Bring Back Big Hair

Harry Reems was paid $250 for one day of work on Deep Throat. By his own count, defending himself in federal court cost him $400,000. In July 1974 the FBI arrested him at his New York apartment and sent him to Memphis. The charge: conspiracy to distribute obscenity across state lines. Linda Lovelace and director Gerard Damiano got immunity. Reems was the only actor tried. In spring 1976, after about nine weeks of trial, a jury convicted him. He faced up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Then came the appeal. Harvard's Alan Dershowitz took it, saying no film actor had ever been charged with federal conspiracy before. In April 1977 the conviction was thrown out. The jury had been given the 1973 definition of obscenity for a film shot in 1972. He still lost. Cast as Coach Calhoun in Grease, he was dropped about two weeks before filming, and Sid Caesar got the part. In the video below, he says he was convicted of conspiracy over a film he had already sold, and: "I think I was being used as an example." Lovelace and the director got immunity. The actor got a trial and a $400,000 legal bill. Was that fair?