2 HIV Cases Put a Scare Into Porn

At World Modeling Talent Agency in Sherman Oaks, which represents many adult actors, the phones hadn't stopped ringing Thursday from worried clients and producers. "We've gotten calls from 15 companies who are shutting down. We [the porn industry] take these things seriously. Right now, there are companies who are not only canceling future projects, but also canceling movies already in production," owner Jim South said.

Dr. Jonathan Fielding, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said that although the porn industry in general has been diligent about screening actors for HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases, the root problem is the continued practice of unsafe sex.

"This is another illustration that unless all the sex you're showing is safe, that actors will continue to be put at risk," Fielding said. "Even good industrywide efforts would be hard to be 100% successful because people are having sex outside the industry."

Sharon Mitchell, a former adult film star who describes herself as the "auntie of porn," helped found the Adult Industry Medical Health Care Foundation with Northridge doctor Steven York five years ago.

The clinic's main goal was preventing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, especially HIV, in the porn industry.

The industry recommends that all actors and actresses be tested every 30 days. AIM tests about 1,200 performers each month and shares its data with major porn film producers, the foundation said.

On Thursday, actors and actresses streaming in and out of the foundation's Woodland Hills office to get tested for HIV said they felt unnerved.

Some pored over a flier handed out by AIM that named those who had sex with James since his last clean test, and those who had sex with James' sex partners, looking for people they knew.

"I haven't worked with any of them, thank God no," said one actor after reviewing the names.

Actress Summer Tyme, 25, said she has worked in the industry only two months, and that the news has rattled her.

"I'm going to change the way I do things now -- probably just girl-on-girl shoots. Guys, but with condoms," Tyme said. "No money is worth risking your life."

The actress said she was scheduled for a video shoot that afternoon, but panicked when she learned that one of the male performers was "quarantined" -- on the list of performers who may have been infected. Although that actor later was replaced, she called and left a message saying she would only perform protected sex.