SHAUNA: GONE, NOT FORGOTTEN

The short life of Colleen Applegate--the small-town Minnesota Catholic girl who achieved notoriety in the Hollywood porn world (as actress Shauna Grant) before her curious death (ruled a suicide) at age 20--is the subject of an upcoming episode of PBS’ “Frontline.”

Correspondent Al Austin at WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, visited Applegate’s hometown of Farmington to talk with family and friends. And he was recently in Los Angeles meeting her X-rated colleagues. He was surprised “about how many people are willing to talk about all this” and by “the wide variety of people in the adult-film world.”

Meanwhile, the script (by writer-director Sandor Stern) has been completed for a $2.5-million CBS movie, “Mourning Song,” about Applegate (her name will be changed at the request of the family), with production to start shortly. Said co-exec producer Allen Epstein: “As recently as two months, we went back and talked (again) to everyone involved. We were given more details than before. It’s interesting, isn’t it, how the passage of time can ease pain?”