Best Sex Writing 2013: The State of Today's Sexual Culture (23 page)

says while on the set of
Star Wars XXX
. “It’s a choice.”

At summer’s Adultcon convention downtown, porn star Trinity St. Clair was wearing a schoolgirl uniform, inspiring a gray-haired man to say, “She looks barely old enough,” before he posed for a picture with St. Clair. But talk turned more serious when she said, “We get to decide what we want to do as women. It’s kind of like abortion and those rights.”

Perhaps the most interesting argument against using condoms in porn movies comes from Roger Jon Diamond, a Santa Monica attorney who has been involved for many years in defending strip clubs and adult businesses. He cites freedom of speech.

“I would say such a rule would interfere with the First Amend- ment right of the producer and director to create a product,” he says. “I don’t think the state has the authority to do that. It would be a public health issue versus a freedom-of-expression issue. If it interfered with the artistic nature of the movie, I think there would be a First Amendment argument. But, in terms of politics, I don’t think the industry wants to take on this battle.”

It would take serious time, dollars and legal might for the adult biz to fight for its right to the money shot as a form of artistic ex-

pression. But some in the industry are gung-ho. Mandatory con- doms, says porn star and activist Nina Hartley, would be “prior restraint on speech.”

The death of John Holmes (the inspiration for Mark Wahlberg’s character in
Boogie Nights
) in 1988 was attributed to AIDS, and many blamed his “crossover” work in gay film and his alleged drug use.

Denial is a river that overflows in the industry of smut, and Holmes was seen by many performers as a victim of his own life- style choices. It wasn’t until 1993, when another HIV outbreak hit the industry, that porn began to think seriously about how to confront the virus and other STDs, says William Margold, an industry veteran and gadfly who has worked as a writer, actor and filmmaker since the early 1970s.

In 1998 industry insider and former porn star Sharon Mitchell launched the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM), a nonprofit where performers could get tested and treated. By the next decade, it was the epicenter of the industry’s official testing protocol. Performers working for major production com- panies such as Vivid, Evil Angel and even the more online-fo- cused Manwin are tested monthly and must show proof of nega- tive HIV results when they arrive on set.

In recent years AIM even began posting the results of porn stars’ tests on a restricted website, which producers could check to see if an actor was good to perform.

That all changed last spring, when a website called Porn- WikiLeaks put online, for the world to see, performers’ medical records, apparently culled from AIM’s database and sometimes matched with addresses that are federally required to ensure movie performers aren’t underage.

At about the same time, AIDS Healthcare Foundation was filing complaints against the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation as part of its mission to get condoms required in porn. In AHF’s view, testing service AIM was the new enabler in the industry’s denial about condoms.

On one front, AHF alleged that AIM was violating performers’ federal privacy rights by making their test results available online to producers; on another it said AIM wasn’t properly registered as a clinic, which was true.

Legal action by AHF ultimately toppled AIM last May, when the organization closed its doors. The Free Speech Coalition stepped in with a replacement system called the Adult Produc- tion Health and Safety Service, which promised to honor privacy while administering the once-a-month testing protocol.

The industry argues that its testing system works by quickly alerting it to new HIV cases, leading to shutdowns of production, preventing HIV from spreading on set.

Of the ten HIV cases in the porn industry that both the AHF and the Free Speech Coalition agree have cropped up since 2005, the industry says nearly all were contracted off-set, the implica- tion being that many of the original virus carriers didn’t work in the industry. FSC chair Douglas says, “In all of the tens of thousands of unprotected sex acts [since 2005], there is only one documented occasion where someone transmitted HIV on the set. That’s a regret. It should never have happened.”

STD rates for performers are “much lower” than those of the general population, says FSC executive director Diane Duke. Such numbers are hard to calculate, however, because porn’s pop- ulation of workers is transient and changes by the month, a fact Johns Hopkins M.D. Lawrence S. Mayer noted in an industry- commissioned report that debunks studies claiming high STD

rates in adult video, which he called “without basis in science.”

One of the industry’s more unsavory arguments against using condoms is that some of its HIV cases occurred when male straight-porn actors engaged in unprotected “crossover” work in gay porn, or had relations with gay men in their personal lives.

In 2004, when James contracted HIV after his visit to South America, Ron Jeremy suggested with a metaphorical wink to this author that there are a lot of beautiful women in Brazil, “and some of them have dicks.”

Derrick Burts, the performer who tested HIV-positive in 2010, was quickly outed by industry insiders as not only a crossover actor—he did both gay and straight porn—but also as a prostitute whose “escort” services were advertised on gay site Rentboy.

“I do believe that there should be strict rules for crossover,” porn star Shay Fox tells the
Weekly
. “That’s where the problem is.” A former porn star who did not want her name used says that many who work in adult video believe “HIV is hard to get.” And,

she added, “It really is.”

The subtext among some straight actors is that it’s hard to get—unless you’re gay.

At a summer press conference, AHF’s Weinstein called criti- cism of crossover performers “ just code” for gay bashing. He told the
Weekly,
“There’s a myriad amount of dangers” for all per- formers “and the reality is you can get tested today and get in- fected tomorrow.”

Indeed, some porn insiders admit that run-of-the-mill STDs are common—so much so that outbreaks are sometimes “covered up with makeup so it doesn’t show up on camera,” says former performer Gina Rodriguez.

The industry’s testing system “is a joke,” she says. “Think about it. This is the truth. If I took my test twenty-nine days ago,

I’m okay to work with you because I have a valid test.”

The “dirty secret” of porn isn’t “crossover,” says Weinstein. It’s taking escorting jobs, or what some in the business call “making appearances” with fans such as Charlie Sheen. (Sheen seemed to have no problem tracking down some of his favorite adult per- formers during his famous meltdown last winter.)

“I said fifty percent of the women in porn were ‘escorting’ back in the late ’90s,” says adult filmmaker Whiteacre. “The number is certainly higher today.”

Escorting is porn without the lights and cameras but definitely with the action. Whether it’s safe is a question for its practitioners. Some experts say, ironically or not, condoms usually are required by the individual women themselves for such off-set activity.

“Even if the girls are using condoms when they’re escorting, it’s doubtful they’re going to be kept totally clean,” says former performer Rodriguez. “There’s a lot of contact there.”

Some of the biggest names in the business, such as Charmane Star and Sativa Rose, can easily be found offering private meet- ups—by the hour—on some of L.A.’s classified-ad sites. It’s not clear if someone is just capitalizing on the monikers of famous porn stars or if such ads are for real. Neither of those advertisers responded to our email requests for comment.

One porn star, Adora Cash, openly advertises on her own site that she’s an “adult film star, escort, domina” and “webcam fe- tishist.”

And a performer who quit the business last year and is now a full-time escort told the
Weekly
that prostitution is so widespread that “most of the female porn stars are escorts.”

“Most of all the girls I know that are porn stars I met on set—they all escort, all of them,” she adds. “These performers are going out and being irresponsible in their own private sex lives.”

An uneasy compromise may be the answer. Condoms for anal and vaginal sex are on the table at Cal-OSHA, as officials there draw up the new rule to cover porn. AHF’s Weinstein says he won’t de- mand the use of condoms for oral sex. It’s a compromise, he says, that is “a reasonable accommodation” for both sides.

And that fine-tuning would save the “money shot” because blow jobs wouldn’t violate the OSHA rule under development. “There would not be acceptance of condoms for oral sex,” Wein- stein acknowledges.

Free Speech Coalition chairman Douglas, a powerful voice in the industry, says, “I’m very much a ‘never say never’ person. I’m interested in a good-faith effort” toward compromise.

Yet FSC executive director Duke warns, “I don’t think the industry will budge” by agreeing to the compromise plan coming before Cal-OSHA.

Larry Flynt and Vivid CEO Steven Hirsch, for example, continue to resist the use of on-set condoms for any reason, and Hirsch threatens to leave Los Angeles if restrictions come to pass. “It’s a possibility we will be shooting outside California” if the condom rule passes, Hirsch tells the
Weekly
.

The adult-business news site XBIZ conducted a poll over the summer asking industry movers and shakers if they would leave California should condoms become specifically mandatory: More than 60 percent said yes. “I think that it’s very possible that an exodus would happen on some level,” says XBIZ managing editor Dan Miller.

Weinstein is among many who think the threat to leave Porn Valley is a bluff. Although porn productions are common in Florida and Nevada, and New Hampshire recognized freedom- of-expression protection for porn in 2008, California is the only

state where making adult video is widely protected. “That’s true,” says adult-industry lawyer Diamond—thanks to a 1988 state su- preme court case,
California v. Freeman
, which found that prostitu- tion could be tolerated in cases where pornographic imagery was being produced.

“There’s only one state where [porn] is not considered prosti- tution,” says Weinstein—California. “I think if the industry tried to pick up stakes and go, there they would have difficulty. They can’t exist as an above-ground industry anywhere else but Cali- fornia.”

“They’re not going anywhere,” agrees porn veteran Margold. “We have been blessed with the Freeman decision.”

Attorney Douglas of FSC says the threat to leave is real, though, noting that much production has already gone to Florida, where online juggernaut Manwin has a large presence, and to Nevada, home of the brothel.

“The adult industry is incredibly mobile,” he says, “and there’s production everywhere. This is a huge amount of money and commerce and employment that would be driven out due to the threat of bad regulation.”

A springtime party at R Lounge in Studio City is billed as a chance to meet porn stars, and it is. The high rollers driving up to the red carpet in German cars have to pay a cover charge. The women, of course, get in free. And for the most part you can smell them before they even enter the doors of this modern, minimalist club. A cloud of marijuana smoke precedes a trio of performers in ten-dollar minidresses and Lucite stripper shoes. They can barely keep their clothes on as a dozen photogs from websites you’ve

never heard of go wild.

One woman flashes her breasts, another turns around and

exposes the back of her thong, and when the performers plop onto a low-slung couch there’s no need for that wiggling ward- robe dance familiar to any woman who has worn a short skirt. Panty shots are part of the deal.

The other side of the often dull and technical nature of on-set porn is the “lifestyle” beyond the set. While many female per- formers view men as “walking wallets,” as Margold puts it, they also sometimes genuinely embrace the party and the chance at a side-door entrance to stardom.

Jenna Jameson is perhaps the ultimate porn success, a woman who never did the kind of “gonzo” films that give performers STDs, an entrepreneur who ultimately produced and distributed her own product. Sasha Gray, who quit the industry earlier this year, has crossed over into indie film (
The Girlfriend Experience
) and cable (
Entourage
). The new girls want to be Jenna and Sasha. Many female porn stars have taken to social media to brag about their cars, their designer handbags, the celebrities they get to meet and the crazy parties they attend. There’s plenty of hope among the new talent, even if the jobs are more scarce than

they’ve been in a generation.

Tom Byron, a legendary performer, is thoughtful, honest and reflective when the
Weekly
catches him between takes on the set of
Star Wars XXX
. He’s been around the industry long enough— nearly thirty years—to remember the days before testing, which he called “scary.”

“Should we probably use condoms?” he asks. “Yes. Do people want to see it? No.”

Indeed, the biggest problem for porn is the silent majority: the viewer, the connoisseur, the guy with his thumb on the fast- forward button. Like spectators at a Roman gladiator battle, they want porn to show them the money.

Margold, who has watched the industry progress since Linda Lovelace discovered the fictional clitoris in her throat in 1972, is very much pro condom. In fact, he thinks performers should be tested for intravenous drug use and that new performers should be at least twenty-one.

But, he argues, the consumer’s carnal desires are too powerful for even the state of California’s workplace police to overcome.

He delivers the money quote, the bottom line:

“We’re gotten off to, by society, with its left hand,” he says, “and then denied with its right hand. The very people who jack off to us don’t give a damn about us, and probably won’t.”

Lost Boys

Kr isten Hinman