HAYWARD, California — An ex-military brat who became a multimillionaire before she hit age 30, Tera Patrick has a proverbial story to tell about living the American dream.
But on a Thursday night visit to Main Street in downtown Hayward, the adult-film superstar skipped the Chamber of Commerce and landed one door down at L’Amour Shoppe. None of the crowd awaiting her there asked any stodgy questions about her business acumen.
“I asked her for her phone number, and she just smiled,” said San Jose resident Chris Abastilla, 23. “You got to try.”
Abastilla, wearing a plaidshirt and a rosary around his neck, arrived at the Hayward porn shop more than two hours early to be the first of hundreds of people to greet Patrick.
Cynthia Falcon, 23, traveled all the way from Salinas and was swooning after getting an autograph and picture of herself standing with the star.
“She’s hot. What can I say?” Falcon said. “She’s amazing. And she’s very warm and gracious, very nice.”
Patrick’s husband, Evan Seinfeld, stood nearby with a wad of cash in his hand. He ushered in the line of fans and hawked DVDs, posters and calendars.
Seinfeld, formerly of Brooklyn metal band Biohazard and VH1 reality TV show “SuperGroup,” also stars in Patrick’s latest release: “Reign of Tera 2,” about a high-end Asian brothel.
“I love the acting, the scenes, the way they present them,” said Guillermo Placencia, 33, another Patrick fan from Salinas. “She still looks good for her age.”
The married duo — Patrick is 31 and Seinfeld is 39 — run a veritable porn media empire that, as of later this month, will include an interactive video game with Patrick as the star.
Patrick appeared to relish the crowd’s attention Thursday, offering deadpan humor and giving special attention to her female fans. She appeared in dozens of chastely arranged Polaroid shoots that cost each customer $10.
One older man asked for an autograph he planned to give to his “fishing buddies” in Santa Cruz. A younger man gave her an outfit he bought for her at Hot Topic. Another had to hang up on his wife after his cell phone rang right before his turn for a photo.
“I’m on Main Street,” the man said into the phone. “Honey, let me call you back.”
Only one guest got cold treatment after his hand brazenly strayed from Patrick’s shoulder while Seinfeld was taking their picture.
“I’m sorry. I’m not taking a picture with him,” Patrick said sternly. “Get him away from me.”
Patrick spent much of her youth in Northern California before taking up modeling with the elite Ford Modeling Company in her early teens. She skipped high school, but later studied nursing before becoming a porn star.
Her dad, a career Air Force doctor, is “really happy I own my own company.”
She said Thursday she is preparing to write an autobiography and “how-to guide” for getting around life’s pitfalls.
The best part of her career is running the celebrity circuit of parties and awards shows, but she hasn’t neglected social causes.
“Babe, what do we do for free speech?” she asked Seinfeld after the question was posed by a reporter.
The pair donate and do work for the Free Speech Coalition, a nonprofit legal advocacy group for the adult entertainment industry, he said.
“I’m the cheerleader,” Patrick concluded, describing free speech as “the right to do porn. The right to do porn and have sex in America.”