The porn industry came to a screeching halt last week when a well-known adult-industry star tested HIV positive at a clinic in the San Fernando Valley, the Los Angeles suburb known as Porn Valley.
Adult film studios in the area have suspended production while performers are being tested for the virus, a process which, according to United States media reports, could take up to two weeks.
The global porn industry has expanded rapidly. In 2006 world-wide revenues were estimated at more than $97-billion. A study of the industry by TopTenReviews.com found that every 39 minutes a new pornographic video is made in the US.
At its epicentre is Porn Valley, one of the first regions to produce adult films in the 1970s. Since then it has become Hollywood’s smutty younger sister, portrayed in the 1997 film Boogie Nights, starring Mark Wahlberg.
The Valley is the largest producer of pornography in the world, much of it is shot in quiet suburban homes throughout the area and boxed, shipped or transmitted from nondescript industrial warehouses.
Until now the Valley also had a reputation for being one of the cleanest, most regulated porn Âindustries in the world. Six years ago there was another Aids scare in the Valley, in which 14 performers tested positive for HIV. The industry shut down briefly (even sparking rumours of “the end of porn”) before the boom continued.
But Darren James, the former adult film actor at the centre of the 2004 HIV outbreak, told the Los Angeles Times this week that he saw it coming: “I knew it was going to happen. And how many years has it been? Again. They went right back to the same habits.”
The major producers of pornography in the US, many of which are based in the Valley, are Vivid Entertainment, Hustler, Playboy, Wicked Pictures and Red Light District.
The industry’s top-five grossing porn stars include Jenna Jameson, Jesse Jane, Asia Carrera, Evan Stone and Sydnee Steele.