Letter from a Porn Star

This is a letter sent by my oldest Godson, Marc Anthony Donais to the Birmingham News in January, 2009. It was never published because Anthony would not allow the News to edit it for fear they would distort what he had actually said and print some scurrilous headline like “Porn Star Confirms Relationship with Katopodis.” This is not, by any means, the complete story, but telling all of it would further violate the privacy of his family and my own. It’s embarrassing and self-serving to publish it now, but I am weary of the ignorant comments from folks like John Archibald and Kyle Whitmire. Anthony gave me permission to publish it here, hoping it will satisfy these guys’ perverse curiosity in my personal life.

Joey Kennedy
Commentary editor
The Birmingham News
2201 4th Ave. North
Birmingham, Alabama 35203
jkennedy@bhamnews.com
joey@bham.rr.com
joeykennedy@mac.com
205-325-2466
205-325-3345 (Fax)
205-322-0801 (H)

By MARC ANTHONY DONAIS

Because of recent stories in your newspaper which mention me, I’ve had many requests for interviews from media in Birmingham and even mention on National Public Radio. My quiet life has been interrupted as a result of stories slanted by you to publicly humiliate John Katopodis. I don’t understand your motives, but we all know in the newspaper business you have to make it “smell to sell”. But because what you have done is so unfair, I want to comment on my relationship with John, who has been a mentor and positive role model for me and many others.
I grew up extremely poor without knowing who my father was and joined the Navy when I was 17 to get away from a miserable childhood. After leaving the Navy, I was desperate for work and, unfortunately, associated with people who took advantage of me and introduced me to the world of drugs and alcohol. I had no real excuse, except that I was very young and stupid, but before I knew it, I was so deep into the adult entertainment business and was being exploited by people who supplied me with drugs all the while stealing from me.
My life was hell on Earth until I decided to kill myself and
jumped from my apartment window in New York. I lived from a fall that should have killed me or at least left me permanently crippled. After this, I decided I had to drastically change my life and that God was speaking to me directly to do this.
While I was hospitalized, my girlfriend asked John Katopodis to help me. He allowed us to come to Birmingham to recuperate from my fall and gave me work that I could do with my injuries (I was still on crutches). I worked at a computer warehouse repairing old computers for disadvantaged children and also did web design and maintenance for several organizations. I’m good at this and was not paid much money — I think it was about $1,000 a month, but for the first time in my life I had a real job with real friends, a place to be and some basic dignity. My girlfriend lived with me at the time and John treated her like part of his family, as well, never asking anything of either of us. He encouraged me to go back to school, went with me to at least one AA meeting and helped me solve some problems that lingered from my association with the porn industry.
Although I was not an active adult entertainer at the time, my past followed me everywhere, and even today your newspaper refers to me as a “porn star,” although I have not been in this business for many, many years. The photo which was used is as old as the hills.
Sometimes, as I relapsed back into my alcoholism, I was a real pain in the neck, but I was never rejected or mistreated by Dr. Katopodis or other people in Birmingham who knew my situation and tried to help me. Most of all, John never apologized for who I had been or what I had done wrong in my past. He just accepted me and encouraged me to do better. He was like a parent with a problem child. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had a reason to live by helping others, and that meant I was worth something. I’d like to feel like I got special treatment, but the truth is that John treated everyone with respect and dignity, no matter what their past. I admired him for his hard work and lack of selfishness to try and help everyone who asked for it.
As I got ready to leave Birmingham, he asked me if it would insult me if he gave me some of his old clothes to help me in job interviews. I still have the blue suit he gave me framed and hanging over my desk, and I named one of my companies Blue Suit Productions because this suit meant so much to my self-esteem.
He also gave me a ring like the one he gave John Kennedy and told me to act like the son of a president when I wore it and always conduct myself in a way to make myself proud.
Now I understand that John’s association with me has created many problems for him and the laptop project that he was working on with Harvard University. I hate that. And feel badly that someone who is a really good guy would be crucified by your newspaper with no one defending him, even those who should know better. I thought Birmingham was a Christian community, but I’d hate to know the secrets of some of you throwing stones at Katopodis. I know of many good things he has done for your city, but I have never read about them in your pa¬per. Like the fight he led to add fluoride to the water so kids would not have cavities or his fight to build Epic School. He likes kids and thinks everyone should go to Harvard. Why don’t you print these things?
Your stories intentionally imply that John is a homosexual who paid for sex with public monies. I have never asked Dr. Katopodis if he is gay or straight, and if you are that interested in this subject you ought to ask him directly. I do know that he has never hit on me or anyone else I know. I was told and have no reason to doubt it, that the money paid to me came from Richard Scrushy and HealthSouth. If he was trying to hide his association with me, I guess he could have paid me in cash like he did the UAB student techs from India that did not have local bank accounts.
I’m not clear on what homoerotic fantasy you people are having, but printing my picture in a football uniform from many years ago was a great marketing idea for a town that is crazy about football. I assume you wanted to draw as much attention to your story as possible. But I listened online to a tape recording you made of Dr. Katopodis and posted on the Internet probably without his knowledge or permission, and I think this was a disgusting tactic.
I want to end with this: Out of all the people I have ever known, John Katopodis is the most decent and compassionate person I ever met. I feel lucky to know him and to have had his guidance and support in my life. I know many other people he’s helped, but I guess they are hiding. While I was in Birmingham, I know he hired convicted felons from some government work program and also hired recovering drug addicts that no one else would give a job. He also taught English at a prison close by. One of these guys is now a Navy aviator, another is an engineer and one works at UAB as a computer technician. Some of these folks ought to speak up but are probably afraid of being on the front page of your newspaper. Who can blame them?
I asked John one time why he continued to stay in Birmingham when he could go anywhere with his education and be better appreciated. He told me that God calls all of us to do his work on Earth, and that Birmingham is where God wanted him to be.
Frankly, I hope God changes his mind soon and gets him out of Birmingham before you judgmental hypocrites kill the guy. I hope all this has a happy ending, but what you have done to John is wrong and, if he is right about God, you’ll pay for it in the end.
He’s a classy guy in a league of his own. I hope one day someone will say that about me and you.

Marc Anthony Donais aka Ryan Idol is a businessman and part-time actor living and working in New England. He recently appeared in a Broadway production of The Ritz starring Rosie Perez and has completed a memoir that will soon be produced as a one man show about the impact on his life of his involvement in the adult entertainment industry.

 

 

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