Ashley Greene knows her etiquette. Pinkies out for proper secksies.

You don’t have to be famous to be an attention-whore, you just have to want attention so badly that the people around you want very badly to deliver the attention you so desire in the form of a brick to the face. The attention-slut is a bit different.

Before I begin, I should say that I know a few of you dislike the term “slut” as a slur against women comfortable with their own sexuality, but I argue a woman comfortable with her own sexuality is NOT a slut.  She’s just healthy, and sluts can be male or female.

That being said, an attention-slut requires fame or the desire for it. I’m defining an attention-slut as celebrities and wannabes that use sex or their sexuality to generate a press event, and while the most current batch of attention-sluts happens to be composed primarily of  females, there are plenty male examples.

What brought me to feel the need to coin the term is Ashley Greene’s nekkid photo scandal. Sure, she quickly had them removed and threatened legal action, but I can’t help but feel the whole thing has an “OOPS! I didn’t want that to happen, tee hee” ring to it.  I mean, her Twilight co-stars names are all over the place and most of you are thinking “Ashley who?” but tomorrow most everyone will have heard of her, and her name will stick in our heads.  Granted, it will probably stick in the form of “Oh yeah, that Twilight chick with the naked photos,” but that doesn’t matter because you’ll know who she is.

That’s because this tactic works. It certainly worked for Vanessa Hudgens. Heidi Montag posed for Playboy–hell even Vern Troyer has a sex tape, and Miley Cyrus has taken to pole dancing (possibly because she knows what the future has in store for her), and while it works, ultimately what they’ve done is demeaned themselves for a little PR, because, one assumes, they realized they had so little talent to rely upon that they were going to have to give their careers a boost via sex.

So welcome to the Attention-Slut Club, Ashley. It’s a little like the Mickey Mouse Club, but with Paris Hilton as the mascot.