Agencies Being Questioned By Cal-OSHA

 Two agencies, one I’m told being L.A. Direct are being questioned by the Cal-OSHA  after a female performer contracted an STD on set.  The performer had originally requested that the scene be shot with a condom and was told that it was a non condom shoot and if she wasn’t agreeable to that she could go home. Apparently she contracted an STD and now wants to point the finger at someone, that being someone other than herself of course.

Michael Fattarosi has this to say about it:

“This is a true witch hunt. From my understanding the infection was not HIV but merely, simple STDs that could be cured with antibiotics. I am surprised that Cal-OSHA or the LA Cty Dept of Health is going to these extremes in this situation. I know that the various factions have been warring for sometime over this issue. The FSC has hired a OSHA specialist to devise a Blood Borne Pathogen program all producers could use. I know Cambria has been working with several production companies in regards to past fines by Cal-OSHA. And AIM and the LA Cty Department of Health have been at odds for years.

Now State Compensation Insurance Fund is classifying Agents as the employer of their performers for purposes of workers compensation insurance. What appears to be happening is a paradigm shift in the way talent will be thought of in the industry.

There is no winning in regards to this issue, unfortunately. There are too many people that want to regulate the industry either out of existence or to the point where on camera sex will be so stale and boring no one will want to watch it. [Ed note: I would say this has already happened without the help of any outside agency] The best I think can happen is that the industry can hold the wolves at bay.

I think that can be done, until the next HIV infection and then its going to be impossible. The argument is going to be does the First Amendment trump health and safety codes.”

Now I have mixed emotions about this. This chick knowingly took the risk, she could have refused to work non condom and she would never have contracted the STD. On the other hand, lets face it she wouldn’t work much.  So does it come down to that if you make the choice to work in the adult industry that you have to risk exposure to STDs?  Should you have no legal recourse if the girl or guy smells like the shithouse door on a Louisiana shrimp boat and you ask for a condom and are told do it bareback or go home?

Now we have AIM getting into the act by having Cal-OSHA draw up safety guidlines for producers to use when shooting.  You can rest assured these guidelines wont be able to produce marketable products, and you can further rest assured that Cal-OSHA will come back and use it as ammunition…after all our own industry health genius Dr Sharon Mitchell PhD (“I say that with tongue firmly in cheek and eyes rolling) has issued these guidelines yet we dont follow them….I can see it now.

What could work is a talent union that forms and sets the guidelines themselves but lets face it even if that could happen, which it wont, the members wouldn’t adhere to their own guidelines.

This has the potential to bring down the industry, and many think that would be a good thing because something else would rise up from the ashes, presumeably something better….like decentralized shooting and production.  If it becomes too difficult to shoot in L.A. then shooters like Cezar Capone and others who shoot outside L.A. will take over and fresher and better product will emerge from people who might actually have talent.