LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Times posted Tuesday an online poll and commentary relative to mandating condoms in adult entertainment productions in the region.
At post time, 82 percent of respondents who polled through the morning said that Los Angeles County's Measure B would prove counterproductive to society.
In the commentary, Times' editorial writer David Horsey, who also provides a cartoon lampooning bedroom-community porn shoots, said that passing laws like Measure B and its facsimiles may "banish unhealthy behavior does not necessarily solve a problem, it just kicks it to another place or directly into a courtroom."
"Here is a political object lesson from the seamier, steamier end of the entertainment business: The new law in Los Angeles County requiring actors in pornographic films to wear condoms seems merely to have pushed the smutty movie industry into the quiet residential areas of unincorporated Ventura County," Horsey wrote in the op-ed piece.
Measure B is being challenged by Vivid Entertainment as it seeks injunctive relief over enforcement of Measure B, which was approved by voters in November. Vivid and two adult performers, Kayden Kross and Logan Pierce, filed their suit in January at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Horsey goes on to say that many in the adult biz are not waiting for the court’s decision.
"They have moved production from the San Fernando Valley, long the home of the celluloid sex business, to neighboring Ventura County, where residents have been registering complaints about strange sights and sounds in neighboring homes," Horsey wrote.
"The pornmeisters insist their 1st Amendment rights are being infringed. Keeping male porn stars sheathed is apparently akin to telling Clint Eastwood to keep his gun holstered."
Horsey also said that porn filmmakers could eliminate the whole problem by taking advantage of special effects.
"After all, real, live men are not all that necessary in porn movies. There is just one part of a male porn actor’s body that gets any serious screen time and that particular body part generally looks weirdly unreal anyway," he wrote. "Surely, a porn counterpart of Pixar or Industrial Light and Magic could create a CGI replacement for the live actor’s only vital component that would be visually convincing, yet disease free.
"Heck, if moviegoers spent millions on 'Star Wars' pictures in which the light sabers were just a special effect, the porn audience would probably go along with something very similar."
The L.A. Times op-ed piece, poll and cartoon can be viewed here.