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Journalism of Courage
Several major adult movie companies — including the industry’s largest, Vivid — announced on Thursday 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 reverberated throughout the industry, sparking a mix of anxiety and indifference at industry 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 multi-billion-dollar business.
Production would stop until those actors who had worked with Gonzo porn star Darren James and actress partner Lara Roxx could be tested, company officials said. 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.
The call for a halt to filming of sex scenes without a condom 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 news website, endorsed the proposal. James, one of the actors with HIV, reportedly contracted the virus in Brazil and has worked for producers who don’t require condoms. At World Modelling Talent Agency in Sherman Oaks, which represents many adult actors, the phones hadn’t stopped ringing.
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. On Thursday, actors and actresses streaming in and out of the AIM Healthcare Foundation’s office to get tested for HIV said they felt unnerved. —(LAT-WP)
