Porn Actor Dror Barak Dead At 38

Gay porn actor Dror Barak, 38, was found dead of an apparent suicide in his Manhattan home earlier this week. A former member of the Israeli military and once an employee at the United Nations, Barak, who performed under the name Roman Ragazzi, was outed as a porn performer by a New York City tabloid in 2007. I wrote at the time:

In a seemingly pointless move, the New York Post's Page Six gossip column has outed an employee of the Israeli consulate at the United Nations as a gay porn actor, after tricking administrative worker Dror Barak into revealing his sideline career as a "model" and budding porn actor. Although Barak specified that he did not escort, he did solicit a plane ticket from Page Six's source. Page Six then called Barak at the U.N., asking to speak to "Roman Ragazzi", Barak's porn handle. Barak immediately resigned his position with the Israeli consulate. Page Six published the exchange today, including revealing Barak's BigMuscle.com profile name.

Page Six Outs Porn Actor

In a seemingly pointless move, the New York Post's Page Six gossip column has outed an employee of the Israeli consulate at the United Nations as a gay porn actor, after tricking administrative worker Dror Barak into revealing his sideline career as a "model" and budding porn actor. Although Barak specified that he did not escort, he did solicit a plane ticket from Page Six's source. Page Six then called Barak at the U.N., asking to speak to "Roman Ragazzi", Barak's porn handle. Barak immediately resigned his position with the Israeli consulate. Page Six published the exchange today, including revealing Barak's BigMuscle.com profile name.

To my knowledge, Barak, who says he is openly gay, had not aligned himself with the right-wing or otherwise committed an offense worthy of this public revelation. Many men in the porn/sex worker industries maintain "normal" day jobs. Unlike the Matt Sanchez situation, there appears to be no hypocrisy exposed here, just an evil, purposeless wrecking of somebody's day job. While acting in gay porn certainly means that one must expect a certain level of public attention, I can't understand Page Six's motivation.

RELATED: Former journalist Charles Wilson has launched an exhaustive site, Cpl. Matt Sanchez, USMC, which contains a comprehensive accounting of the Sanchez story, complete with biography, filmography, and a time line of Sanchez' post-enlistment escorting career.
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