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Documentary series focuses on women trying to leave the sex trade

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Ohio

Prostitution is hardly a taboo subject for reality TV, but "Hookers: Saved on the Strip" is noteworthy for how effectively it strips every last trace of allure from the oldest profession.

The docu-series, which is getting a trial run on Investigation Discovery, centers on Destiny House, a safe house in Las Vegas for women trying to get out of the sex industry.

It's run by Annie Lobert, herself a longtime exotic dancer and sex worker with a reality-TV personality. She narrates each episode, which revolves around the personal journey of one of the women living at Destiny House.

The first episode focused on Regina, a Korean-American who, like Lobert, grew up in an ordinary household and seemed an unlikely candidate for the sex trade.

Unlike most law enforcement-based reality shows, "Saved on the Strip" has a disarmingly unbiased view of prostitution. As the two women describe it, hooking is kind of a con game, where savvy workers use their knowledge of the male libido to avoid having sex with clients while taking their money.

Lobert even says at one point that if she had known Regina back in the day, they would've made a formidable duo: "Want to meet my Asian friend?" she imagines herself saying to clients.

But make no mistake: Sex is a dangerous line of work, and both women feel they've escaped with their lives.

That doesn't make going mainstream any easier, though. Lobert was lucky: Her working-class family back in Minnesota forgave her, and she found love with her new husband, Oz Fox, longtime guitarist with the Christian rock band Stryper. She also found the Church of South Las Vegas, an evangelical congregation that supported Lobert's vision of a safe house for women trying to get out of the sex industry.

For Regina, the struggle is clear, and watching her learn how to interview for low-paying jobs is reminiscent of other current hard-times reality shows like "Downsized" and "The Fairy JobMother." (Regina's interview does provide an unintended moment of humor, when she tells a restaurant manager, "I like to serve people - food.")

"Saved on the Strip" is the latest collaboration between Sharon Liese, the Overland Park, Kan.-based creator of "High School Confidential," and California-based Jon Kroll ("Amish in the City").

It started after Liese read a story in The Kansas City Star about Veronica's House, a Kansas City-based safe house for women trying to get out of sex work. Her producer Britt Frank discovered Destiny House and Lobert.

"The first thing I noticed about Annie was that she was big and brash but likable," Liese says. "You really want her to succeed. And to know that there are 100 people like her out there and she's trying to save them.

"Some are lured by the money and what they think the lifestyle is. Some are lured by their pimp - they think he's in love with them, and they give him all this control over them. Every story's different."

In an effort to keep the tone light, in the scenes filmed at the church, the producers use generic Las Vegas lounge music instead of praise songs. And in an intriguing decision, Regina and her fellow Destiny House-mates re-enact their own flashbacks, which has the effect of taking any remaining shreds of sexiness out of life in the sex business.

HOOKERS: SAVED ON THE STRIP

10 p.m. EST Wednesday

Investigation Discovery

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/12/17/252…