Called "The Hedgehog" because he is short, fat, and hairy, Ron Jeremy may nonetheless be the most popular and successful of porn stars. So the subject alone justifies this slight documentary by Scott J. Gill that traces the career of a former special-ed teacher and aspiring actor from Queens who turned his unique asset into a uniquely American success story. I am speaking, of course, of Jeremy's enormous sense of humor, which along with his ursine appearance has made him the idol of millions of fellow "schlubs" (his word) who can only dream of a life in which you get paid for eating chocolate cake off the back of a beautiful woman you've just sodomized.

Comprising interviews with "friends" like pornographer Al Goldstein ("He's a self-promotion machine!") and former Grandpa Munster Al Lewis ("The worst act in show business," he says of Jeremy's stand-up routine) as well as surprisingly tame excerpts from Jeremy's oeuvre, Porn Star doesn't penetrate very deeply into such issues as censorship, exploitation, and voyeurism. And though Jeremy discloses some of his secrets (he refrains from sex the day before he has to perform, and he attributes his ability to come on cue to thinking about his grandmother), by the end you might be asking, where's the beef? At the Avon Friday and Saturday at midnight.