US Sex Sells News

The City of Los Angeles has filed a court case against AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) over that anti-porn campiagn's much-vaunted mandatory condom ballot initiative, for which AHF solicited over 64,000 signatures.

The purpose of the lawsuit is to have a Superior Court judge determine the validity of AHF's proposed ballot initiative, and LA City Attorney Carmen A. Trutanich has put forth some compelling reasons why AHF's plan to require FilmLA, the agency that approves permits for production companies to shoot their movies within the city, to force adult producers to use condoms and other barrier protections during permitted shoots, should never be put before city voters.

Essentially, Trutanich's arguments mirror those used by the city to strike down AHF's lawsuit filed sometime last spring. Trutanich's office opined that those sorts of functions had, by agreement, been delegated to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (CalOSHA), and in June, the state's Second Circuit Court of Appeals rejected AHF's attempt to force LADPH to police porn sets for condom use.

LA is also challenging the need for a referendum in order to avoid the needless and wasteful expenditure of public resources made in connection with a measure which the voters have no power to adopt, the complaint states.

Update: California Health and Safety don't support LA's legal challenge

31st December 2011.  See  article from  latimes.com

Los Angeles City Attorney, Carmen Trutanich, filed court papers earlier this month saying that Los Angeles voters would have no legal authority to adopt the proposed measure even if it were placed on the ballot.

Trutanich argued that only the state, not the city, could legally impose rules requiring the use of condoms on porn sets and charging fees to pay for inspections.

However the head of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which regulates workplace safety disagrees.

In a Dec. 23 email to one of Trutanich's deputy city attorneys, Ellen Widess wrote that she believes the city could legally enact the restrictions envisioned in the proposed ballot measure. We don't see a bar to the city or the county doing what they need to do, Widess said in a telephone interview Monday evening. We believe the city can use its authority to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among people involved in the adult film industry.

A remake of the 1970s cult classic Bill Osco's Alice in Wonderland written by Osco and Ken Russell will go ahead as a posthumous tribute to the controversial British film maker.

Russell, who died suddenly in his sleep on November 28th, was in the process of making final revisions to the script for the film, an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic tale, which he was to direct in 2012... and it may be in 3D, although that part's not confirmed yet.

The original picture, released in 1976, and made on a budget of $500,000, went on to gross over $100 million. Bill Osco's Alice remains today one of the most successful, highest grossing, adult musical comedies in motion picture history.

The movie's producers, Renaissance Media Entertainment, have announced that Russell's wife, Elize Tribble, will participate and assist the team in bringing forward the production of this musical remake of Bill Osco's groundbreaking feature.

We are delighted that his wife Elize is coming on board and providing access to all of Ken's notes and other materials he kept on the project, said Stuart Young, a founding member of Renaissance Media Entertainment. Ken Russell collaborated with us for over six months, and he brought an incredible creative intensity and passion to Alice. We want to make a film that keeps true to Ken's unique perspective for the project.

Shooting is expected to begin early in 2012, after the company secures the services of a suitable director.

Los Angeles voters may be asked if condoms should be required in the production porn movies.

AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein says his group has collected more than enough signatures to qualify a citywide ballot initiative for the June 2012 election. The ballot measure would require porn producers to shoot safe-sex porn as a condition of getting a filming permit in Los Angeles.

AHF is a nutter campaign group which has undertaken a succession of unsuccessful legal efforts to require condoms in porn, through state legislation, lawsuits and complaints to regulators.

Two of the internet's biggest pornography firms are suing the net's address regulator, Icann, over its introduction of the .xxx suffix.

Manwin Licensing, which runs websites for Playboy, and Digital Playground have filed lawsuits against Icann and ICM Registry, which is running the new top-level domain name, .xxx

The firms claimed that the decision to create .xxx had been flawed and that ICM had abused its position.

Manwin issued a press release alongside the lawsuit claiming that ICM was charging annual registration fees of about $60 per address. It claimed that was 10 times the fee charged for other comparable top-level domain names. It said costs mounted up because website owners had to register mis-spelt versions of their addresses to prevent cybersquatters exploiting them.

Manwin has also filed papers with Icann complaining that the body never sought competitive bids for the .xxx registry, and failed to conduct proper economic studies to support its creation.

Private Media Group has been delisted from the Nasdaq Stock Market after trading on the securities exchange was suspended.

News of the delisting comes concurrently with a company statement to federal regulators that it expects better financial results in its last quarter compared to year-ago figures, but that it still swung to a net loss.

Private has resumed trading on Over-the-Counter Markets.

Private has recently been embattled with a shareholder battle for control of the company in Nevada.

The Missouri Supreme Court has ruled that repressive regulations prohibiting nude dancing and restrict other kinds of adult entertainment don't violate the Missouri or U.S. constitutions.

The restrictions are not content-based limitations on speech but rather are aimed at limiting the negative secondary effects of sexually oriented businesses on the health, welfare and safety of Missouri residents, the court claimed in its unanimous ruling.

The state's adult entertainment industry sued last year to block the law's requirements. Industry experts say business has been down over 75% at Missouri strip clubs.

The law, enacted earlier this year, prohibits full nudity at sexually oriented businesses, and mandates early closing at midnight. The law also cuts off alcohol at those businesses and prohibits semi-nude (female breasts exposed below the nipple or uncovered male or female buttocks ) employees from touching customers. It also says stages on which seminude dancers perform must be at least six feet from customers and at least 18 inches high.

Historically, collectors of old porn have remained underground, afraid that showing an interest in the world of sex would bring shame and mockery to them or their families. That's still often the case, but as porn becomes more mainstream --- due in part to its near inescapable presence online, more people are becoming comfortable in owning a part of its history, which is driving up the value of those collectibles.

It is, in fact, the factory-like production of much of today's porn that has made some collectors appreciate items of the past.

For the moment , particularly collectible items are one-sheet movie posters and press books (promotional kits with photos and press releases) for porn films from the 1970s and early 1980s.

Most collectibles hover in the $200 to $500 range, but rare items, such as the original poster for 1972's legendary film Deep Throat, sell for up to $5,000.