Kim Kardashian couldn’t break the Internet with her giant oily butt, but maybe a former porn star who is now a devoted Pastafarian can. Asia Lemmon, a.k.a. former porn star Asia Carrera, is making waves on the Internet today after she succeeded in taking her driver’s license photo while wearing a pasta strainer on her head.
Photo via The Spectrum
Lemmon’s headgear was intended as a nod to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, the formal name for Pastafarianism, the satirical religious organization that chose a giant pasta strainer as its official headwear.
Although the federal government only allows headwear in driver’s license photos for religious reasons, Lemmon, who self-identifies as an atheist, said she was pleasantly surprised that the state of Utah allowed her to sport the pasta drainer to express her Pastafarian beliefs.
“I’m a really proud, outspoken atheist,” she told the Spectator. “I am proud of Utah for allowing freedom of all religions in what is considered by many to be a one-religion state. I wanted to see if I could [wear the colander] in Utah. I wasn’t sure if they would let me.”
Lemmon has also posted photos on her Facebook page of her children wearing colanders on their heads in support of the Church.
The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was originally founded in 2005 to protest the Kansas State Board of Education’s decision to teach intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in its state curriculum. In an open letter, church founder Bobby Henderson described his belief in a Flying Spaghetti Monster that created the universe, dubbing the religion “Pastafarianism.”
Lemmon, who made hundreds of adult films in the 1990s, isn’t the first person to use her driver’s license photo to express her Pastafarian views. Back in September, an Oklahoma woman named Shawna Hammond made headlines when she wore a colander on her head for her driver’s license photo, claiming that the photo was a statement to celebrate “freedom of religion.”
While neither Lemmon nor Hammond encountered resistance from government officials, other Pastafarians haven’t been so lucky. In 2013, DMV officials called the police on a New Jersey man who refused to take the pasta strainer off his head for his driver’s license photo.
H/T Raw Story | Photo by staticantics/FLickr (CC BY-ND 2.0)