A few days before the Adult Entertainment Expo arrived we waited for a booth at a restaurant because Annie Lobert's stories about her years working as an escort in the Vegas resort corridor can get graphic.
Many years ago her friend Heather Veitch used to be a stripper in Vegas. Now both women are Christian activists trying to reach out to women in the Las Vegas sex industry. They were gearing up for the 40,000-strong expo, the biggest adult industry convention in the country.
I discovered the duo through a series of popular YouTube videos they did called "Saving Sex City." Episode 3 features the two walking the Strip as showgirls carrying placards with Christian messages. Even before uniting for the video series, Veitch received a lot of media attention.
She thinks it is because she doesn't look like your typical Christian preacher.
Veitch says she has received almost no hostility from the people she is trying to reach in Vegas; on the other hand, she has found that some churches are not interested in populating congregations with strippers she has invited to services. And then it always comes back to her look. Veitch says, "The Christian community can be very judgmental."
At the expo Veitch and Lobert wound up working the convention floor, delivering their message to anyone who would listen.
By calling the church group she formed Hookers for Jesus, Lobert admits she pretty much guaranteed getting attention.
"Most Christians might think I am selling my body. But I say that because I am trying to hook people on Jesus."
Talent agent Mark Spiegler was sitting at the Evil Angel (a large porn distribution company) booth when the church duo approached him.
Spiegler is a leading talent agent for many adult stars, by his own description a "legal pimp." Lobert seemed to have legitimately befuddled him. Spiegler is Jewish, and he isn't the only one.
"What if the girls are Jewish?" he asks.
"Even if they are Satanist, we are still going to stand by them," Veitch says.
After they leave, a reflective Spiegler offers, "A lot of girls in this industry could use something stabilizing like religion. I don't mind what they are doing at all."
Later, Veitch and Lobert enjoy a laugh at one failing in their advertising plan: Lobert's Web address for Hookers for Jesus can't be read on her T-shirt because the writing has fallen out of sight, a victim of her cleavage.
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