posted on April 16, 2004 12:25:56 PM new
Several major adult movie companies — including the industry's largest, Vivid — announced Thursday they would stop filming for 60 days after two stars tested positive for HIV.
The shutdown followed an urgent plea by health advocates to halt unprotected sex in the pornographic industry, which employs more than 6,000 performers and production personnel in Southern California. The positive tests have reverberated throughout the industry, sparking a mix of anxiety and indifference at movie sets, talent agencies and testing clinics.
Vivid and other companies announced that they would stop filming in hopes of heading off an outbreak of HIV in the multibillion-dollar business.
Production would stop until those actors who had worked with actor Darren James and actress Lara Roxx could be tested, company officials said. The pair, who had worked together in at least one movie, tested positive this week.
But other companies dismissed the plea for a moratorium, calling it "paranoid" and "knee-jerk," and vowed to keep their cameras rolling. The industry, they said, was perfectly safe.
"I'm against any stop in production," said Tyler Cash, a producer with Sinamotion Pictures in Chatsworth. "It will put a lot of people out of business. You'll have people who will start losing their apartments. It's just not fair."
The call for a halt to filming of sex scenes without condoms was made by the Sherman Oaks-based Adult Industry Medical Heath Care Foundation, which listed on its website about three dozen actors who may have been exposed to the virus recently, and urged them to get tested.
Other top adult-entertainment groups, including the leading industry news website, endorsed the proposal.
Cash's company, along with a few others, allow actors to use condoms during filming, although filmmakers say their use "kills the fantasy" and actors are often paid more to perform without them.
posted on April 16, 2004 01:25:56 PM new
back in old days,it was just herpes??
these days they can do a lot of photography tricks,how would any viewer know ??
-sig file -------we eat to live,not live to eat.
Benjamin Franklin
