Pound Pup Legacy

There's a scene in the new film "Deception" in which Ewan McGregor's character, Jonathan—a naive, buttoned-up accountant whose sex life hasn't seen the light of day (or night) for years—asks an older woman he just met in an expensive New York hotel lobby, with whom he is about to have sex, "Why do you do it?"

"It," in this case, is something called The List, a vague and secretive association of sex-hungry urban professionals who know nothing of their partners aside from their cell phone numbers—and want to keep it that way. Lounging seductively like a Mrs. Robinson figure in the hotel room, the older woman coolly responds, "The same reason men do it. The economics of the arrangement: intimacy without intricacy."

In the film, members of The List initiate their anonymous hook-ups with curt, coded telephone calls. "Are you free tonight?" is doublespeak for "Wanna get it on?" Jonathan and the older woman do just that and part company, presumably forever. Later the older woman is revealed, via a subway newsstand magazine cover, to be a well-known and high-powered Wall Street executive. Jonathan is no slouch himself, auditing the Big Apple's Fortune 500 companies. Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, these sex seekers are not.

In fact, the "Pretty Woman" comparison doesn't work at all. In "Deception," neither party pays for sex and both are there of their own accord. Working his way down The List, Jonathan quickly moves from prude to promiscuous within a prolific two-week span, until trouble strikes (you knew it was coming): he becomes emotionally attached to one of his partners, a pretty blonde played by Michelle Williams. When she's strangely abducted from the Chinatown bed they're paying for by the hour, the only clue he can offer to the skeptical New York City detective is that her name begins with the letter S.

Intimacy without intricacy. It's the gold standard of sexual consummation for many people today. And it's something former New York governor Eliot Spitzer probably wishes he had been better at.

The List, as portrayed in "Deception," isn't a sex ring (where clients typically pay for services), but both are bound by the same overriding principal: secrecy. The recent sex scandal that ruined Sptizer's career—one of the grandest political freefalls in modern times—exposed the inner workings of a sex ring and all the lies and gullibility that go with it. According to a New York Times investigative report, "Kristen," the latest in an apparently long line of women whom Spitzer paid for high-priced services, lied (or was creatively misrepresented by the sex ring owners to their clients) not only about her name but her age, her background, her interests—and who knows, maybe even her ability to tie a cherry stem into a knot with her tongue. For a night of forbidden fulfillment, clients like Spitzer buy it all hook, line, and sinker. Where there's no relationship, there's little need for honesty.

But this is all old news by now.

That sex drives men and women to all sorts of untenable escapades is nothing new. Our species has survived for millennia for a reason: rampant propagation, frequently with the wrong partner. It's not difficult to imagine two cavemen bashing each other over the head because caveman No. 1 found out caveman No. 2 treated No. 1's wife to a breakfast of poached pterodactyl eggs and, oh, fornication.

Certainly human relationships and social behaviors have evolved since then, in ways that allow for meaningful and responsible application of sexual desire. And yet statistics show that prostitution and promiscuity are on the rise all over the world. Could it be that we as a species are getting so busy that we're unable to—or don't want to—relate in more substantive ways? Do a few hours of anonymous pleasure, free of the pressures and commitments of family life, have a deeper appeal for us now?

According to Jeffrey T. Parsons, a professor of psychology at Hunter College who specializes in research on human sexual behavior, escort agencies like the one Spitzer patronized are common, "especially in urban areas where there is a supply and demand for such services." He says there is not yet enough research to point to one single cause that links those who pay for escorts or seek anonymous sex, but that good ol' biology is the common trait.

"Everyone has sexual needs; it's part of our biological and social make-up," Parsons says. "People with busy and stressful lives and careers may be looking for quick and easy ways to have their sexual needs met, and paying for sex falls into this category of ‘quick and easy.'" Sex without strings? "Absolutely. Someone could have an affair, but that may actually involve more effort and stress as there might be 'strings attached' that don't exist in situations with sex workers or escorts."

While most pundits scratch their heads wondering why an intelligent, driven person like Spitzer would risk it all—career, reputation, family life—for a few hours of fantasy, Parsons says danger is part of the attraction. "A person may have certain sexual fantasies that they don't feel comfortable asking their wife or girlfriend to be part of. But when they're paying for it, it's easier to enact those fantasies. And the fact that it's socially taboo or illegal can enhance the excitement."

That attraction to danger—something that appealed to Jonathan in "Deception," and which got him in big trouble—can change a person's life, whether they're paying for it or not. For those who get away with it, it's intimacy without intricacy. For those who get caught, the consequences can be dire.

It almost cost Jonathan his life. For the real-life former governor of New York, it may be worse: He has to live with the fallout of his actions.

See exclusive clips from the movie "Deception"