LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Times on Tuesday published a news piece that focuses on how the adult entertainment industry's top executives view Porn Valley's business landscape now that Measure B has passed.
Passed last week, Measure B requires adult performers to wear condoms and establishes a new permitting system for adult film shoots.
Weighing in on the specter of a regulated film business were LFP founder Larry Flynt; Alec Helmy, XBIZ's founder and president; Glenn King, owner of MeanBitch Productions; Christian Mann, general manager of Evil Angel Video; Steve Orenstein, president of Wicked Pictures; Jimmy Broadway, owner of Severe Society Films.
Helmy said that it appears the industry will be mobile if and when enforcement takes place.
“These companies are not going to take a chance of losing sales for the sake of complying with Measure B, so they will undoubtedly up and leave,’’ Helmy said. “There’s no shortage of locations when it comes to shooting porn. It doesn’t take a lot of equipment and it’s not like shooting 'Jurassic Park.'"
King, noting the measure makes it too expensive to film in L.A. County, said: “We’re a small business just like anyone else. If we can’t exist under this new law, we’ll have to look at other options."
Orenstein echoed that statement. His company,Wicked Pictures, has had a long-standing practice of requiring performers to use condoms.
“They are going to potentially charge thousands of dollars per shoot so they can manage what we’ve already been doing for 14 years,” Orenstein said. “This is a bad time to be doing this.”
Flynt said his company "won’t be doing anything in Los Angeles” and that he’s already making contingency plans to shift more production to Mexico, Arizona and the deserts of the Southwest.
Mann predicted “a lot of the content we distribute will be shot in Europe or outside of Los Angeles.”
The L.A. Times story can be viewed here.
Image: Glenn King, owner and director of Mean Bitch Productions at a film studio in Chatsworth, Calif.
