Marilyn Star (born Kathryn Gannon, April 12, 1969, Prince George, British Columbia) is a Canadian adult film actress.
She worked as a student in Edmonton before moving to Los Angeles and entering the adult film industry. Her first film was More Dirty Debutantes 30, produced by Ed Powers (released in 1994). She also did some strip club "feature work" dancing as the feature attraction in clubs throughout America in the mid-'90s. She was married to Japanese businessman Bruce Akahoshi (and took his last name) from April 1994 through October 1997, when they divorced
In December 1999 she was charged with insider trading for using bank merger information given by former lover James McDermott, an investment banker and former chairman and CEO of the investment banking firm of Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, and for sharing that information with another lover, New Jersey businessman Anthony Pomponio. Prosecutors stated Star used the tips to make $88,135 in the stock market from May 1997 through the summer of 1998, and Pomponio made a comparable amount.
Star escaped arrest by fleeing to Vancouver, Canada, where she married stockbroker Michael Gilley in 2000. She was arrested on May 24, 2000, and eventually extradited to the United States. Gilley filed for divorce October 13, 2000. Star pleaded guilty to insider trading charges on June 11, 2002, and was sentenced to three months in Women's Correctional Center, Danbury, Connecticut, which she began serving December 2, 2002