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Justme 04/04/2012 9:24:00 AM
no she's not, Jillian is 36 now it happened when she was a teen-ager, many may not know it but there's an actress married to a politician in Visayas region that was once a gf of the prince, she's very pretty and yes sophisticated
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Ashram34 06/17/2011 9:03:00 AM
What is the name of the Filipina mentioned above?
My guess: Ruffa Gutierrez.
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patsy 08/05/2010 8:23:00 AM
Jillian - Your book pulls us into a zone that we cannot believe, cannot resist, and cannot escape even after we read the last page. Thanks for letting us know you are ok and apparently enjoying a regular life when many of us would still be in post-traumatic stress had we been in your expensive shoes. I hope your brother is improving. You have obviously forgiven your parents for years of bad parenting and serious incidents of abuse. You persevered til you found a reasonable relationship with them and
I hope there is some joy there for all of you.
You are a fascinating female and a very talented writer!
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Hale Sutherland 05/15/2010 9:34:00 PM
If harems are populated by actual slaves (like Thomas Jefferson owned Sally Hemmings) that's one thing, but this was voluntary, by a (barely) legal consenting adult. I'm all in favor of legal prostitution, while reserving the right to disapprove of individuals - the same way I feel about car salespersons and television ministers.
I know several second and third "trophy" wives married to unattractive, unpleasant, but wealthy men. Regardless of their marriage certificates, I consider these women to be no different from Jillian Lauren.
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pgparge 05/14/2010 1:28:00 AM
I remember that Camille Donataci, the wife of Kelsey Grammer, was also one of the prostitute in the Sultan's harem. She recovered nicely from it, too
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carolyn raba 05/11/2010 7:03:00 PM
I live in a country where it is legal for a woman/man to be paid for thier time with another,regardless what they do. She was paid well to be treated like a whore/slave/harem girl.
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Shimmy_Diva 04/25/2010 6:58:00 AM
Makes me wanna grab my veil & advertise in LA Weekly's back pages: "Working Vagina for Sale: Orientalist Harem Fantasies & 42DDs Come Standard!" SO NOT!!!
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Anonymous_Like_You 04/25/2010 12:36:00 AM
Usually I don't read comments for internet news stories, but I wanted to see if people were capable of looking past their own noses and try compassion for once. What I find remarkable is that Lauren doesn't really care if you think she's a whore, that you know that she sold her body, that you think you're better than her husband, whatever--she's been abused, that's what this article is about, and your abuse is not higher-minded just because it isn't physical. Stop throwing abuses around on the internet. I can't imagine how much satisfaction it actually gives you, and you could be hurting someone.
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Jocelyn 04/21/2010 1:34:00 AM
Fascinating story. Enough with the name calling...She is very brave to write about what was clearly a very troubled time in her youth. Not everyone has an easy time when they're young. She followed a very dark path and I am impressed with how she rose above it and is okay in the end.
I am actually quite surprised that so many LA Weekly readers have such squeaky clean pasts that they can judge so harshly. Whore? Come on, this isn't high school.
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Marci 04/20/2010 11:45:00 AM
First she profits off her vagina and now she's profiting off her story of profiting off her vagina. Depraved.
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The Dude Abides 04/20/2010 10:02:00 AM
That aint no pot belly. Thats her tat and some bad lighting!
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Jadedla 04/20/2010 9:11:00 AM
Another tale of redemption in your 30s after narcissistic dabbing in the underbelly of life during your 20s (ok she's precocious and started at seventeen)...my question is WHY DO THEY ALWAYS SEE THE LIGHT AND MOVE TO LOS ANGELES. A stripper with an enduring heart of gold...what a unique, artistic and fresh concept. I hear Diablo Cody screaming in the background, "that bitch stole my shit!" Was a good read though. She must keep her therapists riveted.
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Get over yourself 04/19/2010 11:17:00 AM
This girl sounds like a typical spoiled US daughter. She confesses she was spoiled. It's a pretty standard story but she made out better than most. Rather than wedding the local optometrist who can buy you a 3 series BMW she made out with more dough. And an ALMOST FAMOUS husband. She doesn't seem to have taken THAT MUCH from it either. I grew up tossed around from home to home. Forced into an older man's dank pathetic bedroom at 16 because my other option was the street. I would have settled for a meal. Her wants make me sick. If Miss Alimurung's writing wasn't so charming this story would have been unbearable.
Excellent writing. Horrendous subject.
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Lee 04/18/2010 11:03:00 PM
A fascinating story that took bravery to tell. Growing up is hard for all--especially women--and it sounds like this author managed to hang on to both her talent and soul.
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tomuban 04/18/2010 9:24:00 AM
She sold her vagina and you look down at her?
Many people walk through life looking for comfort and security and take the surest/easiest/quickest way to that end.
We all sell our time and labor.
We all have thought, and we sell and stifle it, in parcels, to gain an end that will benefit ourselves.
Carpal tunnel, wrenched backs, limbs lost, people need to eat.
Her vagina was a commodity only because it could be bought and become a symbol of wealth and power. He gained and she benefited, the terms have been in place a long time.
All this consternation about a vagina working?
Grow up.
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King of Donair 04/17/2010 11:31:00 PM
Gendy Alimurung -- your articles are ace! Always a pleasure reading something with your byline!
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Andrea 04/17/2010 11:26:00 PM
grrrl power!!! Fuck Yeah!! I love money!! GRRRRL POWER!!! And she married a rockstar! Awesome stuff. You are so cool. I hope my daughter will be bought and sold like a steak for her pussy/ass/mouth. One can only dream.. .
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King of Donair 04/17/2010 8:26:00 PM
Attention girls: I am the King of Donair, the richest man in my ZIP code + 4. Please send a photo and writing sample if you'd like to be considered for inclusion in my harem.
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King of Donair 04/17/2010 10:57:00 AM
"Not when you fall asleep and wake to him thrusting hard into you without a condom at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, this man who has slept with literally thousands of girls."
When I read that, the first word that popped into my head was: "Duh!"
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King of Donair 04/17/2010 10:52:00 AM
Now I know why the veil was invented: Compare the seductive enchantress gracing the cover with the tatted-up middle-aged woman with a belly on the inside pages.
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Sean 04/17/2010 9:29:00 AM
More "I was a money hungry whore once and it was so badass" stories please, I really like reading how unbelievably pathetic they sound while recalling their "experiences"
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Jess 04/17/2010 7:18:00 AM
Thats right, nuns are not whores. Nuns are the opposite of whores, they only sleep with one man and that is Jesus Christ. This was one of the more entertaining articles I've read this year. I read the Frey book. I'll prob read this book too.
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Brittanie 04/16/2010 11:38:00 PM
She says she doesn't want to glamorize her experience, but those pictures tell a different story.
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anonymous 04/16/2010 8:01:00 PM
My god, what a waste of ink...between the condescending and laughably prudish journalistic tone, you'd think this was 1953 and that "nudie books" were still kept wrapped up in brown paper bags and hidden in the back of Daddy's closet. A woman goes to a far-off land to sell her vagina and you would think by the guilt-trip that hangs over this article that she was Hitler's secret mistress.
In case you didn't know, The Catholic Church originally created the entire template of harem life by using nuns as prostitutes for the purpose of seducing the unconverted for the sake of that organization's financial well-being. When the newly-reborn-in-Christ kept coming back for the sex instead of the prayers, therby undercutting further profits by wanting to reward the women instead of the clergy, pleasures of the flesh suddenly became mankind's greatest sin virtually overnight.
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Raymond Brown 04/16/2010 11:23:00 AM
Jillian is a fake. How come she never talks about the man she married in SF and then left him, only to have him get deported because she didn't follow through. She talks about radical honesty. Well here's some radical honesty. She only does what is best for her. Someone should call social services and get that baby taken back before she sell it to further her own goals. I'm sure she'll bore with motherhood soon enough.
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Amanda Sowards 04/16/2010 10:37:00 AM
Happy to brag that Jillian and I were in the same graduating MFA class together, and I was always thrilled to hear her read from her work or to be in a fiction workshop with her. She's one hell of a writer, and I hope her book takes off by leaps and bounds.
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Belinda 04/16/2010 10:23:00 AM
Scott Shriner, her husband, was with Vanilla Ice's band. 'Nuf said, right?
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Bo 04/16/2010 10:06:00 AM
"Tis a pity she's a whore." Obviously money spoke to this woman in a language she understood. This is a cautionary tale, not a fairy tale.
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Queenie_in_LA 04/16/2010 7:33:00 AM
Beautiful story. I always wonder why some girl chooses to be a hooker or behaves in that way whilst others do not. This helps me understand. Thank you LAWEEKLY for another good article. Could not stop reading to the end.
