Steven Hirsch

The article "See No Evil" (by P.J. Huffstutter, Jan. 12) unfairly implies that Vivid Entertainment Group follows the same practices as other adult movie makers in matters of safety and workplace conditions. Our rules require performers to bring a recent HIV test to the set and to wear condoms during intercourse on all Vivid movies. Vivid, unlike other producers, does not "easily overlook" those rules. Our sets have clean facilities and our performers are treated with respect. Vivid also is not among the companies that refuse to provide workers' compensation insurance for performers.

One of the nation's most prominent pornography producers is suing Los Angeles County in federal court to overturn a new law requiring actors to wear condoms during filming. The suit by Vivid Entertainment, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, says the 1st Amendment's protection of free expression was violated after 57% of L.A. County voters approved the condom-porn measure during the Nov. 6 election. "The exercise of 1st Amendment freedoms cannot be limited by referendum," the suit said.

Vivid Entertainment is bringing porn to Google TV. The Los Angeles adult entertainment company launched its Vivid for Google TV channel on Monday as "the first TV app designed to make sexually explicit content available through the new Google TV set-top device. " It will be the first time that adult channels will be available on Google TV, although users can surf for anything on the Web through its built-in browser. Apple, one of Google's biggest rivals, has had a long-standing policy of not allowing adult content on Apple TV, iTunes or the App Store for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

Vivid Entertainment is bringing porn to Google TV. The Los Angeles adult entertainment company launched its Vivid for Google TV channel on Monday as "the first TV app designed to make sexually explicit content available through the new Google TV set-top device. " It will be the first time that adult channels will be available on Google TV, although users can surf for anything on the Web through its built-in browser. Apple, one of Google's biggest rivals, has had a long-standing policy of not allowing adult content on Apple TV, iTunes or the App Store for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad.

The callers are usually nervous, cagey about their identities and vague when it comes to facts, but to the porn companies on the other end of the telephone, their message is easy to decipher: I know of a celebrity sex tape and I want money. "Not a week goes by that we don't get at least five calls," said Steven Hirsch, the co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment Group, the country's leading adult film producer. Actor Verne Troyer's summer-long legal battle over a sex tape put a spotlight on the market.

Vivid Entertainment Group, which has built itself into the dominant player in the adult video business, has its eyes set on a new conquest: Wall Street. The Van Nuys-based company plans to go public by the end of the year in a bid to raise cash to buy companies and content. The IPO will also fund investments in Internet broadband technology, a new production division and marketing, President Bill Asher said Friday. Asher said Vivid is in the process of talking to underwriters.

One of the nation's most prominent pornography producers is suing Los Angeles County in federal court to overturn a new law requiring actors to wear condoms during filming. The suit by Vivid Entertainment, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, says the 1st Amendment's protection of free expression was violated after 57% of L.A. County voters approved the condom-porn measure during the Nov. 6 election. "The exercise of 1st Amendment freedoms cannot be limited by referendum," the suit said.

You can say this much at least, the setting was magnificent--a seafood restaurant at Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway. San Fernando Valley businessman Steven A. Hirsch thought it was the ideal spot for his pitch to the blond, hazel-eyed Midwest tomboy. She loved crab legs? He promised her all she could eat. Ginger Lynn Allen arrived at Gladstone's restaurant in a lace dress and heels and joined Hirsch and his girlfriend at their table. It was late 1984.

During production of the 1997 movie "Mimic," American Humane Assn. representatives wandered through the Los Angeles set, ensuring that a herd of cockroaches was well taken care of. Licensed animal handlers were to follow state and federal anti-cruelty laws designed to protect the insects, which had been trained to swirl around actress Mira Sorvino's feet. The roaches had to be fed at a certain time. They could only work a few hours each day. They could not be harmed. At the same time, in studios in the San Fernando Valley, scores of other actors and actresses were working on movies.

Three San Fernando Valley firms that sell pornographic films and five of their executives have been indicted on federal obscenity charges, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday. A federal grand jury in Oxford, Miss., returned the indictment this week against Vivid Video Inc. and VVD Corp. of Van Nuys and the firms' principals, Steven Hirsch and David James, federal officials announced in Washington.

The callers are usually nervous, cagey about their identities and vague when it comes to facts, but to the porn companies on the other end of the telephone, their message is easy to decipher: I know of a celebrity sex tape and I want money. "Not a week goes by that we don't get at least five calls," said Steven Hirsch, the co-chairman of Vivid Entertainment Group, the country's leading adult film producer. Actor Verne Troyer's summer-long legal battle over a sex tape put a spotlight on the market.

The article "See No Evil" (by P.J. Huffstutter, Jan. 12) unfairly implies that Vivid Entertainment Group follows the same practices as other adult movie makers in matters of safety and workplace conditions. Our rules require performers to bring a recent HIV test to the set and to wear condoms during intercourse on all Vivid movies. Vivid, unlike other producers, does not "easily overlook" those rules. Our sets have clean facilities and our performers are treated with respect. Vivid also is not among the companies that refuse to provide workers' compensation insurance for performers.

You can say this much at least, the setting was magnificent--a seafood restaurant at Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway. San Fernando Valley businessman Steven A. Hirsch thought it was the ideal spot for his pitch to the blond, hazel-eyed Midwest tomboy. She loved crab legs? He promised her all she could eat. Ginger Lynn Allen arrived at Gladstone's restaurant in a lace dress and heels and joined Hirsch and his girlfriend at their table. It was late 1984.

Vivid Entertainment Group, which has built itself into the dominant player in the adult video business, has its eyes set on a new conquest: Wall Street. The Van Nuys-based company plans to go public by the end of the year in a bid to raise cash to buy companies and content. The IPO will also fund investments in Internet broadband technology, a new production division and marketing, President Bill Asher said Friday. Asher said Vivid is in the process of talking to underwriters.

Following the lead of Los Angeles County, a state lawmaker is proposing to require that all actors in pornographic films made in California be required to wear condoms to protect them from exposure to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Assembly member Isadore Hall III (D-Compton) has scheduled a Valentine's Day press conference for Thursday at the offices of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation to announce the introduction of legislation similar to the requirement approved by county voters in November.

Porn actresses paraded in stiletto heels, wearing itsy-bitsy skirts and bikini tops that overflowed. Guys eagerly snapped pictures and collected autographs. As Erotica LA got underway Friday at the Los Angeles Convention Center, it was business as usual.