Estella Marie Thompson (born August 9, 1969), also known as Divine Brown, is an American former

sex worker A sex worker is a person who provides sex work, either on a regular or occasional basis. The term is used in reference to those who work in all areas of the sex industry.Oxford English Dictionary, "sex worker" According to one view, sex work is ...

. She gained media attention in 1995 when the English actor

Hugh Grant Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, and has since transitioned into a character actor. He has received List of awards ...

was caught receiving

oral sex Oral sex, sometimes referred to as oral intercourse, is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a person by another person using the mouth (including the lips, tongue, or teeth). Cunnilingus is oral sex performed on the vu ...

from her in his car on

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard is a boulevard in the central and western part of Los Angeles, California, United States, that stretches from the Pacific Coast Highway (California), Pacific Coast Highway in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, Pacific Palisad ...

. Thompson has remained in the public eye through work in pornography, television appearances, and newspaper interviews.

Early life

Thompson grew up in poverty in

East Oakland, California East Oakland is a geographical region of Oakland, California, United States, that stretches between Lake Merritt in the northwest and San Leandro, California, San Leandro in the southeast. As the southeastern portion of the city, East Oakland t ...

. She was one of six children of a single mother. Having herself become a mother of two daughters, she turned to sex work when she could not pay a $133 electricity bill. Going to Union Square in San Francisco one night, she earned $1,000 in five hours.

Legal troubles

Arrest with Hugh Grant

On June 27, 1995, Thompson and British actor

were arrested together in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. According to Thompson, the attention of a policeman was alerted by Grant repeatedly pressing the brake pedal of his

BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...

with his foot, causing the brake lights to flash many times. Charged with lewd conduct, she pleaded

no contest ''Nolo contendere'' () is a type of legal plea used in some jurisdictions in the United States. It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense. It is a plea where the defendant neither admits nor disputes a charge, serving as an ...

on September 6, 1995.Hollywood Hooker Divine Brown Starts Jail Term
Daily News, November 2, 1995 (From Google News Archive) She was ordered to attend an

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

class and perform five days of community service, and sentenced to two years' summary probation. She was also sentenced to 180 days in jail for unconnected parole violations relating to two prostitution convictions. She had to pay a fine and costs of $1,350 in total in relation to the offences. Hugh Grant pleaded no contest and was fined $1,180 and ordered to complete an AIDS education program.

Other legal troubles

In September 1996, Thompson was arrested at the

MGM Grand Las Vegas The MGM Grand Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by Vici Properties and operated by MGM Resorts International. The resort was developed by Kirk Kerkorian through his company, MGM Grand ...

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...

after flirting and making suggestive comments to undercover police officers. A police officer involved in the operation was quoted as saying, "She didn't actually solicit, but the police officers knew what she was up to." The arrest resulted in a $950 fine for

loitering Loitering is the act of standing or waiting around idly without apparent purpose in some public places. While the laws regarding loitering have been challenged and changed over time, loitering of suspect people can be illegal in some jurisdict ...

for the purpose of prostitution and resisting arrest. Thompson denied she was still involved in sex work."All is not divine when Brown stands on street corners" ''The Post-Standard'', November 22, 1996

Media appearances

Thompson only learned who her client had been when reporters besieged her house the day after her arrest. In the publicity that ensued in the days after her encounter with Grant, Thompson appeared on television shows, including ''

The Howard Stern Show ''The Howard Stern Show'' is an American radio show hosted by Howard Stern that gained wide recognition when it was radio syndication, nationally syndicated on terrestrial radio from WINS-FM, WXRK in New York City, between 1986 and 2005. The sho ...

'' and

Danny Bonaduce Dante Daniel Bonaduce (; born August 13, 1959) is an American retired radio personality, actor, television personality and professional wrestler. Bonaduce is the son of veteran TV writer and producer Joseph Bonaduce ('' The Dick Van Dyke Show'' ...

's short-lived ''Danny!''. She appeared in a television commercial promoting a Los Angeles radio station, a commercial for a Brazilian lingerie company, in semi-nude pictures for soft-porn magazines like ''

Penthouse Penthouse most often refers to: *Penthouse apartment, a special apartment on the top floor of a building * ''Penthouse'' (magazine), a British-founded men's magazine *Mechanical penthouse, a floor, typically located directly under a flat-roof, tha ...

'', and as a presenter on UK pornography channel

Television X Television X (TVX) is a series of adult pay-per-view television channels in the United Kingdom owned by Aylo Global Entertainment (Europe) Limited. Until 2020, it was owned by Portland TV which was a subsidiary of Richard Desmond's publishing ...

. In 1996, she played herself in an X-rated docu-drama based on the incident, ''Sunset and Divine: The British Experience''. In September 1996, she made an appearance at the

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

show

Fight the Power Fight the Power may refer to: * "Fight the Power (Part 1 & 2) "Fight the Power" (sometimes titled as "Fight the Power (Part 1 and Part 2)") is a song recorded by the Isley Brothers, who released the song as the first single off their landmark a ...

. Thompson continued to stay in the public eye, appearing in

Joey Buttafuoco Joseph A. Buttafuoco (born March 11, 1956) is an American auto body shop owner. In 1992, Buttafuoco was convicted for his statutory rape of a minor, 17-year-old Amy Fisher, after Fisher shot his wife, Mary Jo Buttafuoco, in the face. Tabloid ...

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

show in 1998, on ''

Judge Judy ''Judge Judy'' is an American arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Family Court Judge Judith Sheindlin. The show featured Sheindlin as she adjudicated real-life small-claims disputes within a simulated court ...

'' in 1996, and on the Danish documentary series ''Negermagasinet'' in 2005. She was the subject of the biopic ''Million Dollar Hooker'' in 2006 and appeared on ''Hollywood Lives'', an ITV television series, in 2007.

Personal life

Thompson has been reported to have earned a total of $1.6 million from publicity related to her arrest with Grant. As a result, she and her manager, partner, and father of her children, Alvin C. Brown, bought a four-bedroom home in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

. Thompson has said the money she earned from interviews and endorsements after the 1995 interrupted dalliance has allowed her to put her daughters through private school. "Everything worked out for the better," she said in 2007: "It helped me turn it into something positive … I was blessed that it could get me out of that lifestyle."

References

External links

* Emily Duga
The $50 Trick (or how Divine Brown turned an encounter with Hugh Grant into her fortune)
''The Independent'', July 3, 2007
Divine Brown biography
Rotten.com *
"Sunset and Divine: The British Experience (1996)"
IMDb.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Thompson, Estelle Marie 1969 births Living people African-American television personalities American prostitutes People from Oakland, California Criminals from California 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people