Yahoo News wrote:California's multi-billion-dollar adult porn industry ground to a virtual halt on Thursday after a popular actor tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS (news - web sites).
Industry advocates immediately called for a 60-day moratorium on filming so that others could be tested.
Actor Darren James tested positive for HIV (news - web sites) on 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 (news) 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."
It's good to see that they are handling this well, but I still see this as an opportunity for anti-porn activists to crow about the dangers of the porno scene. The investigation by John Ashcrofts justice department will no doubt be forthcoming.
In any case, this is a damn shame, epsecially given the precautions that are taken. Let's hope that this isn't a widespread infection.
Well, this certainly won't slow the War on Pornography, even though it's clear that the industry has policed itself.
BoTM / JL / MM / HAB / VRWC / Horseman
I'm studying for the CPA exam. Have a nice summer, and if you're down just sit back and realize that Joe is off somewhere, doing much worse than you are.
this is proof that the whole porn-HIV thing works. the tests are taken seriously, the productions were halted and the producers show responibility. this could actually be a pro porn-industry argument. of course most people won´t see that.
Col. Crackpot wrote:you know what i don't get? what's the point of wearing a condom if you are going to rip it off and blow a load all over the girl anyway?
because blowing your load on a girl's face or stomach presents practically zero chance of getting infected or pregnant as opposed to pre-cum getting into the vagina or accidentally cuming early.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
