[For the moment, film production has continued largely
unabated here, as the city works to determine how to enforce the condom
requirement. And production companies say the ordinance does not require them
to use condoms when filming at certified sound stages, which are permitted
differently than shoots on location.]
By Ian Lovett
 |
Vivid Entertaiment, via ReutersActors prepared to shoot a scene for a pornographic film.
Opinions differ on whether the industry
will try to leave Los
Angeles.
|
LOS ANGELES
— Since the early days of X-rated films, this city’s San Fernando Valley has
been the industry’s home. With year-round sun, access to Hollywood filmmaking
expertise and beautiful young people flocking to the region from around the
country, pornographic studios have filmed thousands of movies here each year.
But a new ordinance requiring actors in
pornographic films made in Los Angeles to use condoms could drive
the multibillion-dollar industry from the city. The law took effect this week.
While sexual health advocates have hailed the requirement as
a milestone in protecting the health of sex-film performers, pornographic film
executives, who have long maintained that condom use in their movies cuts
sharply into sales, have said they will have to consider relocating their
operations.
“Clearly, the viewing public doesn’t want to watch movies
with condoms,” said Steven Hirsch, an industry veteran and the founder of Vivid
Entertainment. “If they mandate condoms, people will shoot in other locations.”
But despite the new restrictions it now faces, the
pornographic film industry may struggle to find another home as welcoming as
Los Angeles has been.
Officials in some nearby cities so fear becoming the next
capital of pornography that they have already set about trying to ward the
filmmakers off. Simi Valley, just across the hill from the San Fernando Valley
in neighboring Ventura County, issued only one permit for a pornographic film
last year, according to city officials there. But the City Council will vote
this month on its own, even stricter condom requirement.
“This is a family-oriented community, and we don’t want the
smut industry in our town,” Simi Valley’s mayor, Bob Huber, said.
By contrast, pornographic movies accounted for about 5
percent of all film permits issued in Los Angeles last year, according to Film
L.A., the nonprofit agency that handles permits. Until the new city ordinance
took effect on Monday, pornographic film companies had largely been allowed to
police themselves, requiring performers to get tested for H.I.V. and
other sexually transmitted infections at least once every 30 days.
In addition, in 1988, the California Supreme Court ruled
that pornographic filmmakers could not be prosecuted under prostitution laws.
The only other state with a similar ruling is New Hampshire, while in many
states the issue has not been litigated.
For the moment, film production has continued largely
unabated here, as the city works to determine how to enforce the condom
requirement. And production companies say the ordinance does not require them
to use condoms when filming at certified sound stages, which are permitted
differently than shoots on location.
But the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which pushed
for the Los Angeles condom law, is now collecting signatures for a November
ballot initiative that would extend the requirement to more than 80 cities
across Los Angeles County.
Mr. Hirsch said the industry would “fight back,” potentially
with legal challenges or by moving operations elsewhere, if voters approve the
measure.
Ged Kenslea, a spokesman for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation,
said that prospect was unrealistic.
“The industry is not going to pack up and move,” Mr. Kenslea
said. “They are too entrenched here. It would be very difficult to move a $13
billion industry out of the state.”
But some city officials have taken that threat more
seriously. Mitchell Englander, a Los Angeles city councilman who represents the
San Fernando Valley, was the only member of the Council to vote against the condom
requirement, citing fears that jobs would leave his district.
“My great concern is that most of the large studios have
said that if there is a strict enforcement on this, they would leave,” Mr.
Englander said. “A lot of ancillary jobs are directly or indirectly related to
this industry.”
With the rise of the Internet and digital cameras,
professionals and amateurs alike have already begun making pornographic movies
all over the country, some permitted, others not. And industry executives
insist that many cities would welcome the billions of dollars in revenue that
the industry rakes in.
In particular, Las Vegas, which hosts the annual Adult
Entertainment Expo, has emerged as a place where some film studios go. Clyde
DeWitt, a lawyer who represents pornographic film companies in both Los Angeles
and Las Vegas, said that filming already occurs at hotels during the
convention, while at least one company he represented opened a studio in Las
Vegas.
“Office space is cheaper. Industrial space is cheaper. Housing
is cheaper. There is a good supply of labor. There is no state income tax,” Mr.
De Witt said. “If they wanted to come shoot here, it wouldn’t be difficult.”
If production companies do move their operations to Las
Vegas or elsewhere, Mr. Kenslea promised the AIDS Healthcare Foundation would
work to pass similar condom laws there as well.
“We will go where they go,” he said
JOURNALIST IN INDIAIS ARRESTED IN BOMBING AGAINST ISRAELI
[The Press Trust of
India news agency reported that Mr. Kazmi, 50, worked for an Iranian news
agency in New Delhi. Reuters, citing Mr. Kazmi’s lawyer and family members,
said he worked for the Indian state television channel, Doordarshan, and freelanced
for Iran’s Islamic Republic News Agency. A police spokesman, Rajan Bhagat,
would not comment directly on specific reports but said obliquely that details
reported broadly in the Indian news media on Wednesday were correct. ]
By Jim Yardley and Hari Kumar
NEW DELHI
— An Indian journalist has been arrested as part of an investigation into the
bombing last month of a van carrying the wife of an Israeli diplomat, an attack
for which Israeli officials have blamed Iran.
The suspect, Mohammed Kazmi, appeared in a New Delhi court
on Wednesday after his arrest earlier in the week. The blast occurred on Feb.
13 in New Delhi, the same day that an explosive was discovered and defused
inside the vehicle of an Israeli diplomat in Georgia.
A day later, an explosion occurred, apparently accidentally, at a
home in Bangkok used by three Iranians. Israeli officials have said the three
episodes are part of a coordinated attempt by Iran to attack Israeli diplomats,
a charge denied by Iran.
The Press Trust of India news agency reported that Mr.
Kazmi, 50, worked for an Iranian news agency in New Delhi. Reuters, citing Mr.
Kazmi’s lawyer and family members, said he worked for the Indian state
television channel, Doordarshan, and freelanced for Iran’s Islamic Republic
News Agency. A police spokesman, Rajan Bhagat, would not comment directly on
specific reports but said obliquely that details reported broadly in the Indian
news media on Wednesday were correct.
“This is a very sensitive matter and nothing more can be
divulged at this stage,” Officer Bhagat said. Mr. Kazmi has been charged with
criminal conspiracy. The Press Trust reported that an investigation showed that
Mr. Kazmi had been in touch with a suspect believed to have actually carried
out the attack, in which a motorcyclist pulled up in traffic and attached an
explosive device to the targeted vehicle.
The diplomat’s wife, who was wounded along with several
others, was apparently en route to the American Embassy School in New Delhi to
collect her children. The attack occurred on a street directly across from the
official residence of India’s prime minister.
The attack has placed India in a complicated position. India is dependent on oil
imported from Iran and has not yet endorsed the Israeli view that Iranian
agents are responsible for the blast. At the same time, India does not want to
anger Israel, which has become a
major supplier of military armaments and technology. Moreover, the episode
exposed anew the vulnerability of Indian security to terrorist attacks.
The possibility that Mr. Kazmi worked for an Iranian news
agency would only worsen the diplomatic quandary for India.
This
article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction:
March 8, 2012
An earlier version
of this article misstated where an explosive was discovered and defused. It was
in Georgia, not Ukraine.
