Porn industry mulls leaving LA if condoms required
JOEJOEJOE
Posts: 10,616
Sounds like they'd rather pull-out of L.A. then use condoms! Doh!
Porn industry mulls leaving LA if condoms required
By JOHN ROGERS | Associated Press – 10 hrs ago....Email
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.
Porn industry mulls leaving LA if condoms required
By JOHN ROGERS | Associated Press – 10 hrs ago....Email
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.
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
you know what ruins my fantasy.... fake boobs and those god awful over the top noises the chicks make.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
:think:
i know... it came as a shock to me too.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
Well, rumor has it, Norm, you are able to live in L.A., and work outside the city limits.....at the same time!
:shock:
Vancouver? Toronto? If I was living in either of those cities, I would start a lucite heels and stainless steel pole investments. Is it wrong to be ready for a cash influction to your city???
what industry in their right mind wouldnt??? profits above all else.
oh and theres nothing wrong with being prepared.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
yeah but the commute to oxnard sucks!
impressive!
Problem solved... NEXT!!!
P.S. Tabitha Stevens... one of the scariest porn (and I use the term, 'Star', loosely) stars out there.
Hail, Hail!!!
well if i don't want to go to oxnard, i sure as shit don't want to go to colton!
btw, even reading tabitha's name can and will give you a std
She was horrible in 'Weapons Of Ass Destruction, Vol. 23'. I have no idea how she was nominated for an Oscar that year... her performance was so obviously derivative of Bette Davis.
Hail, Hail!!!
Yes. This law will just lead to the industry leaving Los Angeles and going to a less sex-phobic city. Much of the industry has already left to Phoenix, Las Vegas, San Francisco, San Diego and even Costa Rica.
There are two solitudes in the industry, the gay and straight sides.
I'm one of the very few directors whose worked in both sides and can tell you that they're VERY different.
Gay companies have both condom and "bareback" studios. The "condom" studios generally don't test their models for stds but use condoms. That's a leave-over from the 80s when many gay performers were infected with HIV and we knew a lot less about testing and prevention. Bareback studios are further divided into studios that test and sero-sort and ones that don't test and just assume that all performers are HIV+.
There are also a very small number of gay studios that use both condoms and std testing.
Gay fans are divided on the condom/bareback Sides and the arguments about it are vicious. Fans like one or the other and The fans of one hate the other. I have received death threats because I have directed bareback movies.
Now... Straight guys... You can start reading here...
The straight audiences were given the choice of condom or non-condom movies (the term bareback only is used in the gay side of the industry) and they universally wanted American women and no condoms. No contest.
If this law stands, the industry will leave Los Angeles. End of story.
But this isnt about protecting performers. It's a law pushed by the sex-phobic "AIDS Healthcare Foudation" and it's a thin edge of the wedge. They want to make sex without a condom a criminal offense if there is an STD transmitted, even if you were unaware you had one.
Take head... This is about people telling you HOW to have sex. And take it from a gay man..l when the government steps in to tell you how to have sex... Thats not a good thing.
Straight
you know i read that as resident gay. the brains a funny thing sometimes.
take a good look
this could be the day
hold my hand
lie beside me
i just need to say
O.k.
So then do actors who aren't HIV+ avoid working for these studios?
And what category does your studio fall into?
Oh of course, if you work for one of those studios, none of the others will touch you.
And what category does your studio fall into?
My production company only does condom scenes. But I do freelance for a bunch of studios, a few in the past did bareback but only tested bareback. The straight scenes that I've done were all condom free except the bisexual guy/guy/girl scenes, those were both condom scenes.
Now I'll only work with condom studios.
For the safety of your actors? To promote condom use? For some other reason?
I consider myself a fan of porn. But I dont really purchase it. I've maybe bought one video ten years ago and perhaps 3-4 hustler magazines. With all the free porn out there, how does the industry make money?
Is the industry in decline, increase, or just staying the same these days?
Also, i've seen pornos where they use condoms, and it doesnt bother me. Of the main target audience, would they purchase less porn if there was more condom use? Is it that much of a turn off?
Safety of my performers, yes.
But also becuase as Christians go out of their way to limit access to any information about safer sex ns mKe it actually illegal to say "gay" in schools, young gay men ns gay teenagers are turning to porn for their information.
The gay industry as begrudingly acknowledged that we're not just adult enrtainers, we're also the only educators that our younger generation has... So we have started to act like it.
I started to notice my fan letters were coming from many guys who had no idea how to protect themselves. So... I decided it was a good idea to show them.
That's great! I work in the sexual health field & I can tell you that it's not just gay men who don't know how to protect themselves & get their sexual education from porn.
Yes, piracy has hurt parts of the industry but I see the forward-thinking producers that are making a very successful jump to online and digital distribution.
As far as condoms to...
To a gay audience, most are just fine with condoms and don't notice or care.
Straight audiences... Yes... They care. A lot.
And performers in the straight Industry refuse to use them because the rumor is that if a condom us used, one of the performers was infected with an STD. Crazy.
Why are manufacturing companies required by law to protect their employees from hazards through lots of means, but including PPE (personal protective equipment - gloves, safety glasses, etc)....but the porn industry would be exempt?
How is that possible?
in my opinion couples fucking on film is disgusting. i try and put myself in the man's shoes who is nailing some hot ass chick on camera, i can't do it. i throw in the towel out of respect for her and myself.
then i think to myself, how can i do this without wearing a rubber? she just got done screwin some other dude very recently and maybe that dude is infected x's 1900???
i find the whole porn business ridiculous. some of these women are just stunningly gorgeous to me. quite a shame i must say.
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
"Hear me, my chiefs!
I am tired; my heart is
sick and sad. From where
the sun stands I will fight
no more forever."
Chief Joseph - Nez Perce
You dislike porn? And you're a guy, right? Really? 'Cuz I thought all guys liked porn (even the ones who say they don't).
You need to rent some of the classics... 'Foreskin Gump', 'Pulp Friction', 'Rambone', 'Terms of Endowment', 'Edward Penishands' and the Disney-esque classic, 'Poke Her Honches'.
Hail, Hail!!!
People who perform in front of audiences And on camera have exemptions for when it interfes with the performance itself. Nobody is going to go to the circus if the feats aren't really "death defying." we have to take precautions of course.. But not if it would ruin the final product.
Stunt men in movies Also take chances. So do acrobats.
Your enjoyment of the refrigerator wont be ruined if you know the guy welding the door on wore protective glasses.