Silicone enhanced she is SO not a Balanchine dancer
The New York Times
June 13, 2009
H.I.V. Found in 22 Actors in Sex Films Since 2004
By GARDINER HARRIS
Health officials in Los Angeles said Friday that 22 actors in adult sex movies had contracted H.I.V. since 2004, when a previous outbreak led to efforts to protect pornography industry employees.
The officials accused an industry-supported health clinic of failing to cooperate with state investigations and of failing to protect not only industry workers but their sexual partners as well.
“We have an industry that is exposing workers to life-threatening diseases as part of their employment,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County. “That is outrageous and anachronistic. These infections are virtually entirely preventable.”
The latest controversy began Thursday, when The Los Angeles Times reported that a pornography actress had tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. The infection was confirmed by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, a clinic founded by a former pornography actress that offers health testing to sex-film performers.
A timeline on the foundation’s Web site states that the actress, whose name was not disclosed, tested negative for H.I.V. on April 29, but that a positive test result was confirmed on June 4. The woman performed in a film on June 5 for reasons that the clinic told the newspaper were still under investigation. A second test came back positive on June 6.
The actor who performed with the infected woman on June 5 has so far tested negative for the virus, the foundation’s chronology states, although H.I.V. infections can be undetectable for a week or more. A second male partner also tested negative.
Clinic officials refused to comment Friday.
Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said the clinic “is not cooperative with us.”
“We don’t even know who the employer is in the most recent case; we don’t know who the talent is,” Mr. Fryer said. “They don’t provide that to us.”
Occupational health officials have long argued that failing to require that performers wear condoms during intercourse and other acts is a violation of safe-workplace regulations.
But Deborah Gold, a senior safety engineer with the California occupational health department, said violations in the pornography industry were so widespread that the state had a difficult time cracking down.
“Many of these companies have two sound stages where they do two to four scenes a day with actors hired from talent agencies,” Ms. Gold said. “In that case, it’s clearly a violation” to have performers have sexual intercourse without condoms.
“We continue to try to find ways to identify those places where employees are at risk,” she said.
The pornographic film industry is centered in the San Fernando Valley, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. An estimated 200 production companies in the region employ as many as 1,500 performers, making up to 11,000 films and earning as much as $13 billion a year.
Some health advocates have pressed for legislation requiring condom use in sex scenes.
“This industry has been putting actors at risk for a very long time,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles. “And they’re sending a terrible message to young people that the only kind of sex that’s hot is unsafe sex.”
Steven Hirsch, chief executive of the sex-movie company Vivid Entertainment, said condoms were optional among its actors.
“Performers have the right to choose to use or not use condoms,” Mr. Hirsch said. “They’re adults; they know what industry they’re in.”
Personal comment: I think this article is sensationalism of the worst sort! I’m not saying that even one HIV infection isn’t something to be concerned about, for the individual, but Just run the numbers: “An estimated 200 production companies in the region employ as many as 1,500 performers, making up to 11,000 films and earning as much as $13 billion a year” And there have been 22 actors in the industry that have tested positive for HIV since 2004. Let’s say that’s 4 rather than 5 years to make the numbers worse, ok? So 11,000 films x 4 years = 44,000 films divided by 22 infected actors = one infection for every 2,000 films. Or, another way, 22 actors divided by 4 years = 5.5, say 6 infections per year which in a population of 1500 actors = .4% infection rate which in my opinion is quite remarkable, under the circumstances since we are talking about the adult film industry.
Even so, fortunately Taryn’s companies work to a much stricter health standard than AIM. Taryn’s Cos. require all actors to be tested weekly and be in quarantine for 2 weeks prior starting a project. And they pay well over typical industry rates so they have more top talent than they can use. It cuts into the profit margin some but since the industry is, Mmm, ‘obscenely’ profitable she thinks it’s good business to use a small percentage of her profits to protect the talent she uses. That I think is why she is hated so by Vivid and other industry competitors, including the German mogul and master sadist Deiter (the guy whose plane disappeared with him on board) who have been trying to put her (and her parents before her) out of the adult entertainment business for years.
The New York Times
June 13, 2009
H.I.V. Found in 22 Actors in Sex Films Since 2004
By GARDINER HARRIS
Health officials in Los Angeles said Friday that 22 actors in adult sex movies had contracted H.I.V. since 2004, when a previous outbreak led to efforts to protect pornography industry employees.
The officials accused an industry-supported health clinic of failing to cooperate with state investigations and of failing to protect not only industry workers but their sexual partners as well.
“We have an industry that is exposing workers to life-threatening diseases as part of their employment,” said Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County. “That is outrageous and anachronistic. These infections are virtually entirely preventable.”
The latest controversy began Thursday, when The Los Angeles Times reported that a pornography actress had tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. The infection was confirmed by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation, a clinic founded by a former pornography actress that offers health testing to sex-film performers.
A timeline on the foundation’s Web site states that the actress, whose name was not disclosed, tested negative for H.I.V. on April 29, but that a positive test result was confirmed on June 4. The woman performed in a film on June 5 for reasons that the clinic told the newspaper were still under investigation. A second test came back positive on June 6.
The actor who performed with the infected woman on June 5 has so far tested negative for the virus, the foundation’s chronology states, although H.I.V. infections can be undetectable for a week or more. A second male partner also tested negative.
Clinic officials refused to comment Friday.
Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, said the clinic “is not cooperative with us.”
“We don’t even know who the employer is in the most recent case; we don’t know who the talent is,” Mr. Fryer said. “They don’t provide that to us.”
Occupational health officials have long argued that failing to require that performers wear condoms during intercourse and other acts is a violation of safe-workplace regulations.
But Deborah Gold, a senior safety engineer with the California occupational health department, said violations in the pornography industry were so widespread that the state had a difficult time cracking down.
“Many of these companies have two sound stages where they do two to four scenes a day with actors hired from talent agencies,” Ms. Gold said. “In that case, it’s clearly a violation” to have performers have sexual intercourse without condoms.
“We continue to try to find ways to identify those places where employees are at risk,” she said.
The pornographic film industry is centered in the San Fernando Valley, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. An estimated 200 production companies in the region employ as many as 1,500 performers, making up to 11,000 films and earning as much as $13 billion a year.
Some health advocates have pressed for legislation requiring condom use in sex scenes.
“This industry has been putting actors at risk for a very long time,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles. “And they’re sending a terrible message to young people that the only kind of sex that’s hot is unsafe sex.”
Steven Hirsch, chief executive of the sex-movie company Vivid Entertainment, said condoms were optional among its actors.
“Performers have the right to choose to use or not use condoms,” Mr. Hirsch said. “They’re adults; they know what industry they’re in.”
Personal comment: I think this article is sensationalism of the worst sort! I’m not saying that even one HIV infection isn’t something to be concerned about, for the individual, but Just run the numbers: “An estimated 200 production companies in the region employ as many as 1,500 performers, making up to 11,000 films and earning as much as $13 billion a year” And there have been 22 actors in the industry that have tested positive for HIV since 2004. Let’s say that’s 4 rather than 5 years to make the numbers worse, ok? So 11,000 films x 4 years = 44,000 films divided by 22 infected actors = one infection for every 2,000 films. Or, another way, 22 actors divided by 4 years = 5.5, say 6 infections per year which in a population of 1500 actors = .4% infection rate which in my opinion is quite remarkable, under the circumstances since we are talking about the adult film industry.
Even so, fortunately Taryn’s companies work to a much stricter health standard than AIM. Taryn’s Cos. require all actors to be tested weekly and be in quarantine for 2 weeks prior starting a project. And they pay well over typical industry rates so they have more top talent than they can use. It cuts into the profit margin some but since the industry is, Mmm, ‘obscenely’ profitable she thinks it’s good business to use a small percentage of her profits to protect the talent she uses. That I think is why she is hated so by Vivid and other industry competitors, including the German mogul and master sadist Deiter (the guy whose plane disappeared with him on board) who have been trying to put her (and her parents before her) out of the adult entertainment business for years.
I have to agree with you, Jill, about how blown out of proportion the report you posted is. However, HIV/AIDS sometimes is treated like any other highly-infections disease, including H1N1, that when there is an unusual number of infections within a specific population group, i.e. the adult-film industry for HIV/AIDS, Mexican hog farmers for H1N1, asbestos workers with mesothemiola (sp?), etc., someone's going to make a big stink about it.
ReplyDeleteI think for my blog, I am going to mention how we journalists (and since I do work as a writer and have a journalism degree, I consider myself one) sometimes blow things completely out of proportion or even sensationalize the news.
When News Corp, to make an example, took over 20th Century Fox and created Fox News Channel, along with bying out a few of the newspapers across the country including the New York Post, they wanted to return to the old neutral-bias, non-sensational journalism of the likes of Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Morrow, etc., but what happened was they stated to sensationalize the news to the other extreme.
One of the jobs of journalists is to report on what is going on in our world. Another is to expose the dark underbelly of our government or our society, because an informed public can better change our society and government through appropriate action.