Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Wolfala on April 15, 2004, 10:12:55 PM
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CNN latest...
Actor's HIV infection strikes Calif. porn industry
By Gina Keating
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - California's multi-billion-dollar adult porn industry ground to a virtual halt Thursday after a popular actor tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS.
Industry advocates immediately called for a 60-day moratorium on filming so that others could be tested.
Actor Darren James tested positive for HIV Wednesday in screening conducted routinely on the industry's 1,200 regular actors by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare (AIM) Foundation, the foundation's Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell said.
They must show negative tests to keep working in the industry, Mitchell said, adding that only about 17 percent of performers use condoms.
James, the first porn actor to test positive for the virus since 1999, had a "stellar record" of tests -- negative every three weeks for the past seven years, she said.
Mitchell said James may have contracted the virus about four weeks ago while filming in Brazil on a "non-condom" set.
The Los Angeles-based industry, which normally films three to four films a day, must now wait 60 days to learn whether the deadly virus spread to 14 actresses who had onscreen sex with James, or to the 35 sex partners the women subsequently had.
The at-risk actors have been quarantined until June 8, and Mitchell has advocated a moratorium on shooting until the extent of the infection is known.
Former porn actress Jill Kelly, founder of Jill Kelly Productions Holding, Inc., said she and most other film producers have halted production for the next two months.
The postponement of eight films "won't do much damage" and can be quickly remedied by doubling the six-day-per-month shooting schedule, Kelly said.
But actors who live "check to check" may have trouble making ends meet during the moratorium, she said.
"Most of the people I have talked to are cooperating," she said. "There are a few people that won't. But if I find out there is talent working I won't ever hire them again."
Kelly said she was quarantined in 1999 after working with actor Tony Montana who subsequently tested positive for HIV and infected several co-stars.
"I was clean (but) it's scary," she said.
Director Corey Jordan, who used James in his "Baby Got Back" series, called the actor's diagnosis "a shock," but predicted the industry would rebound.
"In the porn community itself, HIV is pretty much taken care of in the sense that we make sure everyone is tested," he said. "Right now it's not about money, it's about people's well being."
Reuters/VNU
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Sick version of the trickle down theory
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Does that mean that being a porn star qualifies as a hazardous job? :lol
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Why not do this....
This may sound cracy but USE A CONDOM during the shot and call Lucas Arts to edit out the condom:D
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The postponement of eight films "won't do much damage" and can be quickly remedied by doubling the six-day-per-month shooting schedule, Kelly said.
What does this mean? That the male performers have to shoot six times a day? I would think there'd be a decline in ambition after the third or fourth one.
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Gofaster...I'm drinking alot of milk. I hear that helps.
It's nice to get some time off though...travelling to LA once a month was getting a bit tiresome.
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Originally posted by Curval
Gofaster...I'm drinking alot of milk. I hear that helps.
It's nice to get some time off though...travelling to LA once a month was getting a bit tiresome.
:rofl
Mild mannered accountant by day, pron star by night...
How many little curvals are running around LA?
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Bow-chicka- BOW BOW
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"The Los Angeles-based industry, which normally films three to four films a day"
Wow!!!
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OMG! The spermanity.
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Now these are the types of threads that can bring a BBS community together!
REMEMBAR TEH MEMBER!!
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Where do i pick up my aplication?:D
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Originally posted by Wolfala
...to learn whether the deadly virus spread to 14 actresses who had onscreen sex with James, or to the 35 sex partners the women subsequently had.
DAMN! Thats alot of work! Extra credit too!
Perhaps this will cause a void in available 'talent' and we can all get dream jobs.
I got first dibs on Jenna.
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More details....
LOS ANGELES TIMES
April 16, 2004
2 HIV Cases Put a Scare Into Porn
By Caitlin Liu, Kristina Sauerwein and Monte Morin, Times Staff Writers
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.
James has worked for producers who don't require condoms. He reportedly contracted the virus in Brazil.
Several of those producers Thursday said they were stopping production. One of them is Jill Kelly Productions, a Hollywood company that makes four to eight movies a month.
"We're not shooting until June 8," said owner Jill Kelly. "We're just sitting around, afraid. The most important thing is safety. Safety comes before money."
At World Modeling Talent Agency in Sherman Oaks, which represents many adult actors, the phones hadn't stopped ringing Thursday from worried clients and producers. "We've gotten calls from 15 companies who are shutting down. We [the porn industry] take these things seriously. Right now, there are companies who are not only canceling future projects, but also canceling movies already in production," owner Jim South said.
Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said that although the porn industry in general has been diligent about screening actors for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, the root problem is the continued practice of unsafe sex.
"This is another illustration that unless all the sex you're showing is safe, that actors will continue to be put at risk," Fielding said. "Even good industrywide efforts would be hard to be 100% successful because people are having sex outside the industry."
Sharon Mitchell, a former adult film star who describes herself as the "auntie of porn," helped found the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation with Northridge doctor Steven York five years ago.
The clinic's main goal was preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV, in the porn industry.
The industry recommends that all actors and actresses be tested every 30 days. AIM tests about 1,200 performers each month and shares its data with major porn film producers, the foundation said.
On Thursday, actors and actresses streaming in and out of the foundation's Woodland Hills office to get tested for HIV said they felt unnerved.
Some pored over a flier handed out by AIM that named those who had sex with James since his last clean test, and those who had sex with James' sex partners, looking for people they knew.
"I haven't worked with any of them, thank God no," said one actor after reviewing the names.
Actress Summer Tyme, 25, said she has worked in the industry only two months, and that the news has rattled her.
"I'm going to change the way I do things now — probably just girl-on-girl shoots. Guys, but with condoms," Tyme said. "No money is worth risking your life."
The actress said she was scheduled for a video shoot that afternoon, but panicked when she learned that one of the male performers was "quarantined" — on the list of performers who may have been infected. Although that actor later was replaced, she called and left a message saying she would only perform protected sex.
"They never called me back," Tyme said. "I guess they didn't like that."
James, friends said, was stricken by the news. "He's resting and lying low. He's very sad," Mitchell said.
Friends and colleagues described James as friendly and gentlemanly. He was tested Friday and AIM received the diagnosis on Monday. AIM sent out an alert Tuesday morning.
Roxx is a relative newcomer to the industry, health advocates said, and appears to have performed with only two or three actors before testing positive on Thursday.
"Luckily, there's a small number of people," said AIM healthcare worker Scotty Phillips.
Roxx had not worked for the last few days because she felt ill.
Despite the HIV scare, Kelly said, porn workers are still sexually healthier than non-porn people who are promiscuous.
"People are aware about their health in this industry," Kelly said.
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"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."
Heaven forbid they should take another job. Such as stripping. Or working for a computer company.
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I wonder if that is covered by workman's comp?
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I think we need to start the Peter North relief fund!
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God works in mysterious ways :)
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Husky Man: "ma'm I'm hear to clean your pool"
Desperate house wife who happens to be wearing nothing but a robe: "but I dont have a pool"
(cue the music) Bow-chica-Wow-wow
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Will this drive up the price of porn?:rolleyes:
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Originally posted by Eagler
God works in mysterious ways :)
That's a pretty un-Christian sentiment, but hypocrisy seems to be a universal theme among religious nuts.
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Originally posted by -MZ-
That's a pretty un-Christian sentiment, but hypocrisy seems to be a universal theme among religious nuts.
its a joke but u r so uptight u dont even see it
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Originally posted by Eagler
God works in mysterious ways :)
Thats right.. God in all his glory and love would give the gift of HIV in retribution against these peoples' sins..
KILL THEM GOD!! KILL THEM ALL!!
dude
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Originally posted by TheDudeDVant
Thats right.. God in all his glory and love would give the gift of HIV in retribution against these peoples' sins..
KILL THEM GOD!! KILL THEM ALL!!
dude
LOL
your right hand would welcome the break :)
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Originally posted by Eagler
LOL
your right hand would welcome the break :)
Im ambidextrous. lol
:lol
dude
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Well, according to Summer Tyme we get to see more girl-girl scenes :aok
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Will this crisis contribute to the State deficit?
Will the be a new bond proposal this November?
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The California economy will suffer a bit, but the rest of the states' citizens will enjoy a bit more expendable income.