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Belladonna
Belladonna in 2010
Born	Michelle Sinclair 1980 or 1981 (age 43–44)
Other names	Belladonna Bella
Occupations	Pornographic actress actress director film producer model
Years active	1999-2018
Spouse	Aiden Kelly
Children	1

Michelle Sinclair (born 1980 or 1981), known professionally as Belladonna, is an American former pornographic film and erotic actress, director, producer, and model. Since announcing her retirement from pornography in 2012, she has acted in several mainstream films, including Inherent Vice and The Ladies of the House.

Early life

Sinclair grew up as the second of seven children in a Mormon family in Salt Lake City. Her father was a retired Air Force captain and former bishop in the LDS Church.

Career

Sinclair started performing in pornography in Los Angeles at age 18. One of her early films featured a rough group sex scene with her and twelve men, staged in a prison. She has since appeared in over 300 adult films, including titles such as Service Animals 6 & 7, She-Male Domination Nation, Bella Loves Jenna, Back 2 Evil, Weapons of Ass Destruction, and Fashionistas Safado: The Challenge. In 2002 she featured in the multi award-winning BDSM themed Fashionistas; its director John Stagliano described her as "a woman with the most incredible sexual abilities I’ve ever seen." As well as Stagliano she has often been directed by Nacho Vidal, Jules Jordan and Rocco Siffredi.

Appearances

She has appeared several times in the reality television series Family Business, which focuses on the life of porn director Adam Glasser a.k.a. "Seymore Butts". In 2004 she was one of a number of porn stars photographed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders for a "coffee table book" on the adult industry, XXX: 30 Porn-Star Portraits; she also appears in the HBO documentary Thinking XXX about the making of the book.

In 2011, she was named by CNBC as one of the 12 most popular stars in porn. CNBC noted that while she had stepped back from acting to pursue directing and producing, she has maintained a loyal fan base, and has been nominated for 42 AVN awards and won 10 in the course of her career.

Primetime special

Her career in the pornography business was followed for two years by a crew from ABC Television, culminating in a January 2003 interview for ABC's Primetime with Diane Sawyer. In the interview, she broke down in tears while talking about experiencing abuse and depression. The segment led to backlash from other pornography performers but also boosted her career.

Retirement and later career

In August 2007, Sinclair decided to semi-retire from performing with other people over concerns about sexually transmitted infections, specifically herpes. She thought she had contracted herpes in 2002 and was worried the disease had spread; however, it was later discovered that it was a skin rash rather than herpes.

In 2008, she came out of retirement, and filmed a number of hardcore scenes. She appeared in Digital Playground's Pirates II, the sequel to their top-selling DVD, Pirates. She has also appeared recurringly in James Gunn's PG Porn.

Sinclair was featured on the cover of the second album of British metalcore band Asking Alexandria, titled Reckless & Relentless, released in 2011. She also later featured in their short film Through Sin + Self Destruction.

In July 2012, she announced via Twitter that she was "no longer interested in having sex on camera" and would be pursuing her other interests. In 2014, she made her non-pornographic feature film debut in John Wildman's The Ladies of the House (working title Stripped), a horror film about a group of female cannibals. She appeared in Paul Thomas Anderson's film Inherent Vice as Clancy Charlock in 2014 and in a short film titled Dream Murder Machine in 2018. She also considered becoming a sex positive speaker and instructor.

Personal life

Sinclair's husband Aiden Kelly worked as a website developer for the pornographic film distributor Evil Angel. She gave birth to a daughter in 2005.

Awards

References

1. ^ Dark, Stephen (April 12, 2007). "Sex Machine". Salt Lake City Weekly. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
2. ^ "8 Porn Stars Who Made National News". Rolling Stone. April 23, 2014. Archived from the original on October 10, 2016.
3. ^ Nieratko, Chris (January 9, 2015). "Catching Up with the Actress Formerly Known as Belladonna". VICE. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
4. ^ "Love on a Porn Set: One Woman's Story". ABC News. May 27, 2004. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
5. ^ Warren, Peter (July 2, 2012). "Belladonna: No More Sex on Camera". Adult Video News. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
6. "Richardson Magazine A6 - The Love Issue". Highsnobiety. May 29, 2012. ISSN 2192-6964. Archived from the original on March 15, 2023. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
7. ^ Cachapero, Joanne (April 11, 2007). "Porn Star XXXposure: Belladonna Q&A". Good Vibrations Magazine. Archived from the original on May 2, 2007.
8. Morris, Chris (January 6, 2011). "The Dirty Dozen: Porn's Most Popular Stars". CNBC. Retrieved January 15, 2023.
9. "Belladonna Entertainment". Archived from the original on September 9, 2008 – via Myspace.
10. Taormino, Tristan (September 11, 2007). "Pucker Up: Danger on the Set: A porn star's early retirement has industry insiders talking STDs". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on September 15, 2007 – via Archive.today.
11. Belladonna (May 14, 2008). "Second chances..." EnterBelladonna.com. Archived from the original on February 9, 2010.
12. "Digital Playground's Pirates Toy Line Receives Rave Reviews". Piratesxxx.com (Press release). January 21, 2010. Archived from the original on April 12, 2010.{{cite press release}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
13. Guarnieri, John (July 27, 2011). "Fallen Blue Chills With Asking Alexandria After They Set the Stage Ablaze". FallenBlue.org. Archived from the original on March 15, 2012.
14. Eisenberg, Eric (June 8, 2010). "Pornstar Belladonna Will Attempt To Mainstream In The Horror Movie Stripped". CinemaBlend. Archived from the original on April 14, 2021.
15. "Belladonna Delivers Girl". Adult Video News. January 14, 2005. Retrieved January 13, 2023.
16. Robinson, Georgina (March 3, 2008). "Porn's dirtiest girl cleans up". Brisbane Times. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
17. Rutter, Jared (November 22, 2006). "2007 AVN Awards Nominations Announced". Adult Video News. Archived from the original on July 5, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
18. "2005 AVN Awards Nominations" (PDF). Adult Video News. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 18, 2006.
19. Brown, Trent (December 1, 2003). "AVN Awards Nominations". Adult Video News. Archived from the original on June 8, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
20. "This Year's Nominees". AVN Awards. Archived from the original on November 27, 2002.
21. "AVN Awards Past Winners". AVN Awards. Archived from the original on September 29, 2007.
22. Rutter, Jared (January 12, 2008). "2008 AVN Awards Winners Announced". Adult Video News. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
23. "Nominations 2009 AVN Adult Movie Awards" (PDF). AVN Awards. November 25, 2008. Archived from the original (PDF) on December 3, 2008.
24. Sullivan, David (January 11, 2009). "2009 AVN Award-Winners Announced". Adult Video News.
25. "Best of 2002 (2003 Show)". Dirtybob.com. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
26. Cheribibi (October 10, 2007). "X Stars à la Remise des Prix du Ficeb par Cheribibi" [X Stars at the Ficeb Awards Ceremony by Cheribibi]. XStarsNews (in French). Archived from the original on August 3, 2017.
27. Adams, Eddie (October 14, 2007). "Evil Angel Wins Eight Awards at Barcelona's NINFA Awards". Adult Video News. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
28. "Past Winner History". NightMoves Magazine. Archived from the original on July 22, 2013.
29. "Evil Angel, The Fashionistas Dominate Adam Film World 2002 Movie Awards". Adult Video News. May 1, 2003. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
30. Nelson X (April 25, 2008). "Adam Film World Announces Annual Award Winners". Adult Video News. Retrieved January 16, 2023.
31. "XBIZ Award Winners". XBIZ. February 2011.
32. "F.A.M.E. Finalists". Thefameawards.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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34. "The 23rd Annual XRCO Award Show". XRCO. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
35. "Belladonna". Adult Video News. Retrieved September 11, 2017.

External links

• Belladonna at IMDb
• Belladonna at the Internet Adult Film Database
• Belladonna at the Adult Film Database

• Erotica and pornography

v t e XRCO Award for Female Performer of the Year
Ginger Lynn (1984) Tori Welles (1990) Ashlyn Gere (1993) Debi Diamond (1994) Leena La Bianca (1995) Juli Ashton (1996) Jill Kelly (1998) Stacy Valentine (1999) Inari Vachs (2000) Jewel De'Nyle 2001 2002 Belladonna (2003) Ashley Blue (2004) Lauren Phoenix (2005) Nicki Hunter (2006) Hillary Scott (2007) Sasha Grey (2008) Jenna Haze (2009) Tori Black 2010 2011 Asa Akira 2012 2013 Remy LaCroix (2014) Anikka Albrite (2015) Adriana Chechik 2016 2017 Angela White 2018 2019 2020 Emily Willis (2021) Gianna Dior (2022) Jane Wilde (2023) Vanna Bardot (2024)

• 1980s births
• American pornographic film actresses
• Film producers from Utah
• American pornographic film directors
• American pornographic film producers
• Women pornographic film directors
• Women pornographic film producers
• Living people
• 21st-century American actresses
• Former Latter Day Saints
• People from Salt Lake City
• Feminism and pornography
• American women film producers