I knew next to nothing about Ron Jeremy before reading his book. I knew he was a popular porn actor who is considered very unattractive, and that he's been referenced in music, movies, and comedy routines. I'd never even seen any of his movies. But then recently I'd heard that he holds a Master's degree, and that he's taught special ed, and is a renowned lecturer. Not exactly what you would expect from a famous porn actor, eh?

When I saw this book here at Eden Fantasys, I immediately knew I wanted to read it. The book starts off with Ron at a current shoot, then it flashbacks to his childhood, and then alternates between different decades until it comes full circle. There are few pages of black & white photos of a much younger Ron and some of his early publicity stills.

Apparently, Ron had always wanted to be a mainstream actor, but fell into porno (after getting a thumbs-up from his father, and promising to not use the family name), and enjoyed it so much that he’s stayed with it all these years. But he never lets his readers (or anyone else) forget his original acting ambitions. At one point I was thinking, “OK, Ron, we get it, you never intended to become a porn actor, let alone the arguably most famous one”. To his credit he pokes fun at himself for this very reason. Speaking of poking fun (no, not sex), Ron is quite the funny guy; there were a few times that I literally laughed out loud.

Ron talks about how the current porn era vastly differs from the one during which he first became a bonafide porn star. It was interesting to read how some of these shoots went down back in the day, and that the films were given proper premieres much like a Hollywood offering. He also relays tales of his own trials and tribulations directing pornos, from run-ins with vice squads to a questionable grant of permission from Howard Stern to use his studio for a shoot. Despite the seriousness of some of the situations he found himself in, Ron never lost his sense of humor.

Like my title for this review indicates, Ron Jeremy name-drops… a lot… in every chapter… sometimes damn near every page of some chapters. He even does it in his footnotes. He's met just about everybody in Hollywood from high-profile actors like Brad Pitt and directors like Adrian Lynne (Jeremy was a consultant on 9 1/2 weeks) to comedians (such as a young Jim Carrey and Sam Kinison) and rock stars (even the Nelson twins…no, seriously). Not content to just divulge the names, Jeremy includes several pages of color photos of him with many of those very same people.

At the beginning of this review, I said there were a few surprising things that I didn't know about him. The book further surprised me by revealing that Ron is a classically trained pianist and violinist and a stand-up comedian. Who woulda thunk it? The more I found out about him the more interesting he became. Actually, I don't think I've ever been this interested in or fascinated by a porn actor, although Sasha Grey is fast becoming one.

In the acknowledgments section at the end of the book, Ron shows his intelligence in a very humanitarian way. He did a television show in England called The Farm, and the plight of wasted animal flesh vs. world hunger. This leads Ron to come up with a smart solution to these issues. He includes the letter he wrote to representatives of Hollywood celebrities who had expressed interest in ending world hunger, hoping they would join him in his quest. It’s an articulate letter and his solution makes sense.

The book ends with a pair of appendices: A, which is a list of “fun facts” about Ron, and B, a partial list of Ron’s roles in mainstream films that were eventually cut from the final edit.