her own line of movies under the studio’s sex education imprint, Vivid-Ed; the first film was "Penny Flame's Expert Guide to Handjobs," and the second "Penny Flame's Expert Guide to Rough Sex." She retired from the industry in 2009.
. She further states she practiced safe sex as a youth, and has explained that her sexual activity was a way for her to achieve emotional validation that she could not achieve with healthy relationships with others. When her parents divorced at age 13, she ceased speaking to her father, and would not do so again until she was 26.
She has admitted to struggling with substance abuse, including cocaine and marijuana, particularly in her early years in the industry, when she was unhappy with her life. She stated in an interview given when she was 24 that she was addicted to cocaine at one point, but was by the time of the interview clean and sober. She stayed in the pornography industry as it allowed her to work only three days a week, while it fueled the sexual addiction
that underlay her disconnect from love. She later started using cocaine
, which became intertwined with her sexual addictions.
In April 2009, Ketcham checked into the Pasadena Recovery Center for sex addiction, as depicted in Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew
, a VH1
spinoff
of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew
. Some of her costars on the show were Amber Smith
, Nicole Narain
, Kari Ann Peniche
, and Duncan Roy
. Ketcham initially entered rehab with the intention of disrupting the process, for publicity purposes, rather than submitting to it, but five days into treatment, she began to accept that she suffered from a problem that she needed to resolve, and completed the program with the help of Drs. Drew Pinsky
and Jill Vermeire. Following the completion of her treatment, she entered a sober living facility, as depicted in the second season of Sober House, which premiered in March 2010.
The last adult film that Ketcham made prior to participating in Sex Rehab was Celebrity Pornhab with Dr. Screw
, which itself was a parody of the show Celebrity Rehab.
Ketcham discussed with Pinsky and others her path into pornography and her recovery from addiction in a March 17, 2010 appearance on The View. She explained that she had taken a vow of abstinence for a year when she completed treatment, but that after nine months, she met a man with whom she entered into a committed monogamous relationship, and who supported her recovery by attending meetings with her.
Ketcham is an avid painter, and considers it a healthy outer circle
activity for her, as well as it being a source of income for her, post-pornography.
. In her first entry, dated 29 April 2009, she wrote, "My name is Jennie Ketcham, and I am a recovering pornstar, and addict. This day, as every day, is the first day of the rest of my life, and I intend to live it to the fullest." According to the blog, she does not regret having been in pornography, is living a sober
lifestyle, and is currently working on a memoir.
In December 2009, Ketcham began contributing to the Huffington Post, on the inauguration of their Los Angeles edition.
People of the United States
The people of the United States, also known as simply Americans or American people, are the inhabitants or citizens of the United States. The United States is a multi-ethnic nation, home to people of different ethnic and national backgrounds...
reality television
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
personality, blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
ger, artist, and former pornographic actress
Pornographic actor
A pornographic actor/actress or a porn star is a person who appears in pornographic film. Most actors appear nude in films...
and film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
under the name Penny Flame.
Pornography career
At age 18, Ketcham, dissatisfied with waitressing and baristaBarista
A barista is a person, usually a coffee-house employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks.- Application of the title :...
jobs, answered an ad in a San Diego paper, through which she entered the pornographic film business
Sex industry
The sex industry consists of businesses which either directly or indirectly provide sex-related products and services or adult entertainment...
. She chose the Penny Flame pseudonym as a combination of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
song "Penny Lane
Penny Lane
"Penny Lane" is a song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney. It was credited to Lennon–McCartney.Recorded during the Sgt. Pepper sessions, "Penny Lane" was released in February 1967 as one side of a double A-sided single, along with "Strawberry Fields Forever". Both songs were later included...
" and her marijuana smoking habit. She appeared in well over 200 pornographic features, from 2002 through 2009.
In 2005, Ketcham directed an instructional video for Shane's World Studios
Shane's World
Shane's World Studios is a pornographic film company started in 1996. It is one of the first companies to pioneer the reality style videos of adult entertainment. The company was originally started by Seymore Butts' ex-girlfriend Shane, who lent her name to the business...
. She also directed the pornographic films Shane's World: Girls Night Out 1-3, Blazed and Confused 1-3 and Penny Flame's Out of Control. In 2008, she signed a deal with Vivid Entertainment
Vivid Entertainment
Vivid Entertainment Group is an adult video producer, featuring a catalog of VHS and DVD titles and internet content. In 2006 it was described by Reuters as one of the handful of studios that dominate the U.S. porn industry....
and Tristan Taormino
Tristan Taormino
Tristan Taormino is a feminist author, columnist, sex educator, activist, editor, speaker, and pornographic film director . She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with her Bachelor's degree in American Studies from Wesleyan University in 1993...
to direct her own line of movies under the studio’s sex education imprint, Vivid-Ed; the first film was "Penny Flame's Expert Guide to Handjobs," and the second "Penny Flame's Expert Guide to Rough Sex." She retired from the industry in 2009.
Awards
- 2005 AVN Award for Best Solo Sex Scene – Repo Girl
- 2006 XRCO Award for Best On-Screen Couple - Darkside (with Herschel SavageHerschel SavageHerschel Savage is an American pornographic actor and porn movie director.He was born Herschel Cohen to Russian Jewish parents in New York City....
) - 2006 AVN Award for Best Couples Sex Scene (Film) – Darkside (with Herschel Savage)
- 2006 AVN Award for Best Group Sex Scene (Film) – Darkside (with Alicia AlighattiAlicia AlighattiAlicia Alighatti is the stage name of an American pornographic actress. She fashioned her stage name after Dante Alighieri.After high school, she studied international relations and French at a junior college.-Awards:...
, Dillan LaurenDillan LaurenDillan Lauren is an American pornographic actress.-Awards:*2006 AVN Award for Best Group Sex Scene – Dark Side -Partial filmography:...
, Hillary Scott, Randy SpearsRandy SpearsRandy Spears is a well-known pornographic actor, having appeared in approximately 1000features. Sometimes credited as Greg Ory or Greg Slavin....
& John West) - 2008 AVN Award for Best Actress (Film) - Layout
- 2008 AVN Award for Best Couples Sex Scene (Film) - Layout (with Tom ByronTom ByronTom Byron is an American pornographic actor and director. He is of Italian descent and is an alumnus of the University of Houston. He has also been credited as Tom Byrom, Tim Byron, Tom Bryon, Tom Bryan, and Tommy Byron...
) - 2008 F.A.M.E. Awards - Favorite Oral Starlet
- 2010 AVN Award for Best Supporting Actress – Throat: A Cautionary Tale
Personal life and recovery
Ketcham states she became sexually active at age 12Child sexuality
Child sexuality is the sexual feelings, behaviors, and development of children.-Freud:Until Sigmund Freud published his Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality in 1905, children were often regarded as asexual, having no sexuality until later development. Freud was one of the first researchers to...
. She further states she practiced safe sex as a youth, and has explained that her sexual activity was a way for her to achieve emotional validation that she could not achieve with healthy relationships with others. When her parents divorced at age 13, she ceased speaking to her father, and would not do so again until she was 26.
She has admitted to struggling with substance abuse, including cocaine and marijuana, particularly in her early years in the industry, when she was unhappy with her life. She stated in an interview given when she was 24 that she was addicted to cocaine at one point, but was by the time of the interview clean and sober. She stayed in the pornography industry as it allowed her to work only three days a week, while it fueled the sexual addiction
Sexual addiction
Sexual addiction is a popular model to explain hypersexuality—sexual urges, behaviors, or thoughts that appear extreme in frequency or feel out of one's control...
that underlay her disconnect from love. She later started using cocaine
Cocaine dependence
Cocaine dependence is a psychological desire to regularly use cocaine. It can result in cardiovascular and brain damage such as constricting blood vessels in the brain, causing strokes and constricting arteries in the heart, causing heart attacks specifically in the central nervous system.The use...
, which became intertwined with her sexual addictions.
In April 2009, Ketcham checked into the Pasadena Recovery Center for sex addiction, as depicted in Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew
Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew
Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew is a VH1 reality television show that documents people being treated for sexual addiction by Dr. Drew Pinsky and his staff at the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California. Premiering on November 1, 2009, Sex Rehab is a spin-off of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, in...
, a VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
spinoff
Spin-off (media)
In media, a spin-off is a radio program, television program, video game, or any narrative work, derived from one or more already existing works, that focuses, in particular, in more detail on one aspect of that original work...
of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew
Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew
Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew is a reality television show airing on the cable network VH1 that chronicles a group of celebrities as they are treated for alcohol and drug addiction by Dr. Drew Pinsky and his staff at the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California. The first season premiered...
. Some of her costars on the show were Amber Smith
Amber Smith
-Early life:The daughter of professional American football player Russ Smith and Carol Smith, Smith started modeling by age 16. As a teenager she traveled to Paris, France, where she worked as a model throughout Europe for four years...
, Nicole Narain
Nicole Narain
-Career:She was chosen as Playboy's Playmate of the Month in January 2002 and has appeared in numerous Playboy videos.She has appeared in music videos like R.L's song "Got Me a Model", LL Cool J's "Luv You Better", Mario Winans's "I Don't Wanna Know" and Fabolous' "Baby"...
, Kari Ann Peniche
Kari Ann Peniche
Kari Ann Peniche is a former beauty queen and entertainer from Fairview, Oregon. She has held the Miss Oregon Teen USA and Miss United States Teen titles. She was stripped of the latter title after appearing nude in the November 2004 issue of Playboy magazine.Peniche lived in San Diego before...
, and Duncan Roy
Duncan Roy
Duncan Roy , is an English film director and producer, script writer, art director and television personality.-Early life:...
. Ketcham initially entered rehab with the intention of disrupting the process, for publicity purposes, rather than submitting to it, but five days into treatment, she began to accept that she suffered from a problem that she needed to resolve, and completed the program with the help of Drs. Drew Pinsky
Drew Pinsky
David Drew Pinsky , best known as Dr. Drew, is an American board-certified internist, addiction medicine specialist, and radio and television personality. He has hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show Loveline since the show's inception in 1984. On television, he hosts the talk show Dr...
and Jill Vermeire. Following the completion of her treatment, she entered a sober living facility, as depicted in the second season of Sober House, which premiered in March 2010.
The last adult film that Ketcham made prior to participating in Sex Rehab was Celebrity Pornhab with Dr. Screw
Celebrity Pornhab with Dr. Screw
Celebrity Pornhab with Dr. Screw is a 2009 pornographic film that satirizes the VH1 reality series Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. The film stars a variety of porn stars including Mary Carey, Mike Horner. This film marks Mary Carey's comeback to adult films...
, which itself was a parody of the show Celebrity Rehab.
Ketcham discussed with Pinsky and others her path into pornography and her recovery from addiction in a March 17, 2010 appearance on The View. She explained that she had taken a vow of abstinence for a year when she completed treatment, but that after nine months, she met a man with whom she entered into a committed monogamous relationship, and who supported her recovery by attending meetings with her.
Ketcham is an avid painter, and considers it a healthy outer circle
Sex Addicts Anonymous
Sex Addicts Anonymous is an organization that describes itself as providing a twelve-step program for recovery from what it calls sex addiction. SAA was founded in 1977 by several men who wanted a greater sense of anonymity than what they perceived in other twelve step programs for sex addicts...
activity for her, as well as it being a source of income for her, post-pornography.
Career as blogger
In April 2009, Ketcham started a blog titled "Becoming Jennie", after participating in VH1's Sex Rehab with Dr. DrewSex Rehab with Dr. Drew
Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew is a VH1 reality television show that documents people being treated for sexual addiction by Dr. Drew Pinsky and his staff at the Pasadena Recovery Center in Pasadena, California. Premiering on November 1, 2009, Sex Rehab is a spin-off of Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, in...
. In her first entry, dated 29 April 2009, she wrote, "My name is Jennie Ketcham, and I am a recovering pornstar, and addict. This day, as every day, is the first day of the rest of my life, and I intend to live it to the fullest." According to the blog, she does not regret having been in pornography, is living a sober
Sobriety
Sobriety is the condition of not having any measurable levels, or effects from, alcohol or other drugs that alter ones mood or behaviors. According to WHO "Lexicon of alcohol and drug terms..." sobriety is continued abstinence from alcohol and psychoactive drug use...
lifestyle, and is currently working on a memoir.
In December 2009, Ketcham began contributing to the Huffington Post, on the inauguration of their Los Angeles edition.
External links
- Pornography career:
- "Up in Smoke" interview (audio)
- interview at xrentdvd.com website
- "Penny Flame Unleashed: Part 1", commentary at XFanz.com, April 6, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-28.
- "Penny Flame Unleashed: 2", commentary at XFanz.com, April 8, 2007. Retrieved 2007-10-28.
- "On Fire by Penny Flame", former blog site at xcritic.com
- Post-pornography
- Jennie Talks About Sex Rehab
- "Becoming Jennie" blog by Ketcham at WordPress website
- Ketcham blog at the Huffington Post website