Porn industry mulls leaving LA if condoms required

By +Frank B.
in Real World News

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Grand Master

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Porn industry mulls leaving LA if condoms required

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Some of the most prominent purveyors of porn say they'll start packing up their sex toys and abandoning the nation's porn capital if authorities carry through with a nascent effort to police adult film sets and order that every actor be outfitted with a condom.

That effort took a serious leap forward Tuesday when the Los Angeles city council voted 9-1 to grant final approval to an ordinance that would deny film permits to producers who do not comply with the condom requirement. The measure now goes to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for approval.

Before the measure can take effect, however, the council has called for the creation of a committee of police officials, the city attorney, state health officials and others to determine how it might be enforced.

"It's going to be interesting to see how in fact they do try to enforce it and who's going to fund it, and all of the time and effort they're going to spend," said Steven Hirsch, co-founder and co-chairman of Los Angeles-based Vivid, one of the largest makers of erotic movies.

"Ultimately I think what they will find is people will just stop shooting in the city of Los Angeles," added Hirsch. "That's a given."

His company, founded in 1984, would be among those that would consider leaving, he said.

Other industry officials condemned the measure as an unneeded exercise in political correctness that cannot be enforced in the city known in the industry as the porn capital of the country. Approximately 90 percent of U.S. porn films are made in Los Angeles, almost all of them in the city's San Fernando Valley, said Mark Kernes, senior editor of Adult Video News.

When films, Internet downloads, sex toys and admission to dance clubs are counted, Kernes said, it's an industry that produces about $8 billion a year in revenue. It has been battered in recent years, however, by the recession and the increased popularity of free Internet porn, and Kernes and others say requiring condoms would further erode business.

They say consumers, particularly those overseas, have made it clear they won't watch films when the actors use condoms, complaining that it is distracting and ruins the fantasy.

"The only thing that the city could potentially achieve is losing some film permit money and driving some productions away, but you can't actually compel an industry to create a product that the market doesn't want," said Christian Mann, general manager of Evil Angel, another of the industry's largest production companies.

Ged Kenslea, spokesman for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, said the measure is needed because the industry has failed to properly police itself. For years, he said, filmmakers have ignored state health laws mandating the use of condoms when workers are exposed to blood-borne pathogens.

"Let's make one thing clear: Condom use on adult film sets is, and has been, the law in California under blood-borne pathogens regulations," he said. "It is just a law that has not been uniformly enforced or followed. This film permit ordinance that the city council approved today provides another enforcement mechanism to make sure that adult film producers are complying with existing California law."

The council's final vote to approve the law was taken without public discussion, on a day when most of the porn industry's major players were in Las Vegas preparing for Wednesday's opening of the Adult Entertainment Expo, their industry's largest trade event. They said they weren't surprised by the news.

The industry already does its own policing, filmmakers say, requiring actors be tested for sexually transmitted diseases a minimum of every 30 days when they are working. They say no cases of HIV have been directly linked to porn films since 2004, adding they fear if the industry scatters to areas outside of Los Angeles, testing could fall by the wayside, exposing performers to more risk.

"If someone is going to catch an STD, it's usually out of the business because we are tested so often," said veteran porn actress and producer Tabitha Stevens.

In her 17 years in the business, Stevens said, she has worked both with and without condoms. Although she prefers to use condoms, acknowledging they do increase safety, she said the choice should be left up to the performers and not mandated by a government agency.

"If you want to wear them, wear them. If you don't, don't. That's up to the talent to decide. It shouldn't be up to the government to decide," she said.

Source: Associated Press on Yahoo! News

Grand Master

P!P

Posted
Posted

No one should be above the law.

Above what law? The law that requires everyone use condoms?

Also, since when does a city council make laws? As far as I know, city councils make ordinances, not laws.

This is stupid all around. It's stupid to require them. It's stupid to think it could be enforced. It's stupid to waste the time of 2nd biggest city council in the US talking about this. It's stupid to thing that film makers wouldn't leave and go to another city. It's just stupid.

Grand Master

jakem1

Posted
Posted

My question is, are they solving a problem that needs to be solved? I would have thought that all those "stars" have to go through regular testing and whatnot anyways.

And if they don't.... maybe start there?

Yes, the current system of testing seems to work well enough if the mainstream reporting of HIV cases amongst porn stars is anything to go by. I can only remember hearing about a couple of cases of stars contracting the virus in the last decade and haven't heard that it was passed on to any co-workers. I've never heard anything about any other STDs either.

Not if they immediately scat it to a wall.

:x

Vivid, one of the largest makers of erotic movies.

I'm not sure I'd describe any of Vivid's films as erotic.

Mentor

Xoligy

Posted
Posted

They are screened every 30days for an STD and i really dont know why they are trying to make this stupid law. Is there a huge increase in the actors getting STD's and complaining? Are they having children and suing the one another? Is there some other law suite we dont know about? Its upto the actors if they want to use protection or not and the film company if they provide this option if they dont the actor can go elsewhere that does.

Grand Master

leesmithg

Posted
Posted

The first pr0n film I saw was in SOHO London.

The cinema is on Shaftsbury Avenue. So you might know which one.

I was 15/16 and being tall they maybe thought I was older and let me in.

The flick was supposed to be a male pilot that was supposed to have a three-some with two fit looking Scandinavian air hostesses.

The guy could not get it up, he had a limp penis throughout.

That's what would bother me, (not that I watch porn anyway and I would only be interested in Lesbian action anyway) that the guy didn't have a boner rather than wearing a Johnny.

Grand Master

+Frank B. Subscriber²

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Condoms are mandatory for porn stars in LA by law now:

Condom law slapped on LA adult film stars

Actors making pornographic movies in Los Angeles will be required to use condoms while filming, under a new law signed by the city mayor.

The new regulation has been welcomed by health officials but pornography industry leaders say it could force them to abandon the city.

LA's San Fernando Valley is considered the capital of the multibillion-dollar US adult film industry.

Correspondents say it is not yet clear how the new law will be enforced.

The LA-based Aids Healthcare Foundation welcomed the move saying it was crucial in protecting adult film actors from HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.

The foundation, which has campaigned for the measure for six years, said it would now seek similar condom requirement elsewhere in the US.

"The city of Los Angeles has done the right thing. They've done the right thing for the performers," said foundation president Michael Weinstein.

He said his group would also be vigilant in keeping track of where porn producers might move to.

Several of the industry's biggest adult filmmakers have said they might consider moving just outside city boundaries.

They insist that adult films featuring condoms are not as popular and that some actors prefer not to use them.

The new law was signed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Monday.

The city council has now asked the police, city attorney's office and workplace safety officials to figure out how they enforce the rule, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Industry experts estimate as many as 90% of all pornographic films produced in the US are made in Los Angeles.

Last year, pornographic film productions across the US were temporarily shut down after an adult film performer tested positive for HIV - the virus that causes Aids.

Source: BBC News

Grand Master

Glassed Silver

Posted
Posted

LA "Hollywood style" porn is the worst either way...

effed up ideals on beauty

missing slightest piece of story or niveau

it's always the same

etc

Maybe if it spreads out into the country styles too would mix up.

If LA is so in love with an umbrella duty, so be it.

Feel free to "pull out" haha, good one Spyder! (Y)

Apart from that, there are quite some sexually uneducated comments in here...

Glassed Silver:mac

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