ONLYFANS IS BECOMING HOLLYWOOD'S RETIREMENT PLAN

Emmy winner Jaime Pressly has joined OnlyFans, but for Hollywood’s forgotten middle class, this is not about money.

Newsweek Exclusive Feature

Jaime Pressly, the Emmy-winning, Golden Globe-nominated actress known for My Name Is Earl, has become the latest Gen X star to promote an OnlyFans account. Her announcement follows that of former costar, and longtime friend, Shannon Elizabeth, known for American Pie, who revealed that she had joined the X-rated platform last month.

OnlyFans gains new creators every day, but Hollywood's former middle class taking to the subscription-based site known for adult content en masse, illuminates a story unfolding in the background; that some of the most recognizable stars from the box-set and cable era have lost out on work, missed paychecks and slipped off the cultural radar, now migrating to OnlyFans instead.

The Real Reason Why Fading Stars Turn to OnlyFans

The entertainment industry is continuing its rapid-fire transformation from prioritizing weekly sitcoms and magazine deals to finding opportunity in streaming, swiping, downloading, and subscribing, leaving actors who found fame and stability on television networks and magazine covers with fewer options.

But while it may look like OnlyFans' sole promise to Pressly and Elizabeth is money and continued attention, what it really delivers—in an industry reeling from high-profile lawsuits and allegations of exploitation—is control. Pressly, now 48, could likely still blow up on Instagram and take on brand deals, even if lesser known to Gen Z and with dimmed stardom, but should she have to oblige to the brand's rules on when to be on set and what to do?

Though content on OnlyFans varies, with some creators producing adult material while others offer behind-the-scenes footage or fan interactions, what they share is the decision to own the transaction, along with when to work and how much to work. Such terms and agreements are hugely attractive at a time when sensibilities in Hollywood around who owns the female image are changing.

From left: Jaime Pressly at the 2021 Critics Choice Awards on March 7, 2021 in California; inset, Denise Richards speaks during the 2025 Los Angeles Comic-Con on September 28, 2025 in California; and Carmen Electra attends the 32nd Annual Race To Erase MS Gala at Fairmont Century Plaza on May 16, 2025 in California. Credit: GETTY IMAGES

"For decades, Hollywood operated in a way where actors relied heavily on gatekeepers," Estelle Keeber, a visibility expert and PR

strategist, told Newsweek. "Studios, networks, magazines, casting directors, and production companies controlled visibility, income, and opportunity.

"If you were no longer being cast or the media decided you were no longer 'current,' your earning potential often disappeared."

Keeber went on to dismantle what she sees as a persistent misconception about OnlyFans.

"It is fundamentally a creator platform," she said. "It gives users direct access to audience without needing permission from an industry middleman."

Who Is on OnlyFans?

OnlyFans has also attracted Denise Richards, a fixture of early-2000s pop culture, Drea de Matteo, whose breakthrough predated the 2000s but whose cultural visibility ran deep through that decade, and Carmen Electra, who found fame on Baywatch, quickly becoming one of the biggest U.S. names in late-'90s and early 2000s. Bella Thorne, though younger than the preceding celebs, became one of the most high-profile arrivals on the platform.

Newsweek reached out to Pressly, Elizabeth, Electra, Richards, De Matteo and Thorne for comment via email.

Hillary Herskowitz, founder of H2 Marketing Group, told Newsweek that examining the appeal of OnlyFans is inseparable from Hollywood's longer history of commodifying female performers and then discarding them.

"OnlyFans has created a new lane for women who were once heavily commodified by Hollywood but later pushed out of the spotlight," she said. "For decades, actresses were packaged, marketed, and celebrated largely for youth, beauty, and fantasy appeal.

"Once that 'glory era' faded, the industry often moved on."

The difference now, Herskowitz said, is permission, or rather, the absence of any need for it.

"OnlyFans lets stars control the narrative, the audience, the image, and the revenue stream themselves," she said, arguing that this is a meaningful inversion for celebs like Pressly. "These women no longer need Hollywood’s permission to remain visible, desirable, or financially relevant.”

By this logic, the same culture that spent years telling Pressly and her peers what they were worth, and how long they would be worth it, no longer gets a vote.

A Shrinking Hollywood Middle Class

Though, for some celebrities, especially those from the late '90s and early 2000s era, this is also about survival within a media landscape that no longer financially protects the middle class of entertainment. The streaming era created enormous wealth at the top, with influencers and internet stars gaining fame and opportunity, but hollowed out stable income for many TV actors.

"Residuals are smaller, magazine culture has declined, and audiences are fragmented across social platforms," Keeber said.

In that environment, OnlyFans is simply the entertainment industry's version of what Substack has been for journalists or Patreon for musicians—a mechanism for removing the intermediary and monetizing an audience relationship.

For someone with the name recognition of Pressly—someone who may no longer be a household name to a Zoomer but who retains status among older people—the calculus is not primarily about replacing a lost income. Brand endorsements, personal appearances, and social media partnerships remain viable. What OnlyFans offers, instead, is something that those routes do not, namely control over working conditions, scheduling, content and pay.

"I also think there needs to be empathy in this conversation," Keeber said. "Some of these stars entered the entertainment industry young, during a period where appearance and public perception were heavily commodified... Audiences today are far less concerned with the polished, untouchable celebrity image that dominated the early 2000s and prefer authenticity.

"Many were celebrated for being 'sex symbols' by the same culture that now judges how they continue monetizing that image. The reality is, if someone has spent years building public recognition, why should they not benefit directly from that audience on their own terms?"

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