[1][6] It instantly established her as a porn star, a status confirmed when she won the Adult Film Association of America Best Actress Award for her performance the following year.
[7] Other roles quickly followed, most trading on the dizzy naïf persona Cousteau created for Pretty Peaches (whose storyline was distantly derived from Voltaire's Candide).
[citation needed] Cousteau announced her retirement from porn films in an interview for the TV series Midnight Blue at an event to promote Deep Rub in the latter part of 1979.
"[8] At the time of the Midnight Blue interview, Cousteau was appearing at the Melody Burlesk in New York, which regularly featured porn stars in addition to its house dancers.
[8][11] She performed a one-woman show consisting of dance and striptease followed by audience questions, which also included posing nude for photographs while seated on patrons' laps.
[1] During a performance at the Parkway Theater in Milwaukee, Cousteau "was covered with a coat and led off stage" by police, but the district attorney's office declined to prosecute.