Before Munyan snaps his final photos, Stormy’s hunger panic kicks in. She and Peggy take a break at the kitchen table, where a pot of daisies sits next to Stormy’s ten-year-old Private Dancer magazine cover.
“The biggest misunderstanding is that I retired,” she tells me between bites of a taco. “I was nominated for four AVN awards this year. I shot a movie every month. The other [misunderstanding] is that I’m only a porn star because I’m stupid. [That] I figured out how to make the most money doing the least amount of work.”
“Do you need a fork?” Munyan interjects.
“No, I’m a barbarian.”
“The biggest misunderstanding is that I retired. I was nominated for four AVN awards this year… The other is that I’m [in porn] because I’m stupid.”
Stormy washes her food down with purple Red Bull, then notes, “It’s my favorite drink.”
For Stormy’s final shots, Munyan clears the living room of everything, including the hay. Stormy paces nude around the wood-floored space, an American flag draped over her shoulders.
“Is the flag okay to wear?” she asks. “I know it can’t be burnt or touch the ground.”
“I’ve had it on girls and naked guys,” Munyan replies.
“Major celebrities do it and don’t get in trouble,” I say.
“But I suck dick for a living,” Stormy reminds me. “I’m more offensive.”
I search the subject, and Google agrees: Stormy can wrap the flag around her body.
Bathed in strong light, Stormy follows Google’s instructions. With her chin up and one knee high, she looks more like Rosie the Riveter than a porn star.
Seeing her draped in the flag, I think back to the conversation Stormy and I had on the night I first visited Munyan’s ranch.
“Does it bother you that people politicize you?” I asked.
She responded by saying that she has always stayed out of politics because half her fan base is in or has served in the military. Veterans, she said, have approached her in strip clubs and handed her their battalion’s flag, saying, “[My buddy] got killed, but you were his favorite porn star.”
“They’re stuck in these horrible situations, and for an hour and a half, I’m their fantasy,” Stormy explained.
For much of her life, Stormy Daniels has both stripped and stood up to bullies. Now when she stands up to Cohen and his client the president, a new group of fans view what she’s always done as a different kind of service to country. And while this faction is rooting for her to triumph, others just wish she’d keep her mouth shut, no matter what happened between her and the man they believe is making America great again.
But if Stormy’s lifetime of struggle and vanquishment of those attempting to hold her down is any indication, the president may come to realize that grabbing a pussy can sometimes result in the equivalent of putting your hand in a bear trap. Still, even if Stormy is ultimately vindicated, that would bring with it a new set of circumstances, not all of them — given our nation’s politics — necessarily desirable. She knows this, of course. She’s seen a thing or two.
Whatever happens, she’ll meet it with those eyes wide open.