SAN FRANCISCO (dpa) – The patients sitting in a nondescript practice in sunny San Fernando valley not far from Hollywood are all in the same line of business. They are actors in pornographic films.
Many of them knock on the door with the sign Adult Industry Medical Health Care because they need a certificate ahead of the next shooting to say they have not got AIDS. Others suffer from drug or alcohol problems and an increasing number enquire about the effects on overdosing on Viagra.The blue pills have already revolutionized America’s pornographic film industry even if this may not be immediately apparent to viewers of the 30 or so new films churned out monthly by the sex studios flourishing in the shadow of the Dream Factory.The balance sheets of the porno film companies are a more reliable indicator. “Since people here started swallowing so much of the stuff that they ought to have blue tongues, you can make a five- star porno in no time at all,” said one industry insider.Fewer shooting days, lower costs, bigger profits – the principle in San Fernando Valley is the same as in the conventional movie business.Until Pfizer introduced its treatment for erectile dysfunction, more commonly known as impotence, there was nothing else for it. A man’s friend needed a rest in between takes. These days interruptions on set are used for applying extra makeup, going to the toilet or for gulping down a cup of coffee.“We used to do between one and two sex scenes a day,” 34-year-old porno star Cheyne Collins told the Los Angeles Times. “Now we get up to five.”Officially the American Association of “adult film” producers wants nothing to do with burgeoning Viagra abuse. “We don’t encourage anyone to do it,” said a spokesman. Not that there’s any need to do that in the trade union-free zone nicknamed “Pornywood”.Jane Hamilton, a director with VCA Pictures estimates that between 500 and 700 men a month are competing for fewer than 100 porno roles. “Applicants ring up the whole day through,” she said.Insiders know that staying power is the key factor when it comes to choosing the male protagonist for a sex film. The “pretty boys” who bombard the studios with phonecalls and photographs of themselves wearing no clothes, know that only too well.“This is another manifestation of the pressure to perform in modern society,” said feminist and author Susan Faludi. “People see themselves as a product that can be chemically modified to make it more attractive.”The male porno actors are not paid as well as many of their female counterparts. Silicone breast implant wonders with stage names like “Busty Dusty” have made fortunes by luring the male clientele into the video stores. Provided they are “well-hung” men are usually considered to be less important in the porno business.The competition means that newcomers are often willing to work for as little as 500 dollars a film in order to get five or six assignments a month and make ends meet.To stay the pace these perfectly healthy actors report having to find themselves having to swallow 100 milligrammes of Viagra a day, or twice the dose recommended to combat erection problems.Doctors and Viagra’s maker, the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, warn in vain about the possible harmful side effects of what must be the world’s biggest field trials of Viagra in quantities that are both medically unnecessary and unhealthy.
