Janine Lindemulder: The Blink-182 Cover Star's Fall and Comeback

Key facts

Who: Janine Lindemulder (born 1969), American adult film star often credited simply as “Janine,” member of the AVN and XRCO Halls of Fame (Wikipedia)
Album cover: The nurse on Blink-182’s 1999 album Enema of the State (Los Angeles Times; MTV)
Career: Penthouse Pet of the Month, December 1987; Vivid star through the 1990s; comeback in 2004 (Wikipedia; AVN)
Marriage: Married to Jesse James of West Coast Choppers, 2002–2004 (Wikipedia)
Prison: Six months in federal prison for failing to pay nearly $300,000 in federal income taxes, sentenced December 2008 (Los Angeles Times)
Later: Interviewed for the 2017 documentary After Porn Ends 2; started an OnlyFans account in 2017 (Wikipedia)

If you grew up with pop-punk, you know her face even if you never knew her name. The blonde nurse snapping on a rubber glove on the cover of Blink-182’s Enema of the State is Janine Lindemulder. That album went on to sell more than 15 million copies worldwide, according to MTV (MTV). So when people search “Janine Lindemulder Blink 182,” they usually find one picture. What they don’t find is the rest of the story: one of the most famous women in 1990s adult film, a marriage to a reality-TV biker, a federal prison sentence for unpaid taxes and a custody fight that put her on Good Morning America while her ex-husband was married to Sandra Bullock.

I’ve been in this industry for 14 years. I’m one of the most-searched male performers in the world, and I’ve worked with most of the top actresses of my generation. Janine’s peak was before my time, and I never worked with her. But her story is the one I think about when young performers ask me what to do with their first big money. Here’s her sourced story, and then my take.

A “figure model” ad she didn’t understand

Lindemulder graduated from high school in 1986 and worked as a stripper. Then she answered an advertisement looking for a “figure model,” without knowing that “figure model” meant nude model, according to her Wikipedia biography. The photographer who placed the ad asked her to shoot a spread for Penthouse (Wikipedia).

She became Penthouse Pet of the Month in December 1987, appeared in the magazine several more times over the next decade, posed for Gallery and Hustler, and was runner-up for Penthouse Pet of the Year for 1990 (Wikipedia).

Vivid, Blondage and the 1990s

She became famous in the 1990s as a star of Vivid Video, the studio that defined the “contract girl” model, working only in all-female scenes for most of that decade (Wikipedia; AVN). When AVN reported her comeback in 2004, it introduced her as “considered by many to have been the most beautiful woman to ever work in adult” (AVN).

With fellow performer Julia Ann, she formed the exotic dancing duo Blondage, which headlined several Vivid videos and even appeared in the comic book True Stories of Adult Film Stars, in an issue that included a story written by Lindemulder herself (Wikipedia). The pair shared XRCO and AVN awards in 1994 and another AVN Award in 2000. She entered the Exotic Dancer Hall of Fame in 2001 (Wikipedia).

She also crossed into mainstream entertainment. In 1997 she played the wife of a camp director in Howard Stern’s film Private Parts, and she appeared on Stern’s radio and TV shows as a featured guest (Wikipedia).

1999: the nurse on the Blink-182 cover

Then came the image that made her part of music history. In 1999 Blink-182 released Enema of the State, with Lindemulder on the cover as a nurse. She also played a nurse in the band’s videos for “What’s My Age Again?” and “Man Overboard” (Wikipedia).

MTV later summed up why it mattered: in 1999, it wrote, Blink “broke-through to the mainstream with Enema of the State, a roiling mix of pop punk and punnery that featured porn star Janine Lindemulder on the cover.” The album “went on to sell more than 15 million albums worldwide, making Blink the biggest punk act on the planet” (MTV). Even a decade later, when the Los Angeles Times covered her tax case, the first thing it told readers was that she was “best known for portraying a nurse on the famous cover of a 1999 Blink 182 album” (Los Angeles Times).

That same year, at the height of that fame, she announced that she was leaving adult film to pursue a career as a kindergarten teacher and to focus on raising her son (Wikipedia).

Jesse James, a retirement and a comeback

The first retirement didn’t last, but the next chapter changed her life. AVN reported that in September 2002 she announced her retirement again, citing her upcoming marriage to Jesse James, the host of Monster Garage and owner of West Coast Choppers (AVN). She was inducted into the AVN Hall of Fame the same year (Wikipedia).

The marriage ended quickly. By April 2004 the couple had separated “after having been married for a little over a year,” AVN reported (AVN), and they divorced in 2004 (Wikipedia). The Los Angeles Times later reported that the two split while she was pregnant with their daughter (Los Angeles Times).

In April 2004 she came back to Vivid, and for the first time in her career she performed scenes with male co-stars (AVN; Wikipedia). After that deal she signed with Digital Playground, where she starred in the big-budget Pirates in 2005. In January 2006 she won two AVN Awards for it, including Best Actress, and the XRCO inducted her into its Hall of Fame that year (Wikipedia). Her April 2007 film with Jenna Jameson, a project she had been scheduled to shoot for Club Jenna before her 2002 retirement, finally came out as well (Wikipedia; AVN).

Nearly $300,000 in unpaid taxes

Then the money caught up with her. In August 2008 Lindemulder pleaded guilty to federal misdemeanor charges of willfully failing to pay federal income taxes, according to her Wikipedia biography and the Los Angeles Times (Wikipedia; Los Angeles Times).

The Times reported the details from the U.S. Attorney’s office in Eugene, Oregon. She had failed to pay nearly $300,000 in federal income taxes. Authorities said she “spent more than $750,000 on homes, vehicles, furniture and a piano, without making any voluntary payments to the IRS.” In December 2008 she was sentenced to six months in federal prison, followed by one year of supervised release, up to half of which had to be spent in a residential community corrections center, and she was ordered to pay all of her back taxes (Los Angeles Times).

Read those numbers again. Not hidden offshore accounts, not some complex fraud. A house, cars, furniture, a piano, and no money set aside for the tax bill.

The custody battle in the headlines

While she was in prison, Jesse James was awarded custody of their daughter (Wikipedia). By then James was married to the actress Sandra Bullock, and ABC News reported that Bullock had been helping raise the 5-year-old girl since January 2009, when Lindemulder was in prison (ABC News).

After her release the dispute became a national story. In November 2009 Lindemulder gave her first interview about it on Good Morning America. “It hurts tremendously, the accusations, especially from Sandra,” she said. “Even more so because we’ve never sat down and talked.” And: “What would give her the right to take away my daughter? You know, this is my daughter. I am the best mother I can be” (ABC News).

ABC reported that Bullock had raised concerns about the child’s safety in a letter to the judge at Lindemulder’s sentencing, and that Bullock and James had called Lindemulder and her new husband unfit. Lindemulder, for her part, acknowledged making “horrific choices in the past,” admitted to past substance abuse, said there had been long stretches when she hadn’t used any drugs, and argued that her life was back on track. She even offered an invitation: “Please come over, you know, I’ll make dinner, you know, let’s sit down, [as] two women.” James’s attorney called her televised claims “inaccurate and unfortunate” and said that “Mr. James’s sole concern is for the safety, welfare and best interests of his daughter” (ABC News).

In December 2009 the Los Angeles Times reported that an Orange County family court commissioner denied her request for overnight visits. Her weekly visitation stayed limited to daytime hours, though she was allowed to keep her daughter overnight on Christmas Eve (Los Angeles Times). These are family-court matters about a child, so I’m not going to add anything beyond what was reported.

After Porn Ends 2 and OnlyFans

For years she stayed away from cameras. In 2017 she appeared on screen for the first time in five years in the documentary After Porn Ends 2, which covered her rise to fame, the Blondage years, how mentally unprepared she was for the realities of being famous, and the after-effects of the custody battle over her daughter (Wikipedia). The same year, she opened an OnlyFans account (Wikipedia). In 2015 she had also been inducted into the Inked Hall of Fame (Wikipedia).

What every performer should learn from Janine Lindemulder

Fame is not income. An album cover seen by millions doesn’t pay your bills for the next 20 years.
The tax bill is part of the paycheck. Most performers are paid as independent contractors. Put the tax money aside the day you’re paid.
Don’t buy the house before you’ve paid the IRS. Her own case files list homes, cars, furniture and a piano.
Retiring for a relationship is a business decision too. Know what you’ll do if the relationship ends.
Your past will be used against you. In any public dispute, an adult career becomes ammunition. Plan for it.

My Take (opinion — Maximo Garcia)

Every time I hear a new performer say “I just made more in a month than my dad makes in a year,” I think of Janine Lindemulder. Not because she was a bad person. Because she was a huge star, and huge stars are exactly the people who think the money will never stop.

Here’s what nobody tells you when you start: in the United States, most of us are paid as independent contractors. Nobody withholds tax for you. The check that looks like a fortune is not all yours. A big part of it belongs to the government, and if you spend it, the government still wants it. That’s what happened here, in black and white. The prosecutors didn’t describe some clever scheme. They described a house, cars, furniture, a piano, and zero voluntary payments. I’ve seen the same pattern, at a smaller scale, more times than I can count.

The second lesson is harder. When her life fell apart, her career became the main argument against her as a mother, on national TV, against one of the most loved actresses in Hollywood. I’m not going to judge a custody case I know only from the newspapers, and neither should you. But every performer needs to understand that this is the price of stigma: in a courtroom, in a divorce, in a custody fight, the other side will use your work. You need clean finances, clean records and good lawyers, precisely because you will be judged more harshly than anyone else.

And still, I respect that she came back on her own terms. She went to prison, paid for it, fought for her daughter in public, talked honestly in a documentary about not being ready for fame, and then took control of her own content. That’s not a fairy tale. It’s survival, and survival is a skill in this business. I write about money, taxes and the real business side of this industry at maximogarciaworld.com.

If her Vivid years interest you, read my columns on Ginger Lynn, Vivid’s first contract star, and Christy Canyon, who saved her money and built a radio career. For the co-star of her 2007 film, see my take on Jenna Jameson’s comeback.

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FAQ

Who is the woman on the Blink-182 Enema of the State cover?

Adult film star Janine Lindemulder, dressed as a nurse. She also appeared as a nurse in the band’s videos for “What’s My Age Again?” and “Man Overboard” (Wikipedia; Los Angeles Times).

Why did Janine Lindemulder go to prison?

In August 2008 she pleaded guilty to willfully failing to pay nearly $300,000 in federal income taxes. In December 2008 she was sentenced to six months in federal prison and one year of supervised release, and ordered to pay the back taxes (Los Angeles Times).

Was Janine Lindemulder married to Jesse James?

Yes. She was married to West Coast Choppers founder Jesse James from 2002 until their divorce in 2004. They have a daughter and fought a public custody battle after her release from prison (Wikipedia; ABC News).

What is Blondage?

Blondage was the exotic dancing duo Janine Lindemulder formed with fellow performer Julia Ann in the 1990s. The duo headlined several Vivid videos (Wikipedia).

How we fact-checked this

Every fact and quote was checked against the sources below and is reproduced as published. Claims made by the parties in the custody dispute are attributed to the person who made them, as reported by ABC News and the Los Angeles Times; we make no findings of our own about them. Explicit content, scene details and explicit film titles were left out to keep this page SFW. Opinions are Maximo Garcia’s own and are labeled as such.