L.A. City Mum on How It Will Enforce Condom Law

ENTERTAINMENT – Mark Madler Here’s a quick and easy way to get Los Angeles elected officials and city staffers scrambling for cover — ask about the city’s mandatory condom ordinance for adult film productions. The city’s Adult Film Industry Working Group appears to be trying to work out a way to enforce the law. It recently sought a 90-day extension, which the City Council granted on June 6. In asking for 90 days to work out an enforcement policy, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said in a city memo that there were “complexities” that still needed to be worked out. What are these complexities? One can only venture a guess. City officials are not offering much information about the new law, which was the subject of many media reports. Santana declined to comment on the issue and referred calls to Aurora Abracia, a CAO staffer who has been attending the working group meetings. (The working group is made up of city, county and state staff and representatives from FilmL.A., the nonprofit agency that coordinates on-location filming in the city and county. There is no adult industry representation, although members of the Free Speech Coalition and others have attended working group meetings, which are open to the public. The group has met three times.) Asked for specifics on which issues demanded further consideration, Abracia said in an e-mail that the group was evaluating “implementation, permitting, enforcement and a fee study.” Calls placed to the city attorney’s office were not returned. Calls to the office’s communication department went unanswered. A voicemail message was not returned. Councilman Paul Koretz —who made the motion for the vote on the condom ordinance and establishing the working group — declined to comment, according to Paul Neuman, the councilman’s communications director. So who did talk? The adult industry folks, of course. Michael Fattorosi is an attorney in Woodland Hills with clients in the adult industry and a contributor to XBiz, an online industry trade publication. Fattorosi has attended at least two of the working group meetings, and after listening to their discussions, he said he strongly believes the city never thought through the ramifications of the ordinance. He said the working group never considered that a whole new area of the business has opened up in the adult industry, where a married couple could perform sex acts in front of a webcam and charge people to watch. That couple would fall under the condom ordinance, he said. It also creates a problem of invasion of privacy, he said. “I don’t think they want to reach that deep into the marital bedroom,” Fattorosi added. If the city has regrets about passing the ordinance or in dealing with such “complexities,” then no one from the city saying as much. One could argue there was outside pressure on the city to take action on the subject on health and safety issues in the adult entertainment industry. The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, after all, had collected enough signatures to get the condom law before voters as a ballot initiative. Rather than take on the expense of an election, the city council stepped in and passed the law on its own. The AHF also succeeded in collecting signatures for a county-wide ballot measure on mandatory condom use in the adult films. Now it remains to be seen whether that vote takes place, or if the county supervisors take the same step as the L.A. officials. If approved, the county would have to tackle the same issue of enforcement. Library Adds Music Independent music publisher and production music library Black Toast Music has added 650 new titles for use in television series and movies. The Chatsworth-based company has the songs and instrumentals available at its website. The new material includes the hip hop, alternative country, electronic rock, world music and singer songwriter genres. Black Toast has placed music in such series as “True Blood,” “Dexter,” “Parks & Recreation,” and “Raising Hope,” among others. The company also has its own record label. New Disney Studios Chief The Walt Disney Co. turned to a former executive from a rival film studio in Burbank for its new chairman of The Walt Disney Studios. Alan Horn will begin in his new position at Disney on June 11. He had been at Warner Bros. for 12 years, most recently as president and COO of Warner Bros. Entertainment. Horn replaces Rich Ross who left Disney following the dismal box office performance of “John Carter.” “He’s earned the respect of the industry for driving tremendous, sustained creative and financial success,” said Disney Chairman and CEO Robert Iger, in a prepared statement. At Warner Bros., Horn had oversight of the studios’ theatrical and home entertainment operations. During his tenure the studio released the eight films in the Harry Potter series, “The Dark Knight,” “Happy Feet”, and “Sherlock Holmes.” Staff Reporter Mark Madler can be reached at (818) 316-3126 or by e-mail at [email protected]