By Peter Berton

YNOT EUROPE – Life has been a bit weird for performer Lea Lexis lately. The former Romanian gymnast turned porn idol and AVN Awards nominee recently found herself the darling of the mainstream media. The publicity occurred after reporters learned someone inside Vatican City had pirated — repeatedly — a lesbian bondage scene starring Lexis and Krissy Lynn.

The non-pirated version of the explicit video is here. At least the boys at the Vatican have taste.

As might be expected, no one inside the Holy City has admitted to using a bitTorrent network to get his porn fix — at least not in public. [Ed.: We would have liked to eavesdrop on that confession: “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned — and I really, really enjoyed it!”]

Lexis is taking the entire misadventure in stride. She said she considered the brief scandal just another high-point in a successful career. Here’s what else she confessed to YNOT.

YNOT.com: So…. How did a top athlete end up in the adult industry?

Lea Lexis: To keep it clean and simple, I am a Romanian gymnast who was fascinated by the [adult] industry, and I thought I could try it out for a bit as an experience. I loved it, so almost six years later I am still here [and] still loving what I do.

How did you learn the Vatican had been pirating your video?

I actually found out from my fans. They tweeted me frenetically saying that I’m famous! It was kinda funny.

What was in the video that caught their attention, do you think?

It was one of the scenes that I shot for Kink.com. It’s an S&M scene where I dominate Krissy Lynn. It’s a very hot, lesbian sex scene that has intense whipping, flogging, slapping and other fun stuff.

How did the media find out, and what has the attention done for your profile?

The media found out before me! [She laughs.] I guess it made me a little bit more known to the mainstream world, but I never really count on that. I am happy in the porno world.

Are you going to play off the Vatican scandal to boost your profile?

These kinds of things have a short shelf life. It’s fun to talk about, but that’s about it. I don’t count on it to be anything more than that.

Given that someone inside the Holy City stole your work, has anyone from the Vatican contacted you to ask forgiveness?

That would mean that somebody would have admitted to stealing porn in the first place, and we all know that is not going to happen.

I could only hope that knowing they can be caught, they won’t try to steal again. Evil Angel has offered discounts [to Vatican priests], so they can take advantage of that for their next porn-viewing needs.

The Vatican aside, how is your career going?

These past two years I have been amazed by the incredible opportunities I’ve had to work with amazing companies and people. I am very happy to give my fans bigger and better projects to enjoy.

What do you like and dislike about the work?

I love all the sexy people I work with, some of whom I fantasized about for years. Now I get to satisfy those fantasies, traveling all around the world, having the chance to express myself creatively and sexually and so on. [She laughs.] I could go on for a long time with my “like” list!

Dislikes? Given the fact that [porn] is still movie-making, we do have to keep track of the director’s ideas. And there’s the long hours on set — but I’m not sure if that counts 100 percent as a dislike, because the end the result is great and it does meet its purpose of satisfying the fans.

What has been the high point of your career to date?

I had the chance to co-produce an incredible movie with John Stagliano, Voracious.