‘Hardcore’ Looks at Porn Queen’s Life

As a spokeswoman for pornography, Annie Sprinkle does have a great advantage over the stereotypical, strident anti-porn feminist. Sprinkle is warm, personable with a wistful touch of innocence. And like an attraction in a freak show, she cheerfully trots out her bountiful, pendulous breasts. At intermission, audience members can have Polaroids taken of this twosome bouncing on their heads.

Certainly, Andrea Dworkin or Catherine MacKinnon never have displayed such voyeuristic charm. In her new show, “Hardcore From the Heart: My Film Diary of 25 Years as a Porn Queen,” at Highways, Sprinkle attempts to answer feminist critics, passing slight claims as solid argumentation.

Chronicling her entry into the porn business as the 18-year-old mistress and protegee of a skin flick producer, Sprinkle nonchalantly recalls her three-sex-acts-per-day filming schedules and lists the numerous foreign objects that were used for penetration. In defense of an industry in which she says 90% of the performers do not practice safe sex, Sprinkle audaciously claims that pornography has actually prevented rapes--and that in those countries where pornography does not exist (is there such a place?), the people are sorely oppressed.

Admirers of big breasts, hard-core porno fans and giggling yuppies may consider this good entertainment, but really Sprinkle’s one-woman show is self-indulgent fluff that inadvertently raises issues Sprinkle determinedly glosses over.

* “Hardcore From the Heart: My Film Diary of 25 Years as a Porn Queen,” Highways, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica. Tonight-Sunday, 8:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. $15-20. (213) 660-8587. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes.