A decently sourced tip came my way that 20-year-old adult film star Sasha Grey (below) is possibly set to star in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience — his next down-and-dirty, HD-lensed flick, shot in the same seat-of-the-pants fashion as Full Frontal and Bubble.



I say possibly because depending on whom you believe she’s either already been cast, and the announcement is under wraps for reasons of publicity control, or it’s yet to be finalized. Either way, the fact that Grey is even under serious consideration for the role (Soderbergh previously indicated a desire to go with unknowns, while also mulling over an adult film starlet for the lead) while at the same time in the midst of what by all accounts is an ascendant career path in the flesh-pic biz makes for interesting theory and speculation. Other porn stars (notably Traci Lords, Ron Jeremy and of course now Jenna Jameson) have gone “legit,” but mostly toward the tail end of their on-camera careers, and with limited success or mainstream penetration. (Yeah, I went there.) Appearing in a movie for an Oscar-winning director — no matter how much of a niche market one-off it is — is a no-brainer for Grey, I get it, but this is all perhaps most interesting for the manner in which it actualizes the merging of American narrative film and the sensory-overload pleasures of adult flicks, which long ago pervaded Hollywood action cinema.

Set for simultaneous distribution across various platforms, as with Bubble, the ultra-low-budget, Los Angeles-set movie will examine the world of a $10,000-a-pop call girl (presumably, Soderbergh pal Julia Roberts will not cameo), and the stable of regular clients who pay for her company. Soderbergh will shot the movie — hashed out with screenwriters Brian Koppelman and David Levien during the shoot for Ocean’s Thirteen — later this fall, after wrapping up the very Michael Clayton-sounding The Informant, starring Matt Damon, for Warner Bros.