By Peter Berton
LOS ANGELES – Just two: That’s how many film permits have been issued for porn shoots in Los Angeles County this year. The decline undoubtedly indicates fallout from the passage of Measure B in November.
Measure B, officially titled the Safer Sex Ordinance for Adult Productions, requires adult content producers to obtain a special permit and enforce the use of condoms and other so-called barrier protection on-set.
Filming permits issued to adult studios typically hit the 500 mark annually, according to FilmL.A., the nonprofit tasked with issuing permits to studios across the spectrum. The year-to-date numbers in 2013 represent “a steep drop,” FilmL.A. President Paul Audley told the Los Angeles Times, adding that his organization has received no applications since January.
None of the news surprised Diane Duke, chief executive officer for adult industry trade group Free Speech Coalition, which is raising funds to support a lawsuit challenging the law.
“Movie companies are beginning to look for other areas,” she told the Times.
In an effort to continue making a living, some studios reportedly have moved porn production to Ventura County, where film permits are on the rise. The steamy influx is has not been received with open arms, though. Ventura County supervisor Linda Parks told the L.A. Times her office has received complaints about “hearing moans and groans and seeing naked people.”
No one has confirmed whether the reported “rudes and nudes” are actually refugee porn denizens attempting to make a living or formerly repressed Ventura Country residents who have coincidentally and vigorously rediscovered the pleasures of the flesh in the wake of Fifty Shades of Grey.
Regardless, adult studios may not be able to seek asylum outside L.A. County much longer. AIDS Healthcare Foundation, which financed and promoted Measure B, now is lobbying for a similar law statewide. State Assemblyman Isadore Hall [D-Compton] proposed the bill, which survived its first committee hearing last week.
Meanwhile, Ventura County Supervisor Parks told the Times she is “planning to introduce legislation modeled on Measure B — and a similar law in [nearby] Simi Valley — in an effort to regulate porn filming in her county.”
AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein has threatened to take the condoms-in-porn crusade nationwide.
