HIV
scare calls halt to porn shoots, by Caitlin Liu, Monte
Morin and Kristina Sauerwein in Los Angeles - 17th
April 2004
(Credit:
The Sydney Morning Herald)
Several adult movie companies - including the industry's
largest, Vivid - said they would stop filming after
two stars tested positive for HIV.
The
shutdown followed an urgent plea by health advocates
to halt unprotected sex in the porn industry. The
positive tests have sparked a mix of anxiety and indifference
at porn 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 people who had acted with porn star
Darren James and actress partner Lara Roxx could be
tested, company officials said.
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,
said Elizabeth Mitchell of the Adult Industry Medical
Healthcare (AIM) Foundation.
Dr
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 shoots
three to four films a day, must now wait 60 days to
learn whether the deadly virus spread to 14 actresses
who had on-screen sex with James, or to the 35 sex
partners the women subsequently had.
The
call for a halt to filming of sex scenes without a
condom was made by AIM, which listed on its website
about three dozen actors who may have been exposed
to the virus recently, and urged them to get tested.
Sinamotion
Pictures, along with a few others, allow actors to
use condoms during filming, although filmmakers say
their use "kills the fantasy" and performers
are often paid more to perform without them.
On
Thursday, porn stars streaming in and out of the foundation's
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's sex partners, looking
for people they know.
"I
haven't worked with any of them, thank God no,"
said one actor after reviewing the list.
Summer
Tyme, 25, said she had worked in the industry only
two months, and that the news had rattled her. "I'm
going to change the way I do things now - probably
just girl-on-girl shoots. Guys, but with condoms.
No money is worth risking your life."
James,
friends said, was stricken by the news. "He's
resting and lying low. He's very sad," Dr Mitchell
said.
Roxx
was a relative newcomer to the industry, health advocates
said, and appears to have performed with only two
or three actors before being tested positive on Thursday.
She
had not worked for the last few days because she felt
ill, probably a consequence of the onset of the viral
infection, AIM said.
Several
producers 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.
"The most important thing is safety. Safety comes
before money."
Despite
the HIV scare, Ms Kelly said, porn workers were still
sexually healthier than non-porn people who are promiscuous.
"People
are aware about their health in this industry,"
she said. "People are safer [in porn] than going
out to a bar and having a one-night stand."
Los
Angeles Times, Reuters
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