HOLLYWOOD, CA — For all its glitz, glamour, celebrity scandals, and thriving Valley porn industry, the city of Los Angeles and its surrounding areas really aren’t all that socially progressive, even when it comes to motion pictures. At least that appears to be the case when it comes to the more honest forms of filmmaking known as erotic entertainment. That’s what the folks behind an upcoming adult industry party are discovering.Currently planned for this Saturday at the Knitting Factory Hollywood, the party is not the first of a decidedly adult nature to find sanctuary within the club’s walls. In March 2006, the Sex Z Pictures Rock ‘N Porn XXX party was held at the establishment, and in September the Knitting Factory Hollywood hosted the Los Angeles Erotica Film Festival 2007.
According to a lawsuit filed by the club’s owners, the party that they’re specifically attempting to block – as well as the previous and presumably profitable adult ventures held on the grounds — all took place without their knowledge or approval.
More to the point, the venue’s legal team insists that the party and all like it violate the property’s lease, which prohibits hosting adult entertainment parties or showing pornographic videos.
Attorneys for contact-holding client Street Retail West 7 and representatives of contract-breaking Knitting Factory are scheduled to meet in court today to determine whether the latter can prevent a “major porn party” from behind held at that location or whether Spunkd: The Movie and Not the Bradys XXX will be feted, as planned.
Lawyers, hopeful for a temporary restraining order to stop what they claim is being billed as an “Official X-Rated Premier Party,” state that the Knitting Factory landlords had no idea that their building had been used for similar purposes after learning that it would play host to this Saturday’s event.
Originally founded in New York City by Michael Dorf and Bob Appel in 1987, a West Coast version was opened a few years later. As legal representatives for the Knitting Factory explain it, management in the Hollywood location regularly violated the lease agreement by showing adult videos, letting patrons block common areas so that pedestrians were inconvenienced, and made it difficult for customers of another Street Retail West tenant to enter the business. Additionally, club patrons are said to have vandalized the neighboring business’s property – just one more thing that puts the management in obvious violation of the city’s order that the building be used to house an upscale restaurant and supper club.
