“A girl this pretty is not supposed to be poor.”
That's what Samantha Horton, a character on the July 19 Lifetime movie “The Clint List” said in justifying her decision to become a prostitute.
Jennifer Love Hewitt played Horton, a former
Hewitt, who also produced the made-for-TV movie, said making the movie opened her eyes to the realities of the current economy, and the lengths to which people would – and should – go to make ends meet.
“I didn't realize how judgmental I was about that stuff,” Hewitt told USA Today July 19 referring to prostitution. “As I kind of got into playing it, you start to understand. I was really interested in the fact that there are more housewives and women going into the sex industry than ever before. I think that I always thought that it was something they chose, but in my character's case, she's left with no other option.”
The way Lifetime and USA Today presented it, a viewer or reader might think prostitution was the only option. It's a solution the media have presented before.
Hewitt presented similar views on the necessity of prostitution in interviews on “Entertainment Tonight” and “The View.” She cited unnamed studies she claimed showed more and more housewives were turning to prostitution to support their families.
“The Client List” isn't the only television show promotion prostitution as a way to make ends meet. The HBO series “Hung” depicts a father entrenched in the life of male prostitution to support his kids.
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