Jenna Haze retires from performing

Jenna Haze has had a long and successful run as a bona fide porn star and, while she paid publicists and had friends in the right places, she was always the shepherd of her fame.

Yesterday Haze announced that she would retire from performing. In fact, she said, she shot her last scene almost a year ago.

This homemade video is low-key and gracious. But after a decade in the porn industry and the type of international fame few adult stars get, it seems that even the down-to-earth Haze might make her announcement with more ceremony, rather than this one man show.

Haze has a lot of things coming up in the next few months, she says, including an FHM spread with friend Taylor Momsen and an increased focus on her directing.

“I always said that I would give up performing if I wasn’t going to be into it 100 percent,” she says. “Directing is where my heart is now.”

From winning AVN’s Best New Starlet award in 2003, Haze has gone on to amass most of porn’s most glittery honors. She also has the mostly-forgotten distinction of being the first porn star on Blu-ray back in 2007.

Porn retirements are slippery things. An informal survey of myself revealed that, of porn performers who make an announcement that they are quitting performing, more than half come back eventually; the people who actually retire are the ones who silently slip away.

But Haze is different. She can’t slip away because people would notice she was gone. We wish the capable Ms. Haze the best.

Previously on Porn Valley Observed: Why “Fleshlightning” is better than “Battlefield Earth”; Shiny, oiled Jenna Haze DVD is porn’s first Blu-ray
See also: Jenna Haze