This has bothered me for some time.  Back in the 80s when I first started watching porn, there were stars: Amber Lynn, Ginger Lynn, Erica Boyer, Raquel Darrian, Nikki Dial, and even Traci Lords (whose films are now unavailable because she was underage at the time).  These women were stars not because they were beautiful (they all were) but because they exuded something on screen that went far beyond the moaning, groaning, sucking and fucking.    
   
 Also, in those days, most films had plots - they weren't just compilations of scenes as most films are today.  Sure, there are a few companies doing movies with plots, and those are often excellent films and award winners but the majority of films now are compilations.  And all you see of the female actresses is them moaning, groaning, sucking and fucking.  You don't see them act... ok, you do, since the sex is acting (you don't think it's real do you?  Listen to Evan Stone some time talk about what it's like to be a male porn star), You don't get to see them do a scene, or say lines, except for a few lines here and there that last about 30 seconds and doesn't consist of anything more than something like "Oh, you're alone in the house?  Let's fuck."  
   
 And there were far fewer films coming out each year than there are now.  And fewer women heading to La-La Land hoping to make it big in porn.  Porn wasn't acceptable and no one (or very few) wanted their wife or daughter or sister or cousin involved... and those that were involved mostly hid it from their family.    
   
 Then came Jenna Jameson.  And porn hit the big time and became "acceptable" and started to go mainstream a bit... and turned into a billion dollar industry.  Now, every Terri, Deb, and Helen has a webcam and can film "amateur videos" and call themselves porn stars.  Women with no skills and no talent figure they can make a quick buck doing something they enjoy - sucking dick and fucking so they head to the porn studios, or buy a web cam, or digital camera (which are so very, very, cheap now compared to what decent cameras cost in the 80s).  They don't act, they don't do "scenes" where they have to say lines, they just strip and fuck.    
   
 And, let's be honest, how many different ways can you watch people fuck?  I mean take any scene whatsoever - maybe one you saw last night.  You can take the woman in that scene and replace her with any other female, and you wouldn't know the difference.  In fact, if you compared two scenes you'd find they are so very similar - the same positions, the same actions, the same moaning and groaning, and dirty talk... the women are practically indistinguishable and so are the scenes.  
   
 There are very, very, very, few women these days who are truly porn *stars*, imo.  My two favorites: Joanna Angel and Sunny Lane.  They have their own production companies, they write and produce their own films, and their films usually have a half-way decent plot (for a porn film) and you can see people actually *act* in them.  Neither woman is exceptionally beautiful in the way Amber Lynn, Ginger Lynn, or the others mentioned above were in their day but they are still attractive.  They do more than strip and fuck.  And they have a certain presence on camera (and off) that is hard to describe.  If you don't believe me about presence and acting ability, go see Joanna Angel feature at a strip club.  Of all the women I've seen at clubs, she's still the best performer ever.  And Sunny Lane just has... something (and I don't know what it is) about her that exudes sex even when she's just standing and posing for pictures at a show.   They are stars.  There are a few others here and there but the majority of the "stars" in porn these days aren't stars... they're barely actresses.  
   
 Or maybe I'm just a grumpy old man who has seen everything in porn that he's ever likely to see and am too jaded to comment further.  
   
 Commence your ripping my comments apart...