Porn Valley- The HIV scare brought Los Angeles’ $10 billion porn industry to a grinding halt recently. But now, nearly a month after five performers tested positive for the virus, the cameras are rolling and the clothes are shedding — but the stars are facing an important choice.
Steve Hirsch, co-founder and chairman of industry giant Vivid Video, has mandated condom-only sex scenes for all of his company’s productions. “We made the decision a long time ago to protect the people on our sets,” Hirsch tells us. “We’ve stuck with it for six and a half years and we will continue to stick with it.”
But now the nation’s top adult movie maker is making a revolutionary request that may rock the industry: “That the actors and actresses who are the ones with power ultimately say, ‘I will not work without a condom,'” Hirsch says hopefully.
Vivid star Sunrise Adams says the AIDS scare sent shockwaves throughout the business. “I didn’t want my life in danger for doing something that I love and enjoy,” she insists. “I don’t even feel comfortable talking about it because it’s something that touches so close to home.”
Adam and Eve contract star Carmen Luvana, who sometimes works without condoms, says the public panic is overblown because porn stars are in the spotlight: “How many times have people listening to me right now gotten tested? Probably never. Ninety-nine percent of the time we know who we were with.”
But if producers like Steve Hirsch have their way, all future adult films will feature safe sex.