Adult Entertainment

Yahoo Inc. cut short its brief romance with the adult-entertainment industry Friday, saying it will shutter its X-rated online store and block merchants from selling adult-oriented material on the world's leading Internet site. The online giant also said it will stop accepting classified ads or auction listings for adult items and will accept no new advertisements for pornographic materials or Web sites.

Given California's reputation for hassling businesses with petty regulations, it was probably only a matter of time before we heard squeals of complaint from what is arguably the San Fernando Valley's most famous export industry. Yes, I'm talking about porn. The particular issue is how to protect adult film performers from sexually transmitted diseases such as AIDS and gonorrhea. Medical authorities say there's only one way to do that reliably — require condoms for high-risk activities portrayed on screen (you know what I'm talking about)

"I have never liked bargains," Hedy Lamarr once said, "when it came to sex." True, but if you were ever looking for a good value on a French maid's uniform, a "talking" sex toy or one of those sporty, studded leather collars, well, this may be the weekend to get your freak on.

A 23-year veteran Los Angeles traffic officer has been fired for appearing in a pornographic online video while on duty and in uniform, officials said Thursday. John K. Dancler was discharged Monday, said Maggie Whelan, general manager for the city Personnel Department. He challenged his firing on the same day, filing an appeal with the city's five-member Civil Service Commission. Dancler was dismissed for engaging in misconduct on the job and in uniform, and participating in "indecent acts" that reflected unfavorably on the city workforce, said Bruce Whidden, the commission's executive director.

Like the swimsuits for which they are named, the Bikini Barbershop is back. Closed since Nov. 7, the attention-grabbing salon reopened Tuesday at a new location, 1673 Irvine Ave., where it will continue its gimmick: women in bathing suits cut hair. "It's a novelty," said customer Ralph Starkweather of Irvine, who got a $13 haircut on opening day.

At a popular Northridge nightclub, dancers won't be waltzing in ballroom attire or square-dancing in cowboy hats and gingham skirts any longer--in fact, they won't be wearing anything at all. Formerly the Breakers Seafood Restaurant and Nightclub, the club has been renamed Extasy and the new owners plan to offer a different type of entertainment. "It will be a completely nude adult cabaret," said Steve Gamer, club spokesman. Some residents and local officials are not pleased with the change.

On a recent Saturday night, Savannah Stern earned $300 to hang out for seven hours at a party in Santa Monica wearing nothing but a feather boa. The veteran of more than 350 hard-core pornography productions took the job to earn extra cash and to network. But the word at the 35th anniversary party for Hustler magazine was not heartening, especially among the roughly 75 other women working there. "At least five girls I haven't seen in a while came up to me and said, 'Savannah, are you working?

There's so much to praise in the blissful Broadway revival of "Follies," which opened Wednesday at the Ahmanson Theatre on the heels of its numerous Tony nominations, but let's pay homage first to the sheer sophistication of the show itself. After experiencing "Follies" again - an adult entertainment if ever there was one - I flat-out refuse to accept any more jukebox substitutes. One doesn't often talk about architecture when writing about musicals, but the most impressive thing about "Follies," beyond Stephen Sondheim's bejeweled score, is the ingenious way it is constructed.

Darren James saw the news flash on his TV screen last week: A porn actress had tested positive for HIV. James, 45, felt a moment of shock, then sadness. "I feel really bad for this girl," he said. "One thing I can say, I just wish her well. It's the worst thing to get that call." It's the call James got in 2004 when the well-liked porn star known for his courteous nature on set found himself at the center of an HIV outbreak in the San Fernando Valley's multibillion-dollar porn industry.

Both scenes are set in a steamy locker room. In one version, a woman drops her dress and exposes her naked body as she and her equally naked lover writhe on a bench. In the other version, the camera angle changes after she reaches for her dress; all that can be seen of the lovers is a grainy close-up of their faces. Same show, different TV channels.

A feud has broken out among competing Los Angeles trade shows, and it's getting nasty. Also, it's about sex. For the last few years, the biggest show celebrating the adult entertainment industry at the Los Angeles Convention Center has been Adultcon, which is expected to draw an estimated 30,000 visitors during three events this year. But the managers of Adultcon have announced that they are canceling two of next year's shows because the city has refused to bar competing adult entertainment shows from operating at the convention center within three months of Adultcon.

The pornography industry, like the rest of Hollywood, has been buffeted by the economic downturn, the falloff in DVD sales and a cornucopia of free content on the Internet. Still, for better or worse, the adult entertainment business remains alive and well in the San Fernando Valley, where thousands of films are shot every year in warehouses and private homes. One of the 10 busiest sites for on-location filming in Los Angeles last year was a two-story industrial building in Chatsworth operated by Penthouse Studios, a spinoff of the adult magazine.

An advocacy group that has been demanding greater government protections for adult film performers plans to file a complaint Thursday with state regulators against nine Los Angeles-area porn talent agencies.

A night out at a risque West Hollywood nightclub was an "after-hours nonofficial get-together" that followed a meeting of young Republican donors and should not have been paid for with party money, a top Republican National Committee official said in a memo released Tuesday. RNC Chief of Staff Ken McKay said no senior party officials attended the outing at Voyeur, which features performers in bondage and sadomasochistic scenes. Nor did party officials know of the purpose of the reimbursement to the donor who paid the nearly $2,000 tab, the memo said.

The Republican National Committee is investigating the expenditure of nearly $2,000 in party funds at a racy West Hollywood nightclub, a party spokesman said Monday. RNC spokesman Doug Heye acknowledged that the party had reimbursed Erik Brown, president of a Southern California firm that has provided direct mail services to political campaigns, for a Jan. 31 outing at Voyeur West Hollywood. The club, inspired by the film "Eyes Wide Shut," is intended to be "risque and provocative" and "a combination of intimidation and sexuality," one of its partners, David Koral, told The Times in October.

State regulators voted unanimously Thursday to create an advisory committee to consider increasing regulation of California's porn industry, including mandating the use of condoms and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. Guy Prescott, director of safety for Operating Engineers Local Union #3 and one of six members of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health's standards board, said he had planned to vote against the measure but changed his mind after hearing from performers and others in the porn industry.

Saying that they are emotionally and financially exhausted with nothing left to fight for, the owners of a controversial east Hollywood gay men's sex club have surrendered, closing their business and ending a contentious chapter at City Hall. Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, who had fought to keep open the so-called sexual encounter club in her district, announced the owners' decision Friday after reiterating that she would not put her colleagues through any more political discomfort on the issue.

There will be no more musical performances at a popular youth-oriented business after the City Council denied the owners an extension of their live entertainment permit. Citing calls for police, large crowds and a change in the owners' original business intention, the council voted unanimously to deny the permit extension for owners of the Gig, 9191 Valley View St. Owners last year had said their business would attract local artistic talent.

When it comes to adult entertainment, the Flynt name is not to be messed with -- even by other family members, a federal jury has concluded. A four-man, four-woman panel sided with Hustler publisher Larry Flynt on Friday in the porn mogul's trademark infringement and false endorsement claims against his nephews, who attempted to launch their own line of adult films under the family name. The family feud was the subject of a four-day trial this week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Testifying under oath in the staid halls of U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, Hustler publisher Larry Flynt opined on where the next generation was taking the adult entertainment industry. "I think there's a thin line. As a society we've come to accept what I like to refer to as 'vanilla sex,' " he said. "But if you get too trashy, people get uncomfortable." Flynt took the stand Tuesday in the first day of his federal trademark infringement trial against his nephews, Jimmy Jr. and Dustin, who earlier this year launched their own line of adult films under the name "Flynt."