…but was it a catch?

Umm, I think it was only two movies that they made underage, then she made many legal fuck movies, then went “mainstream.” (before it was cool).

Lords made her first movie during October 1984, when she appeared in What Gets Me Hot! alongside Tom Byron, who later became her boyfriend off-screen.[5] She first appeared only in a non-sex role, but was later replaced with a hardcore scene. In her next movie, Those Young Girls, she appeared alongside another female pornstar Ginger Lynn. After appearing with John Leslie in the porno parody of the movie Splash, Talk Dirty to Me Part III, which won the AVN Award for the best movie, Lords was hailed as the “Princess of Porn”. She became one of the highest-paid porno actresses of that time, earning more than $1,000 a day. Besides her work in porn, she also appeared in the music video for “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’” by the heavy metal band Helix. Lords continued making more movies until the autumn of 1985, when she decided to quit the industry. Afterwards, she met Stuart Dell, who became her boyfriend, manager, and business partner. During January 1986, she announced her return to porn with the formation of TLC (the Traci Lords Company). Dell and Lords made a distribution deal with Sy Adler, an industry veteran who ran Vantage International, that they would produce three movies for the company. During March, the first TLC feature, Traci Takes Tokyo, was released. The second, Beverly Hills Copulator, was released afterwards, and the third movie, Screamer, was shelved.[5][6]

During late May 1986, around three weeks after Lords’ 18th birthday, authorities discovered she had been underage after having appeared in about 75 pornographic movies. The owners of her movie agency and X-Citement Video, Inc. were arrested. (See United States v. X-Citement Video) She was taken into a protective custody and hired a high-profile lawyer, Leslie Abramson. On July 10, district attorney’s investigators searched Lords’ Redondo Beach home, the Sun Valley offices of Vantage International Productions, a major producer of adult movies, and the Sherman Oaks offices of modeling agent Jim South. South and other industry officials said that Lords, on seeking employment, provided a California driver’s license, a U.S. passport, and a birth certificate, which stated that her name was Kristie Nussman and gave a birth date of November 17, 1962. Leslie Jay, spokeswoman for Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione, also said Lords showed identification indicating that she was older than 18 years of age before the photos for the September 1984 issue were taken.[7] When investigators, using her birth certificate and state identification cards, located the real Kristie Nussman, she said her birth certificate had been stolen a few years earlier and that an imposter had apparently forged her name on official forms. Two adults who knew Lords, but who requested anonymity, said they saw her picture in the adult magazine Velvet during July 1984, and telephoned the district attorney’s office to inform authorities that she was underage, but that an investigator told them, “There isn’t anything we can do about it.”[8][9]

On July 17, 1986, video rental shops and adult movie theaters in the USA were ordered to withdraw all material featuring Lords from their shelves. John Weston, attorney of the Adult Film Association of America, said distributors should withdraw any movie made before May 1986, featuring Lords “in sexual conduct, no matter how briefly”. The withdrawal of Lords’ movies from the market cost the industry millions of dollars.[7][10][11] Government prosecutors declared Lords was a victim of a manipulative industry, maintaining she was drugged and made to do non-consensual acts.[12] Industry insiders, including Ron Jeremy, Tom Byron, Peter North, and Ginger Lynn, said they never saw her use drugs and that she was always fully aware of her actions. While most of her movies were removed permanently from distribution in the United States, several were re-edited to remove Lords’ scenes entirely (such as Kinky Business and New Wave Hookers), or in a few cases, had new footage filmed with a different actress playing her part (as in Talk Dirty to Me Part III). The only movie legally available in the United States was Traci, I Love You, filmed in Paris only two days after her 18th birthday.[6] She sold her rights to Traci, I Love You during early 1987 for $100,000. This action resulted in claims that she herself had tipped off the authorities to gain immunity from prosecution, while being the only one to profit from the movie. Lords denies this notion in her autobiography and says she was reluctant to sell the rights, since at that time she was trying to become an ordinary actress, and wanted no older movies still available.[1]