LOS ANGELES — As expected, Vivid Entertainment and two adult performers filed a motion for preliminary injunction and an opposition to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation's motion to dismiss a lawsuit targeting Measure B, Los Angeles County's Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Act.
The filings, made late last week, take place of similar ones made several months ago before the AHF was granted intervenors status by the court in Vivid's suit. Those earlier court actions, however, were withdrawn.
U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson plans to hear the new motion to dismiss and motion for preliminary injunction on July 1 at federal court in Los Angeles.
The latest filings by Vivid include declarations to the court made in support of enjoining enforcement of Measure B by Vivid's co-founder and co-chairman, Steven Hirsch, as well as co-plaintiffs Logan Pierce and Kayden Kross, as well as Vivid attorney Ronald London.
Hirsch told the court that adult video audiences react negatively to the use of condoms by performers. In fact, he said, it results in 35 percent lower sales than those that forgo condoms.
He said that the adult industry, for the most part, has implemented strict requirements for each production to protect performers and that the APHSS (Adult Production Health and Safety Services), helps assist adult producers employ a safe work environment by screening for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
Vivid has shot about 95 percent of its films in Los Angeles County through its 30-year history, and that Measure B effects his business with stifling limitations, Hirsch said.
"All these limitations — from the availability of performers and other talent, to less-accessible support services, to significant limits on potential locations to film — necessarily affect the artistic options Vivid enjoys and translates directly into how Vivid expresses itself through adult film," Hirsch said. "Vivid is now, as a result of Measure B, forced to write scripts around the locations that are available for it to shoot its adult films, rather than being able to bring its full creativity to bear in conceiving the unique, high-quality adult films."
Hirsch went on to say that surrounding localities have adopted similar laws and that there likely are other municipalities that are considering them.
"This extinguishes alternative avenues for communications even outside Los Angeles County," Hirsch said.
Hirsch emphasized that all of the services and infrastructure available for shooting and producing films is available in Los Angeles and that if Measure B is not enjoined, its enforcement will serve as a "serious impediment to Vivid's production of works protected by the First Amendment."
"[Nowhere] else offers the necessary access to services and facilities that exist for non-adult films on which we rely — and which face no impediments under Measure B — including production crews, editors, sound tracking, equipment suppliers, set directors, location finders and other needs."
Kross, meanwhile, declared to the court that Measure B has prevented her from expressing herself from films and her website, ClubKayden.com, which she has been brought to a halt with the county ordinance.
"I use my own home to produce performances for ClubKayden, but because my home is in Los Angeles County, Measure B has prevented me from shooting," she said. "And, because I do not have budget for Club Kayden productions to shoot outside my home by traveling beyond Los Angeles County and renting locations owned by others, my production of adult films for ClubKayden has been brought to a halt by Measure B."
Pierce told the court that since Measure B's enactment, the frequency and amount of adult production in Porn Valley has decreased significantly.
"Fear of enforcement has definitely chilled production by adult film companies," Pierce said. "As a result, I have worked less and adult film companies have shot less frequently, all of which limits my opportunities to express myself as I would otherwise choose on film."
