In May 2007, upon re-signing her contract with Vivid for another six films, Leone agreed to perform for the first time with men on camera, but exclusively with her fiancé, Matt Erikson.[34] That summer she also received breast augmentation,[35] and shot her first movie under the new contract titled Sunny Loves Matt. The movie led to her being nominated for three (out of six) AVN awards in 2009 in addition to being a choice for Female Performer of the Year.[36] She followed up her first boy-girl title with The Other Side of Sunny in October 2008, which would be the last time she would perform with Erikson.
In January 2008, Leone revealed that she was no longer exclusive to Erikson, and had done scenes with other actors, most notably Tommy Gunn, Charles Dera, James Deen[37] and Voodoo.[38] In 2009, Vivid released her only movie performing with other male actors titled "Sunny B/G Adventure".[39] Her final release under contract with Vivid – "Undress Me", once again made her exclusive to performing with just one male actor, Daniel Webber.[40]
In August 2009, she announced the launch of her own studio, Sunlust Pictures, with Daniel Weber as her partner.[41] With her new venture Leone announced her plans to write, direct and create her own brand of adult movies with Vivid Entertainment as her distributor.[37] Her first independent production, The Dark Side of the Sun, was released in March 2009, and was debuted at the Erotic Heritage Museum in Las Vegas.[42] In June 2009, she held a casting call in Las Vegas for her second independent production titled Sunny Slumber Party[43] (released September 2009).She followed up with three other self produced features Gia Portrait of a Porn Star (2010) which was nominated for multiple AVN awards,[44] Roleplay (2011) and Goddess (2012) which featured her first anal sex scene.[45]
Sunny Leone at Exxxotica 2009 Miami
No longer exclusive to Vivid, Leone has started working with other studios and performers since 2009. She has managed to leverage her online popularity by striking deals with firms like PPPcard,[46] AdultPokerParty.com,[47] Brickhouse,[48] Flirt4Free,[49] Totemcash[50] and Imlive[51] to sell and distribute her content over the internet and other media. She won the "Web Babe of the Year" at the 2008 Xbiz Awards.[52] Her websites and business interests are run under her banner company Leone L.L.C. She indicated in an April 2012 interview that 80 per cent of the traffic on her website, and 60 per cent of her revenue comes from India.[53]
In addition to her film career, Leone has been part of the Vivid Comedy Tour,[54] and has modelled for the Vivid Footwear collection.[55] Leone has also participated in events like the Vivid/ClubJenna Lingerie Bowl[56] and Vivid's Hot Rod Night.[57] Doc Johnson launched a pocket pal in 2006 moulded to her vagina,[58] and in 2008 released the Sunny Leone Exciter vibrator.[59] Control MFG currently uses Leone's image along with other Vivid girls to market their line of skateboards. She is paired with Gab Ekoe, one of the Team Control riders.[60] She also indicated that she plans to launch her own line of lingerie and other Sunny-branded products including a diamond jewellery line.[37]
In September 2009, an iPhone application consisting of a collection of non-nude photos, some videos and a porn star-penned blog[61] was approved by Apple for sale in the iTunes store, making it the first officially sanctioned application featuring a porn star.[62] By February 2010, the app had been removed by Apple from the store.[63]
Leone was voted number 13 (up from number 41 in 2007[64]) on Genesis magazine's "Top 100 Porn stars" list,[65] number 34 on Desiclubs.com's Top 50 Coolest Desis of 2004,[66] and one of the "40 under 40" ranking on AVN Online magazine.[67] In 2010, she was named by Maxim as one of the 12 top female stars in porn.[68] She was voted number 82 in the Top 99 Women for 2012 in AskMen.com's list.[69]
In 2013, she announced her retirement from the adult industry stating "I am lucky that the audience is accepting me. I have come my way from there (porn industry). I don't have any plans as of now to go back there."[70]
A police first information report was filed against her in May 2015 after a woman at Mumbai, India, complained that the adult-film-turned Bollywood star was destroying the Indian culture. Thane police at Ramnagar booked her for sections 292, 292A, 294 which could land her into jail, fine or both. Senior police inspector JK Sawant from the cell said, "We are trying to contact the website's operator to get relevant details. We cannot block the website, but will ask the operator to remove objectionable content."[71]
Mainstream appearances
Leone's first mainstream appearance was in 2005, when she was a red carpet reporter for the MTV Awards on MTV India. She has also had a cameo in the film The Girl Next Door, performed in Ja Rule's video Livin' It Up and a video for Kidd Skilly.[72] Other credits include E!'s "Wild On!" and the Sundance Film Festival's 'After Dark'.[73] Leone was a contestant in the second season of the Fox reality show My Bare Lady 2: Open for Business, in which a group of adult actresses were given classes and training on how to pitch investment ideas and competed for success in the business world.[74] In addition to filming her scene for Debbie Does Dallas in 2007, Leone was also part of a Showtime documentary of the same name detailing the production of the movie and the personal lives of its stars.
She indicated that for the right price she would seriously consider a career in Bollywood.[75] She was courted by Indian directors in the past but felt uncomfortable with the roles that she would have played.[20][76] Director Mohit Suri reportedly asked Leone to play the lead role in his film Kalyug, but instead cast Deepal Shaw as he could not afford Leone's $1 million acting fee.[77] She has mentioned that Aamir Khan is her favorite Bollywood actor,[78] and that over 60% of her fans are from South Asia.[79]
In 2008, Leone announced that she would be starring in a mainstream action adventure movie titled Pirates Blood, which was shot in Oman. The shooting was completed in two weeks and was to be released in winter 2008.[80] Leone also landed a role in Middle Men, producer Chris Mallick's indie feature about the birth of the online porn industry set for wide theatrical release in 2009.[81][82] She appeared in the 2010 film The Virginity Hit playing a version of herself, where she is hired to take the virginity of the lead character.[83]
Leone has made appearances at events such as the 2002 SEMA International Auto Salon, the 2002 Extreme Autofest Pomona and the 2006 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.[84] Sunny has also been the hostess at events in clubs like the Mansion in Miami[85] and the Highlands in Hollywood.[86]
In 2005, she was mentioned in Forbes magazine for a story on Vivid Entertainment.[87] Leone has also been featured in mainstream publications like FHM, Front and Jane magazine.[88] In 2007, along with the other Vivid Girls, she was seen in a 48' high holiday Billboard in Times Square at W. 48th Street and Seventh Avenue.[89] Leone is also one of the Penthouse Pets who appears in the PlayStation Portable game Pocket Pool. She was also featured in a coffee table book titled Naked Ambition: An R Rated Look at an X Rated Industry by Michael Grecco.[90]
Sunny at the PETA - Adopt a stray dog campaign.
In 2004, she was part of No More Bush Girls, in which she and several other popular adult actresses shaved off their pubic hair in protest of the George W. Bush presidency.[91] In May 2008, she shot a promotional video for Declare Yourself, a nonprofit, nonpartisan voter registration campaign targeting 18- to 29-year-olds.[92] She indicated that Barack Obama would be her choice in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, primarily because she felt he was more business friendly to the adult industry than his opponent John McCain.[93] She also released a public service announcement on behalf of the ASACP, reminding adult webmasters to protect their sites from children by having an RTA label on it.[94]
Leone has a strong interest in health and fitness, and has been featured in several mainstream fitness publications. Leone has modelled fitness clothing for the sports brand Fantasy Fitness[95] and shared that she keeps her body in shape by working out as much as she can despite her busy schedule and as quoted in Men's Fitness magazine, "I try to eat very healthy – lots of vegetables, drinking my milk every day."[96]
In 2013, Leone posed for a PETA ad campaign, encouraging dog and cat owners to have their pets spayed and neutered. In an interview for PETA India, Leone said, "I believe that every single dog should be spayed and neutered. You don't want to continue the cycle of homeless dogs or cats. And spaying and neutering also keeps them healthy[97]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunny_Leone
