Shattered Innocence (1988 TV Movie) User Reviews

The true story of Colleen Applegate/Shauna Grant

[arturopanduro · 6/10 · 1 April 2000]

This biopic shows us the tragic story of Colleen Applegate, who at a very young age moved to Hollywood from the midwest and became porn star Shauna Grant. Though the names have been changed, it is her story. The film is well-acted, especially by Melinda Dillon, who plays the girl's mother. I recommend this TV movie to anyone who enjoys a tragic real life story. I give this an 8 out of 10.

Surprisingly good

[amidalasky · 7/10 · 15 March 2005]

This is a movie that could have been tawdry and exploitative, and indeed, I recall reading that the parents of Colleen Applegate (whose life this is loosely based on) were displeased with it, saying it made the pornographers look like they were just running a business and Colleen got into trouble on her own. It's not quite that simple in the movie.

The acting is good all around. Jonna Lee is convincing in all three wildly different stages of the Colleen character's (here she's called Pauleen) story: naive virgin, confident nude model, and decimated, has-been, weary porn star. Her hysterical, desperate tirade at the end is particularly noteworthy; despite the many stupid decisions she's made, in the end, you feel for her. She was really just a kid, after all.

Surprisingly touching

[moonspinner55 · 8/10 · 29 September 2001]

This TV-movie begins like most others in the good-girl-goes-bad vein, but it drew me in regardless. It's quickly apparent that "Shattered Innocence" is a well-made, well-acted and written picture and it really caught me off guard. The young woman whose innocence is shattered is based on real-life porn-star Shauna Grant. Scenes such as the one where Shauna goes back home for Christmas, proudly showing off a scrapbook of nude photos to her family and then getting rebuffed by her appalled mother, are both tender and sad, and Shauna's fight to reclaim her life at the finale is quite gripping. The film doesn't have the theatrical style of something like "Star 80", but it's actually a much better film. All the acting is solid and Sandor Stern's direction is both careful and easy. His picture resonates with a sad, gritty truth that is tough to fathom but well-portrayed for our benefit.

She's Growing Up...And Growing Away...

[Squrpleboy · 7/10 · 17 January 2002]

(*SPOILERS*)...Those are lines repeated more than once by (the superb) Melinda Dillon, who plays the mother of a young girl (Jonna Lee, as Paulina Anderson) who falls into a devastating life of drug addiction and pornography, which leads to her self-induced death. My first thoughts upon seeing this film 14 years ago, on TV, were with regards to the level of difficulty, and subsequent success, that the producers/director must have had in making a movie about pornography without the ability to use nudity, coarse language or explicit scenes and situations that make up the core of a pornographic film. That is no small feat in itself. Add to that the morbid nature of the entire storyline; the rapid decline of a young life through the aforementioned vices (which is based on a true story), and being made specifically for television audiences, and I am surprised that this film got made at all. But it was made well. Tastefully, with humanity, and completely free of exploitation. The acting is very good, with actress Melinda Dillon (most recognized as the mother from A Christmas Story) giving a stunningly frustrated and distraught performance. Jonna Lee also does well to give us a sense of the innocent, starry-eyed and naive teen who, so soon and so sadly, becomes self-destructive, emotionally and morally devastated, and completely lost in a world of corruption. Only the father seems somewhat uncharacteristically unfettered by his daughter's lifestyle, which doesn't really ring true for any father with daughters, that I've ever known. At times the story slips into scenes of melodrama with soap-opera style images and situations, but that is forgivable over-all. The period fashion (early 80's) is dated (and seems especially funny- looking today, in 2002) but absolutely perfect with regards to the timeline of the story. And the various settings and decor reveal both a rural Kansas home-spun comfort and the Hollywood Californian high-life of excess. Upon seeing this film again just last night (thanks in part to the "on TV, schedule links" found on this site) I was first struck by my disbelief in the probability of the main character, or any of the other porno actresses/models portrayed in the film, as being seen as physically stunning women. But to correctly remember the American porno, or even modeling, business back in the early 80's, before excessive silicone implanting, collagen injecting and wide-spread plastic surgery use, one must remember that a woman WAS judged beautiful based on her natural features and attributes, not to mention actually being expected to "act" as well as perform sexually in the films. This only leads one to imagine an even harsher world for girls in pornography today (and is evidenced in the fact that several others have also taken their own lives since this story originally took place). I highly recommend Shattered Innocence as a good Made-For-TV movie, created before the "onslaught" of such made the genre a joke of sorts, and as an intriguing story and picture on the whole. I also might mention that admirers of the big-screen films "Star 80", "Hardcore" or "Boogie Nights" (in particular, the comparison between the Adult Film Awards ceremony in Shattered Innocence and Boogie Nights is interesting) might like this film, or vice versa 7/10 Sad, but worthwhile watching.

Girl Next Door

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 17 December 2006]

**SPOILERS** Surprisingly good made for TV movie about the short life and violent death of Colleen Applegate who was known by her many fans as porno film star Shauna Grant. Born in California and later moving to the little tree-lined Minnesota town, pop 3,500, of Farmingdale Colleen was a beautiful and friendly girl.It turned out that her looks and girl-next-door persona was what brought her to the life that she lead and suffered through from 1981 to 1984 ending up with a bullet in her skull. After lingering for two days on life support Colleen finally passed away on March 23 1984 just two months shy of her 21th birthday.

About to graduate from high school and go out in the world for the first time just turned 18 year-old Bannon Kansas High School cheerleader Pauleen Anderson, Joanna Lee, is about as naive and unfamiliar with the world outside Bannon as she is about what going on in Jupiter or Mars. Determained to make something of herself Pauleen quickly quits a job at the local phone company that her father, Dennis Howard, a supervisor there got for her. Knowing that she's about the most beautiful girl in town and having her boyfriend Cory Parker, Kris Kamm, willing to drive her and himself out to L.A Pauleen says goodbye to Bannon and her parents Del and Sharon Anderson, Medlinda Dillon. Pauleen feels that she has all the qualities that can make her a top fashion model or even movie star and the sooner she starts the better things will be for her.

After knocking around the beach and town Pauleen finally lands a job for this modeling agency, Selby, where the owner Lou Gates, Ben Frank, an ex-professional boxer sees that Pauleen has a lot of talent as a future model and quickly get her started in a series photo session at his studio.

We see right away that Pauleen is not that eager to take her clothes off since her upbringing back in Bannon was anything but ultra-liberal in the sexual freedoms that were so common in places like L.A San Francisco or New York back then during the "sexual revolution". With a little prodding by Lou Pauleen starts to get the hang of things as a nude or semi-nude model and in no time at all she's making as much as $200.00 a day when she's working on a photo shoot. Cory seeing the results of his girlfriend Pauleen's work, the nude photos, breaks up with her and leaves for Bannon leaving Pauleen alone in the big city with almost no one to turn to for help.

Slowly getting corrupted by drugs as well as posing nude and later appearing and acting in porno flicks the truth about Pauleen's sudden descent into the dark abyss of the world of adult entertainment reaches her parents and friends back in Bannon Kansas. This shocking discovery of Pauleens not so secret life happens as she appears in a number of nude and explicate girlie magazines and XXX rated movies and videos on sale in and around Bannon.

The movie "Shattered Innocence" is very realistic in the fact that not all was bad and depressing for young Paulleen. We see her having good times at high class parties with famous Hollywood producers directors and actors in attendance. Pauleen did in the brief time that she was involved in the porno business have more then her share of fame & success , earning herself a nomination as best porno actress of 1983 at the yearly Erotic Film Awards. As a top rated and much sought after Porno Queen, making as much as 30 feature films, Pauleen made more then enough money to get her out of the business and start a new life. It was Pauleens strong addicting to cocaine that she stuck up her nose almost around the clock in order to keep her weight down and give her a high that ate up all her savings, as much as $1,500.00 a day when she was shooting a movie. It was when her cocaine supplier and live-in boyfriend Mel ,John Pleshette, was sent away to the big house for five years on an old drug rap that pushed Pauleen to the edge and also drove the depressed confused and abandoned young woman to kill herself.

All too common a story about how the glamor and glitter of tinsel town drove many a young girl to her doom finding out only too late that the odds of making it big, no matter how gorgeous and beautiful she is, on the big or small screen is about as high as the dead coming back to life before the resurrection. Even if Pauleen, by some miracle, did make it to stardom and fame, without being addicted to drugs, in almost all cases it would last about as long as a flickering shooting star across the sky on a warm summer night; Like the short and sad life of of the beautiful but tragic Pauleen Anderson AKA Colleen Applegate.

A Classy Movie About Porn

[ruffrider · 9/10 · 17 January 2005]

I keep coming back to this film, some 17 years after I first saw it, for the script, the cast, the acting and even the background music. This Lorimar TV flick must have been ahead of its time in 1988, as the story of 17-year-old Pauleen Anderson, who, wanting to grow up faster than she knows how, leaves home and becomes in turn a centerfold, a porn star, a cocaine abuser and finally a suicide when things go wrong. I think the producers and writers try to take aim at the pornography industry for the sleazy business it is, but this girl's impatience with life and desire to "have it all" the fast and easy way seem just as much to blame for what happened to her. Jonna Lee is convincing in every way as a natural beauty who is not mature enough to handle what she's gotten herself into. Melinda Dillon is memorable as the disapproving mother who understands neither her daughter's restlessness nor how the high-paying porno business would prove as addictive as cocaine to a young girl with nothing to sell but her looks. John Pleshette is also good as the older man who's finally found the centerfold girlfriend he's wanted all his life, only to lose her to his own tragic flaw - being a cocaine dealer headed for prison. No matter how many times I see this film I'm moved by the way it unfolds relentlessly toward its inevitable tragic end. Even the touching opening and closing theme music strikes home. Knowing that this fictionalized account mirrors the life and death of real-life porn star Colleen Applegate only makes it more compelling.

NOT BAD

[bazdol · 2 March 2000]

I saw this on the True Romance channel today and thought it was not bad at all, typical of the Made-for-TV movies of the 80s. Joanna Lee plays the part of Pamela Lee, a porn actress who killed herself at the age of 20 after heavy cocaine addiction with her young life filled with misfortunes. Like many, she came from the rural midwest and was attracted to the bright lights of LA hoping to make it as a legit model only to pose nude and end up in porn. It is really a sad and moving story, well directed and acted. Joanna Lee does an excellent job of portraying this poor young girl. Ms. Lee made only a few pictures

Based on the life and death of Colleen Applegate

[babeth_jr · 7/10 · 25 May 2008]

This 1988 made for t.v. movie was based on the life and ultimate suicide of Colleen Applegate, a young woman from Minnesota who went to Hollywood at the age of 18 with dreams of stardom, became a porn star under the name of "Shauna Grant" and then returned to her hometown two years later to be buried, a tragic suicide at the age of 20.

This movie is a fictionalized account of her life and death although apparently her parents did cooperate in the making of this film.

Jonna Lee portrays "Pauline Anderson", the fictionalized version of Colleen. She overacts at times, but otherwise does a competent job of portraying the innocence and then gradual freefall of a young girl who gets ensnared into the adult entertainment industry through cocaine and big money. Melinda Dillon portrays her mother, and does a good job of conveying her character's devastation and shame at her daughter's choice of career, and eventual destruction.

I think what gave this movie more poignancy to me was the fact that it was based on a true story, not just some hack writer's imagination working overtime. How many thousands of young girls go to Hollywood each year with the hopes of breaking into the movies, only to fall into porn, with devastating results? It's a chilling thought, and Colleen's suicide is a reminder of this.

Based on a true story...

[MarieGabrielle · 8/10 · 26 September 2006]

this film was made in the late 80's and there was also a NY PBS documentary based on the same subject; her real name was Colleen, she was from the Midwest, she moved to L.A. to get her "big break". Of course, tens of thousands of others stream into the city weekly, so it is not a done deal.

She eventually became "Shauna Grant" porn star. The seamier sides of the business are probably not shown, but the drug issues, transient lifestyle and impossibility of finding a real acting job afterward are all touched on. Originally, Colleen was just a girl trying to make it, took a few wrong turns. The story ended tragically.

Melinda Dillon is very good as Colleen's mother, not knowing what to do, initially believing her daughter is doing okay. There is a decent cameo role by John Pleshette, an older man who attempted to rescue her, but he is carted off to prison, and she loses this meager support system. The alienation and emptiness of her life in Palm Springs, where she was eventually found dead, is palpable.

This is actually a good film for parents who still may not be aware of what can happen; the downward spiral of a girl who started with good intentions, ended up working in porn.The sad fact is that this still goes on today; anyone who has HBO will regularly have to turn off the show with "Family Business:Seymour Butts"--- a minor porn producer who has his own show.

For actresses who really think they want to get into that business are free to do so, but should realize they will not eventually be hooking up into a decent acting career; It is an age old ploy that was used. "Shattered Dreams" is a decent film with a message. 8/10

Whatever happened to Jonna Lee??

[memery-1 · 6/10 · 27 May 2008]

I had no idea that this was based on a true story, but it's a pretty believable premise. A small town girl gets caught up in the drug-fueled and lucrative nude modeling and porn industry, then her life goes down the toilet. Jonna Lee was pretty good in this role. I wonder what happened to her. The only other movie I saw her in was "Making the Grade." Lee's character was more of a mess than a victim. It was kind of hard to feel sorry for her. Was college a worse alternative than becoming a strung out porn star?? Amazingly, many of the porn execs, photographers, coke dealers aren't depicted in a seedy light. The film starts in 1981, but Lee's attire is pretty much late 80s stuff (torn, tight Guess jeans), and the soundtrack is right out of the 1970s (Fleetwood Mac, Frampton). It's a sad story, but throughout the whole thing, you just want the lead character to get a freaking clue!

Seems rather tame, but then again, what's shown is more than enough.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 19 August 2021]

I found it hard to believe that Jonna Lee's character of Pauline couldn't find a liveable wage job outside of the world of nude modeling and eventually porn. She is shown with high school pal Kris Kamm going in and out of various businesses and constantly turned down. She refuses to take anything that just pays minimal wage, even to start gaining experience, and when she does find a profession where the salary for modeling provides a nice wage, she's soon disrobing, and that leads to adult loops and eventually Penthouse and theatrically released adult entertainment. When mother Melinda Dillon discovers this, she is repulsed, even more so when Lee returns home for Christmas, boasting about her real work, of course leaving out the fact that she is doing drugs. This of course takes her life further into deeper dark places, from which there is only one escape.

Typical TV movie fare that we'd seen in the 70's, greatly hinted at in precode films of the 30's, and while this is certainly a good reminder for young ladies to be wary of, it only shows the surface dangers, not the real despair and degradation that comes with this life. Lee manages to show her downfall quite realistically, and through that, you can tell she's desperately trying to stay nice. John Pleshette, Richard Cox and Stephen Schnetzer are also very good as some of the more respectable men in her life, warning her of how her habits could destroy her. Dillon could have played the mother with more judgment, but she makes the character more than just a one dimensional prude. The ending is obvious but that doesn't make it any easier to feel bad when it happens.

A Family treated TV bio-pic "flavor of the moment", Shauna Grant

[lambiepie-2 · 8/10 · 23 December 2002]

I remember quite clearly the flurry of Los Angeles news reports regarding the self-inflicted death of adult film actress Shauna Grant whose real name was Colleen Applegate. Oh yes, they made a BIG deal about "the pornography business" and how "degrading it is" and how "this always happens" to "those kind of people" when Shauna was found with a self inflicted gunshot wound and later died.

This TV picture is based 'somewhat' on Shauna's life, but what makes this quickly made TV semi-bio pic a head above others is that it never holds the Adult/Porno Film industry totally responsible, instead it showed how a young woman was seduced into the glitz and glamor of being in entertainment.

The one line which is so important is when the character in this film, Pauleen Anderson, goes into a Los Angeles restaurant with a man who wants to be her "manager" which he tells her is much more than her "agent" and tells her, "It doesn't matter what kind of films you make as long as they are profitable." That's the seduction, much more than the adult films and the drugs.

Here's another young, naive woman with a seemingly All-American Mid-West perfect family, falling into "the trap". This movie made you think it could be Shauna Grant, who was on everyone's minds at the time, or as the years pass and they still show this film, could be any young woman. She overindulged, she had no real friends, she lied to herself, she had talent, she wanted to succeed on her own, she did degrade herself, she really wasn't mature enough to make good decisions for herself and when she thought she could hide under another ANOTHER self, she found out it was still her. The older man she thought she could be with, left her (albeit because of prison) like all the other men in her life. And to top it off, he ended up not "trusting" her -- like all the other men in her life. This all added up to a tragic ending of...a life.

For its time, its subject matter and companion piece to all of us who were wondering about Shauna Grant's situation/life, "Shattered Innocence" is a very good effort for the indulgent 80's if you remember or know what the origin of the film was for. As years go by, it will take on a different view for all who watch.

Since Shauna's tragedy...there are still more of the same in a line of young women to follow such as -- Gia, Savannah, etc., etc. different entertainment industry avenues but basically the same old story. And we'll be seeing more TV/Feature Film/Cable stories about these ladies as well.

I guess the point is to watch these films and make sure its not our daughters, or daughters of those we know, that may eventually end up in one.

Pretty awful

[=G= · 5/10 · 20 January 2002]

"Shattered Innocence", loosely based on the short life of porn star Shauna Grant, tells the story of a girl from the midwest who moves to California, gets into drugs and porn, and commits suicide. There's nothing new here and it's presented in an obvious, watered down, made-for-tv style with annoying over-acting by Lee. Very forgettable stuff.

Watchable

[wilderdan · 28 October 2000]

Based loosely on the life story of porn superstar Shauna Grant/Colleen Applegate. For a made for TV movie, it wasn't bad. For those really interested in Shauna Grant's decline to eventual suicide this movie treats the matter very superficially. Although accurate in its simplicity, it tends to trivialize the adult business; a business which frankly needs no trivialization. Rumor had it that Shauna Grants family weren't too pleased about the movie.......despite the fact that they co-operated and were compensated by the production company. The movie portrayed them as real straightlaced simpletons, incapable or unwilling to deal with anything outside their "small town" existence. The plot continually amplified this and we were left to conclude that this lack of unconditional love and understanding was the main reason for Shauna's suicide. Jonna Lee, which was "very watchable" throughout, does a good job of portraying Grant. All in all, I would rate it a 3*** out of 5.

A completely shattered young model

[seve072 · 8/10 · 2 February 2016]

I vaguely remember of this TV movie i watched long ago in France because i am french and found it on the net in American..poor Pauleen! She is 17 years old at the beginning and fresh and naïve as a cheerleader with a boyfriend and many dreams of fame.But unfortunately she soon leaves her parents and school for Los Angeles where she wants to find a job and be a model.But Pauleen is so young that she is ready to accept everything without compromise .Shy and reserved at first she becomes a trash model and breaks with her family.The nightmare will begin with completely nude pictures and soon cocaine addiction and porn films to pay her coke.Pauleen who dreamt of a glamorous image will only have a porn actress image for a time. All in all this movie is well made because it shows the family background of Pauleen and the psychological tensions and the reason why she leaves her family whereas she is young and beautiful and innocent and the slow but sad destitution of her image and life.It ends with a shooting and we learn that Pauleen killed herself with a long trifle.

A movie which is absolutely necessary to watch to avoid the illusions of fame and not get trapped by money and fame. The real character,Shaundra Grant was a lovely young girl who could have lived a better life but had a very low self -esteem and couldn't say no. It must serve as an example for young girls whose ambition is to be a model.

Awesome movie

[wwwchjan · 10/10 · 22 October 2018]

Can't take your eyes off of it, even though I know the people in the porn business saw a young beautiful woman mostly likely lied to her and worse, but either than that awesome characters

Great effort for a TV movie

[Dmoc33 · 29 May 2002]

I agree with the comments above about this film. Despite the flat TV movie style presentaion, "Shattered Innocence" kept my attention until the tragic conclusion. What I liked about the movie's approach was that it did not condem the obvious culprit, the porn industry, for the downfall and demise of Pauleen Anderson. Pauleen chose to enter the adult film world and succumbed to cocaine addiction and ultimately faced the horrible consequences. TV movies have a lack of fluidity of camerawork and lack of showmanship as is the case with "Shattered Innocence". In the light of porn-glamourizing films such as "Boogie Nights", this tepidness accentuates the intent of "Shattered Innocence". In "Shattered Innocence" entry, escape from and re-entry into the porn business leads to tragic, lonely, and hurtful existence. I suspect the downfall of Pauleen Anderson is much closer to what happens to real-life porn actors than the glamourous lives of the characters in "Boogie Nights" (which by the way, ended with a bizzare, 'happy' conclusion for all).

Really a sad story

[cooltweety3 · 10 December 2002]

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** I've seen this movie in italian,as I do live in Italy. So,I was desperately trying to trace the title in english and well, thanks to imdb I've finally found it!This story really moved me, I was so sad thinking about this girl who tries to gain success and

fame in LA starting with nude modeling.When you're young everything

could seems right and innocent.The best moment is when she goes back home for Xmas and innocently shows her upset family her nude pics. I've read the real story of Shauna Grant,and she seems to be like

many others girls that are trying to be famous showing their bodies. I can imagine how many girls do the same.Some are noticed

by the regular movies industry,some by porno movies industry.It's just a matter of luck. I am so sad Colleen Applegate took her own life:I guess she wasn't strong enough to face such a hard world,maybe too innocent.