Will It Evolve? Most Importantly, Will It Last??
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From
www.AdultFYI.com Porn Valley- The Adult Actors Guild has now formed. By unanimous vote Tuesday night, a meeting of the adult industry performers agreed to an organization that will begin drafting a performers bill of rights as early as this week. Mr. Marcus who had called performers meetings both last week and this week was placed in charge of forming a committee that will take on the task of drafting a series of demands and then call for a sit-down meeting with AIM Healthcare.
In light of the current HIV situation, it was felt that major policies affecting the performers in the industry were called for. At the meeting's start Brett Rockman, himself a physician before turning to porn acting and now, obviously, body building, admitted that he had sat in on much of AIM's medical policies in recent years. But Rockman was willing to concede the need for changes in the status quo.
"We've heard all the arguments," added Mr. Marcus. "The question is what are we going to do about it? We want a safer environment."
Rockman apparently had that answer.
"We have to form a group that will represent talent," Rockman said at the start of the meeting. "We have to give it a name and put a face to it. We have to build this house brick by brick."
"There has to be a body to check AIM," stated Rockman, making yo-yo-yo rapper hand gestures for emphasis.
"Someone should be policing AIM."
Rockman feels that AIM's services need to be available 24/7. Tony Tedeschi, who once was under quarantine for six months during the 1993 HIV crisis, agreed, illustrating how the Darren James "mess" could have been averted. Tedeschi's of the belief that AIM already knew about James' condition as early as Saturday, although the industry wasn't alerted until the following Tuesday.
Julian, an apparent stickler for testing who claims weekly chlamydia and gonorrhea check-ups and tests bi-weekly for PCR-DNA, conceded that AIM might have some holes in the system.
"But where would we be without them?"
Julian also said he disagreed for the most part with criticisms leveled in recent days by Rob Spallone against AIM.
[The rumor last night was that Larry Flynt called Spallone and told him to clam up and not to speak to the press.]
"Let's do this the right way and work to build AIM," Julian suggested.
While he's against government regulation, Julian also agreed that it's time for stronger self-regulation. Julian also voiced criticism about performers who squawk about laying out extra money for testing but can be found in Sardos on a weekly basis running up huge bar tabs. While it seems like a good portion of Porn Star Karaoke has been heeding Marcus' call-to-arms, that might be an exaggeration although Cailley Taylor, Dick Tracey and Aria have been coming out in support as well as Don Hollywood and Brooke Hunter.
Hunter, who showed up at the meeting with Hollywood as though they had taken a wrong turn to the Hell's Angels picnic, got up and read a long list of proposals that had been made at last week's meeting. The list includes suggested bans on facial cum shots and internal pop shots as well as protocols relating to tattooing and piercings, and suggestions for 60-day quarantines of actors coming into the country to work, including strong quarantines for new performers.
One of the astonishing facts brought up at the meeting by Tedeschi- who AVN, reportedly, would like to see banned from their events because of Tony's outspoken comments last week about Erotica L.A.- was instances of Sharon Mitchell's telling production companies that it was all right to use talent with chlmaydia and gonorrhea because they had been on medication. Also, without naming names, though everyone in the room seemed to knew who Tony was talking about, Tedeschi alluded to a foreign agent who has abusing his clients and sending girls to sets even before their tests had come back.
Like Hollywood and Hunter's motorcycles, the meeting really kicked into gear when Ashley Garrett, the girlfriend of Julian St. Jacques- who's name also appears on the quarantine list- reported that while she works in the mainstream, the quarantine extended to her in that she was required to take a leave of absence from work. Garrett said she had connections in the mainstream including lawyers who would be more than willing to help the talent draft the proposed bill of rights and extend their services beyond that if necessary.
Echoing the sentiments voiced by Don Hollywood, James said, "You guys are the power. Get like the mainstream." It was Garrett's belief that Darren James' civil rights had been violated, claiming that AIM as a health clinic faced liability issues. "AIM is having you sign over your rights. Being an independent contractor doesn't mean that you don't have rights." Julian also suggested that performers read the story [courtesy of
www.pornlegemds.com ] posted Monday on adultfyi.com,
http://www.adultfyi.com/read.aspx?ID=3364 Garrett who's CEO of Cheyenne Starr Entertainment, was particularly complimentary about Tedeschi seeing him as an ideal performer spokesman because he had been there and is passionate on all the issues. Garrett is all for bringing in people from the outside to assist talent.
"The actors need to put in place key people from outside the industry that will have their best interests at heart," Garrett stated.
"My whole thing is I think once everything goes back to normal, they're going to forget all about this, and they need to stay consistent. If they don't stay consistent all these meetings are going to be in vain.
"Tony [Tedeschi] is the perfect advocate for making sure that peoples' rights are not violated," Garrett went on to state.
"He's a perfect spokesman, and he should definitely be in there. He was through the first scare and he has enough passion in order to do it. But they need people involved in this who will really be dedicated in the long run. And they're right- the male talent- they need them. But if they don't put enough self worth on themselves, they're not going to be able to do anything.
"They're still going to be dictated to by AVN and AIM," Garrett continued. "They have to make sure that the policies of AIM are changed. That's what they have to do even before they get to the condom issues. Make sure that their rights are protected when you sign that release with AIM. Make sure your rights are respected by AIM because that's what got the whole thing started. And no one's been talking about that. No one wants to change the release form that Sharon Mitchell has for them. That's a key point."
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