You do not mess with burlesque dancers—we learned that the hard way when a passing comment about the pervasiveness of cellulite on some performers sparked a mini-avalanche of irate emails. Now it's The Learning Annex's turn; they're being sued by Veronica Varlow, a big-name neo-burlesque star who taught a class there about seductive dancing. She also did instructional videos for the company's affiliate, oneminuteu.com, and her lawsuit accuses them of misrepresenting her online as a "Young Sexy P0rn Star Stripper Dancer How to Put Lipstick On" and "Big [Breasts] Sexy Teen Girl Love Sex Advice How to Be Flirty."
While those keywords are sure to boost traffic (welcome, fellas; there's hot video below!), Varlow—whose real name is Tara Heffner—says the descriptions were "false and defamatory," hurt her reputation, cost her burlesque gigs, and brought "great mental pain and anguish" upon her. Varlow's lawyer tells the Daily News, "She's a burlesque performer and she takes it very seriously as an art form. She's purposely avoided nudity her entire career to avoid being harmed in this way."
After her husband discovered the offensive titles on YouTube, she contacted the Learning Annex, which referred her to the website's producers. They offered to change the titles, but Varlow says that by then her career was already damaged. Because really, who wants to see some big breasted sexy teen dance erotically? Below is a NSFW video of Varlow in action, which you surely won't have any interest in after hearing her described as a porn star. Which she's totally not!
