[UPDATED] Despite a dispute over a contract that threatened to cancel this weekend’s shows, the Admiral Theater and Stormy Daniels rode the storm out and have agreed that the porn star’s run of shows in Chicago wouldn’t just be a one-night stand.
The porn star walked out of her highly anticipated Thursday-night show at the Admiral Theatre early due to a contract dispute with the management of the northwest-side strip club. The rest of her weekend shows—most of which were reportedly sold-out—appeared headed toward cancellation. Sam Cecola—owner and founder of Admiral Theatre—had said he planned to sue Daniels.
More than 70 showgoers had paid $20 in advance to snap a photo with Daniels or get her autograph on the theater’s second floor immediately following her 15-minute strip show. But Daniels left the building before her meet-and greet-began. As she was being escorted out the door by two members of her security team, she turned to some of the fans who’d been waiting in line and said, “Sorry, I just got fired.”
Instead, management got one of its own dancers to play the Hollywood sex symbol and be the opening act for Daniels’s “Make America Horny Again” show.
But because Stormy refused to sing the song Thursday, one of the Admiral’s regular dancers—clad in a blonde wig and a see-through, rhinestone-encrusted dress sang it at a faux presidential podium with a large cake resembling the one brought out for JFK.
After her show, attendees gave mixed reviews of the performance but many—especially women—praised Daniels for her bravery. A few called her a “feminist icon.”
