Female porn director swaps sex for politics

BIRMINGHAM, England (Reuters) - A woman who has directed 300 "female-friendly" sex films is to test the liberal-mindedness of British voters and run for parliament in an election due within weeks.

Anna Arrowsmith, 38, whose works under the name Anna Span include "Be My Toy Boy," "Hoxton Honey" and "Uniform Behaviour," is standing for the Liberal Democrats in the Kent constituency of Gravesham in southeast England.

Her last-minute selection for the seat after the previous candidate dropped out made headlines across Britain over the weekend as the party met in the midlands city of Birmingham ahead of the election expected in May.

Even the normally august Times newspaper put her picture on its front page above the caption: "The woman who is sexing up the Lib Dems."

Party leader Nick Clegg said her films were not his "cup of tea" but said she had at least not done anything illegal, a swipe at rival politicians caught up in a long-running scandal over parliamentary expenses.

Arrowsmith, managing director of Easy on the Eye Productions, said her move into politics was a natural diversification after years of campaigning to improve women's rights in the adult film industry.

"I'm hopefully taking the skills I've learned of being a fighter to the national stage at Westminster," she told Reuters.

Despite a matter-of-fact attitude to her subject matter, she has always remained behind the camera.

"You've got to naturally be an exhibitionist and that's not what I am like. Porn stars would walk along the streets nude, that's what they enjoy, that's not me."

(Reporting by Tim Castle, editing by Tim Pearce)