Biography of Mary Cook (a.k.a.: Mary Carey)

Mary Carey is a American pornographic actress and was a candidate for Governor of California in 2003.

Carey was born Mary Ellen Cook in Cleveland, Ohio to a schizophrenic mother and a father with cerebral palsy, and she was taken care of by her grandparents from the age of three months. After her parents divorced, her mother moved in with Carey and her grandparents. At seven years of age the family moved from Cleveland to Florida, and the next year Carey was legally adopted by her grandparents.

Carey studied ballet from the age of seven until she was 19 years old. She graduated in 1998 from the Pine Crest School, a Fort Lauderdale private preparatory school. At 19, she joined the dance team at Florida Atlantic University, where she was a student in the theater department. After her grandfather's death, her grandmother's health worsened, so Carey took a job as an exotic dancer to help support the family financially. Upon noticing that the "feature dancers" made much more money, she asked an agent how she could become one too. The agent recommended that she become a porn star (the large fan base that successful porn stars gives them superior drawing power when they dance in-person at strip clubs). Carey traveled to Los Angeles and made the rounds of the adult-film producers and studios, eventually landing a job with Playboy TV.

During the 2003 California recall election, Carey signed a contract with Kick Ass Pictures, and as a publicity stunt they came up with the idea that Carey should run for governor. She was an independent candidate (though she identifies as a Republican), placing tenth in a field of 135 candidates. She ran on an eleven-point platform that included somewhat tongue-in-cheek promises of taxing breast implants, making lap dances tax-deductible, and creating a "Porn For Pistols" exchange program.

In June 2005, Carey announced her bid for Lieutenant Governor of California as an Independent in 2006. She has also said that she hopes to run for a major party nomination to be President of the United States upon her reaching the age of 35, per the minimum age requirement for United States presidents. The first election for which she would be eligible would be the 2016 presidential election.

During and immediately following her gubernatorial bid in 2003, Carey was occasionally featured as a guest on various political talk shows. Carey maintained on the FOX News Channel on March 16, 2006 that her pornographic films are not a negative to her political career, citing the political successes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Ronald Reagan. She also maintained that, unlike the films in which Schwarzenegger and Reagan starred, her films are about "love."

In April 2005, Carey was arrested in connection with a Lakewood, Washington, cabaret sting operation, for violating a city strip club ordinance that forbids dancers from touching themselves. She subsequently made a plea agreement and received a 19-month sentence, which was suspended on the condition that she was not charged with any other offense within one year.

In January/February 2008, Carey was featured on the VH1 reality TV series Celebrity Rehab, receiving treatment for alcoholism. While on Celebrity Rehab, she stated that she would leave the porn industry and straighten out her life because of her mother, who had been hospitalized in Florida after she jumped off of a four-story building the previous month. In the reunion episode of the show taped approximately 6 months after leaving rehab, she stated that she has not made an adult movie since becoming sober and intends to never make another one. However, she continues to "feature dance" in clubs, saying that she needs the money to care for her mother, but also hopes to stop doing this. However, TMZ.com reported in May 2009 that she performed in a pornographic film, entitled "Celebrity Pornhab with Dr. Screw".