The Kardashian sex tape launch was brokered rather than leaked accidentally.

Evidence

In January 2007, rumors appeared in the press that the adult company Vivid planned to release a homemade video of a gum-smacking Kim Kardashian having sex with her boyfriend Ray J, the brother of R&B singer Brandy. How did Vivid acquire this video? This question has been one of the great mysteries of the twenty-first century, with recriminations on both sides. Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, who had been linked romantically with both Paris Hilton and Kourtney Kardashian in the early aughts, revealed in 2023 that Kim and Ray J asked him to broker the deal. Whatever the truth, the pornographic video Kim Kardashian, Superstar appeared on March 21, 2007, and sold massive numbers. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 159

Categorization

• CANDY: The Joe Francis reveal that Kim and Ray J asked him to broker the deal is a fun, tweetable pop-culture fact.
• XREF: Connects to the broader narrative of manufactured celebrity that Marx is tracing toward the omnivore monoculture.