Williams had posed for the photos years earlier as a student and was reportedly told they would never be published or show her face clearly. Penthouse purchased them from the photographer and published them against her wishes.
The issue of magazine is widely regarded as one of the most infamous editions in publishing history due to a dual scandal involving Traci Lords and Vanessa Williams . The Traci Lords Controversy traci lords penthouse 1984 14
In the pantheon of adult entertainment’s most controversial figures, Traci Lords stands alone. Born Nora Louise Kuzma in 1968, she became the industry’s youngest sensation—and ultimately its biggest scandal. In 1984, at just 16 years old, Lords posed for Penthouse magazine, a shoot that would become part of a ticking time bomb. When her true age was discovered two years later, that single pictorial helped trigger a federal investigation, the seizure of millions of magazines and videos, and a permanent rewriting of age-verification laws. Williams had posed for the photos years earlier
The presence of an underage minor in the magazine, and her subsequent career in nearly 80 adult films while underage, triggered a massive legal investigation. The Traci Lords Controversy In the pantheon of
: At age 15, Lords used a high-quality fake ID under the name "Kristie Elizabeth Nussman" to claim she was 22 years old.