Steven Soderbergh, the mainstream Hollywood director who made a splash with sex, lies and videotape before directing the Ocean's 11 remake, the Solaris remake, The Good German, Traffic, Erin Brockovich — you know, a wheel — has chosen adult performer Sasha Grey to start in his upcoming feature film.

Hollywood trade paper Variety reported earlier this year that Steven Soderbergh planned to cast an adult film star as the lead in The Girlfriend Experience, a low-budget indie-type feature film told from a perspective of a $10,000-a-night escort.

Soderbergh decided to cast Grey as the lead in the film, which is now shooting in New York. It's the second in a six-picture deal with Soderbergh to direct low-budget films to be distributed in theaters, on cable TV and DVD simultaneously.

There hasn't been this kind of mainstream exposure of a adult performer since David Cronenberg tapped Marilyn Chambers to star in Rabid when she was still identified in the public mind with the Mitchell Brothers movies she had made.

And Cronenberg didn't have an Oscar at the time.

Sasha Grey was traveling and couldn’t be immediately reached — but she has our number.