(SF)

Los Angeles - Two California film companies have suspended production as a precaution after a performer tested positive for HIV on Tuesday.
Officials from Wicked Pictures and Vivid Entertainment have announced that they are waiting until they know more about the possible implications of the new case before any more filming is done.
The positive test result was confirmed by the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIM).
Jennifer Miller, HIV/STD counselor at the clinic, said they are quarantining and testing the partners of the individual, whose gender they would not identify.
"When Vivid was first made aware that a performer had tested positive for HIV we immediately suspended production," the Los Angeles Times quoted Steven Hirsch, Vivid's co-founder, as saying. "We did this as a precaution and will continue to monitor the situation. AIM Healthcare acted appropriately to quarantine all adult talent who may have been exposed.”
Wicked, which is condoms-mandatory, has postponed upcoming productions to give AIM a chance to create a comprehensive quarantine list.
In 2004, more than 30 companies temporarily stopped filming after there were positive tests of performers.
Those acting in porn films are legally required to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases within 30 days of filming.
Health officials have said performers are at risk of contracting disease because of the widespread lack of condom use on porn sets. Some producers, including Hustler's Larry Flynt, have said that condoms should not be used because they are a turnoff for viewers.
AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein said this is the ninth HIV-positive adult film star to be treated at the AIM clinic since the outbreak in 2004.
Darren James, the former adult film actor who was at the center of that outbreak, now advocates the mandatory use of condoms on sets.
“The actors ... they’re not getting the protection that they need. There should have been mandatory condoms,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “Good grief, it’s like my deal, all over again. I hate that.”

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Put me on wheels and I'll turn tricks.

Clever? Nah, I ran out of that years ago. But if you find this, let me know, k?
"The road goes ever on..." ~ Tolkien

In memory of my friend skip...
Go then, there are other worlds than these

I read that Jenna Jameson is calling for the formation of a union to protect actors and I was shocked that there wasn't already one. Recently, workers at a local casino (run by an acknowledged native american tribe, on the property of their soverign nation) banned together and formed a union. That had to be logistically difficult, to say the least, so it's all the more suprising that it hasn't been done in the porn industry.

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Though I am different from you,
We were born involved in one another.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.

Complete surrender should not just come at moments in which one faces overwhelming odds, but in the calm when it seems one is personally in complete control of one's life.