ADULT-FILM MORATORIUM LIFTED.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Filmmakers began gearing up for production Wednesday as a moratorium that froze much of the San Fernando Valley-based adult-film industry was lifted nearly a month ahead of schedule.

The freeze ended after a nonprofit medical group that tests adult-film actors for sexually transmitted diseases removed 19 of about 50 performers from a voluntary quarantine list.

Sharon Mitchell, executive director of the Adult Industry Movie Healthcare Foundation in Sherman Oaks, said most performers had been tested three times in 45 days and showed no signs of contracting HIV.

``These people are at least 30 to 45 days away from when they had contact with the infected parties and they have come in for testing between two and five times, and were tested using six different methods. Obviously, people are still a little leery, but they are confident that AIM would not do anything to jeopardize them, as we specialize in the early detection of HIV.''

Five adult-film performers have tested positive for HIV in recent weeks, halting most production in the multibillion-dollar adult-film industry.

Industry officials said Wednesday that they intend to slowly resume production now that the moratorium has been lifted.

``Nobody is jumping in hot and heavy with full-booked shooting schedules,'' said Ty Endicott, president of Bouncy Pictures Inc. in Los Angeles. ``I think it will be a gradual speed-up.''

Jim South, owner of World Modeling, said about 95 percent of the companies had not resumed filming as of Wednesday.

The decision to take about half the performers off the quarantine list came earlier than expected, after Mitchell and AIM medical director Dr. Colin Hamblin met with microbiology specialists from the laboratory that conducts testing for AIM.

As a result of the HIV outbreak, the first since seven people tested positive for HIV in 1998 and one in 1999, Mitchell said she believed that many performers would start using condoms, at least for sexual acts that are most likely to result in transmission of the virus.

One recommendation is that performers new to the industry and those traveling to the Los Angeles area from elsewhere must take a test when they arrive and 30 days later before being allowed to work.

Some people are pushing the industry to allow the performers to form a ``Talent Guild'' and for rules barring people who film overseas from working in the United States until they have tested negative for HIV during a 60-day quarantine.

Also Wednesday, the Adult Industry Assistance Fund said it sent checks to four of the five performers who were diagnosed as HIV-positive. About $20,000 has been raised to help them cover immediate costs.

One actress who tested positive for HIV was offered a job directing at one of the more successful companies, Endicott said.

``She's an example of how somebody took their hardship and turned it into a positive.''

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com