Stoya

This year the AVN award for Best New Starlet went to Stoya, and I've been spending some happy time viewing several of her films. She's unusual for an adult star in many respects.

At 23 (her birthday was yesterday), Stoya began in the business as many do, by posing for web sites (especially those that deal with BDSM). Due to her fair skin and goth runaway look, she ended up getting pegged as an "alt-porn" star, but then she signed as a contract girl with Digital Playground, so almost all of her 23 films have been with that company (and 23 films in a couple of years is actually a pretty paltry amount for the adult world).

Though Stoya does have the frog-belly white skin of a goth chick, little else reflects that. She has no tattoos, and only in her recent films have nipple-piercings been evident. Indeed, her performance style has a winsome, girl-next-door quality, with a ready smile and seductive oeillades. Digital Playground lately has been making films that seek to fully explore certain porn tropes, and Stoya has been in two of them: Cheerleaders and Nurses. It turns out that she looks right in home in both a cheerleader outfit and a nurse's uniform.

Most of her films for Digital Playground are simply collections of scenes with generic titles like Stoya: Heat, or Stoya: Very Hot (the latest is Stoya: Scream). Typically she plays a young lady who coquettishly angers her boyfriend (in one she puts the juice bottle back in the frig with only a little bit left) and he playfully rebukes her before they engage in their business.

Stoya also has an advantage of an appearance that suggests mainstream actresses. She has a little Kate Beckinsale, a dash of Neve Campbell, and most strikingly resembles Anne Hathaway, especially as she appeared in Rachel Getting Married. For those who would like to see Miss Hathaway in flagrante delicto, watching Stoya is the next best thing.