OnlyFans has killed Kevin Blatt’s career.
The celebrity sex tape broker, who infamously promoted the intimate recordings of Paris Hilton in the early 2000s, believes the subscription-based platform makes it easier for celebrities to sleep at night without fear of leaks.
“There just isn’t that potential to make any money, not the way that we used to,” Blatt told Fox News Digital. “It’s a different day and age now. The technology’s changed it all. With sites like OnlyFans, you could put up your own content. … Now you put out a sex tape just to become a blip on the radar for TMZ or the national news to talk about.”
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Blatt is speaking out in a new A&E docuseries, “Secrets of Celebrity Sex Tapes.” The show offers an in-depth look at how racy footage ignited public obsession, sparked outrage and impacted the lives of those involved. It features the stories of celebrities like Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, as well as Kim Kardashian, Colin Farrell and Farrah Abraham, among others.
Blatt admitted he hesitated to come forward about his adult entertainment past.
“I’m very cautious of the media because you never know how they’re going to portray you,” said Blatt.
“But look, sex tapes, as we know them, are over. The business model’s over. There’s no way of profiting from them anymore unless people contact me to take them off the market. That’s what I do a lot these days — help people take down videos and information off the internet. But the bottom line is you can’t make money because of the privacy laws that are in place and the platforms that are readily accessible.”
“I think the public is smart enough to know that a lot of these celebrities are promoting themselves or using platforms like OnlyFans to attract more attention,” he added.
Over the years, OnlyFans has become known as a place where sex workers can get paid more safely and stars can directly interact with fans on their terms.
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Many sex workers joined OnlyFans during the pandemic when in-person venues shut down or became more dangerous because of COVID-19, the Associated Press reported. According to the outlet, the site has been tremendously lucrative for some people, allowing them to earn thousands of dollars each month.
As of late 2024, OnlyFans reported having about 377.5 million user and subscriber accounts, according to Business Insider. The outlet also reported that creators of the platform earned $6.63 billion in 2023.
“Sex tapes? Those days are over,” Blatt stressed. “… Some people don’t realize you can’t really profit from them. … Many folks benefit from putting themselves up on a site like OnlyFans instead of having to market through an adult company.”
“… The future of the business is really you being able to be your own network and syndicate your own stuff via any platform where you can submit user-generated content,” he added.
In 2021, OnlyFans announced it had suspended a plan to ban sexually explicit content following an outcry from its creators.
Advocates for sex workers had criticized the planned ban, arguing that it would push people into more dangerous street-based work. They said taking away a safer virtual space and cutting people’s income makes them more vulnerable to the risk of being trafficked, the Associated Press reported.
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Blatt claimed that celebrities now shouldn’t worry about a sex tape being sold.
“As you’ll see in the docuseries, I talk about the legalities of it … But honestly, should they be worried? No.”
But the damage from past leaks has been lasting. In her 2023 memoir, Hilton shed new light on her 2003 tape with then-boyfriend Rick Salomon.
“I don’t remember that much about the night he wanted to make a videotape while we made love,” wrote the hotel heiress, as quoted by The Times of London. “He had often said it was something he did with other women, but I felt weird and uncomfortable about it. I always told him, ‘I can’t. It’s too embarrassing.’ He kept pushing. I kept making excuses.”
“He told me if I wouldn’t do it, he could easily find someone who would,” the mom of two wrote. “That was the worst thing I could think of — to be dumped by this grown man because I was a stupid kid who didn’t know how to play grown-up games.”
“… I had to drink myself silly. Quaaludes helped. But I did it. I have to own that. I knew what he wanted, and I went with it.”
What should have been a private moment between two people was released to the public. As Hilton struggled with her sexuality, the footage spread quickly. Looking back, the now-44-year-old believed that her life “was over” and the career she envisioned for herself wasn’t possible. She felt violated.
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“The world thinks of me as a sex symbol, and I’m here for that, because symbol literally means icon,” she wrote. “But when people saw that sex tape, they didn’t say ‘icon,’ they said ‘slut.’ They said ‘whore.'”
When asked if there was ever a point in his career where he felt that he had gone too far, Blatt responded that since then, “I’ve turned my skillset from putting things out to taking things off the market.”
“I had an epiphany at one point,” he said. “Not only were a lot of these people thrown into a situation they didn’t ask for, but [now], I like to help people out. There was never a point where I thought what I was doing was horrible or going to ruin somebody’s life.
“And to be honest with you … I don’t believe that any of these sex tapes have really harmed anybody’s career. They’ve only enhanced people’s careers and put them back in the zeitgeist. There have been a lot of people who got shows, cameos and movies as a result of becoming popular on TMZ because of the sex tape. … Some people think I’m an extortionist. But people don’t realize that some of these celebrities were willing participants in the marketing of their sex tapes.”
“… There’s a general misconception that I’m this bad guy,” he continued. “I’m really anything but a bad guy. … I’m just a nice Jewish boy from Cleveland.”
Life for Blatt these days is scandal-free, just as he prefers it.
“I’m not stressing out,” he said. “I’m not looking over my shoulder to see who’s going to be suing me or if someone is going to come after me … I know the laws. I know how it all works. Back in the day, when I used to get sued every other week by some A-list celebrity power lawyer, I was running and hiding. I thought I was going to go to jail. … Now, my life is good. … I’ve become a different person.”
