Mutt

Ballowe's rise and fall in the business is not unusual, but her
reaction is. She filed a lawsuit with the California Workers'
Compensation Appeal Board against Hard Core Television, the producer
of the video, and K-Beech, the distributor. Ballowe alleges that
Goldberg faked a test showing he was HIV negative. Included in the
lawsuit is a copy of an HIV test supposedly taken by Goldberg on March
21, 1997, nearly a year before the two actors worked together. The
result is negative.

The document says the test was conducted by the Medical Science
Institute in Burbank--a laboratory that filed for bankruptcy in 1995,
and whose assets were purchased by Physicians Clinical Laboratory Inc.
in February 1997. The document also shows that Goldberg's blood sample
was taken at Northeast Valley Health Corp.'s Pacoima offices, by a
physician identified only as "Martinez."

Officials from Northeast Valley told The Times that no doctor by that
name worked at their facilities during this time. "We had a doctor
named Martinez, but he left and moved out of the area back in 1985,"
says Kimberly Wyard, chief executive officer.

Goldberg could not be reached for comment despite nearly two dozen
attempts to contact him by phone and in person at his home and at the
video company where he works. No response from Goldberg to Ballowe's
lawsuit is on file with the state. Hard Core Television and K-Beech
have filed papers denying responsibility.

Ballowe's suit says that during several days of filming in Chatsworth
in February 1998, the actress had sex with about 25 men--a mix of
actors established in the business, would-be stars trying to get a
break in the industry and adult-film fans who had been recruited at
adult video stores. Most of the men showed up at the set with
paperwork that declared they were HIV-negative. Some wore condoms.
Others, like Goldberg, did not.

"I had known Marc for years, so I didn't make him wear one," Ballowe
says in an interview. "I was going on good faith" that he was not
infected. In her lawsuit, Ballowe says that K-Beech and Hard Core
failed to provide a safe work environment, as required by state law.
Specifically, she claims the businesses failed to "verify the health
certificates provided . . . to ensure their accuracy and reliability."
She also claims the companies failed "to furnish and use safety
devices and safeguards for the benefit of the employee . . . with
knowledge that serious injury to applicant would be a probable
result."

"If I was a prostitute in Nevada, I'd still be alive," she says in an
interview. "If I'd been a migrant farmworker, I'd still be alive. As
it is, I'm dead. I'll be buried before I get wrinkles."

Ballowe's lawsuit has become the leading example cited by all those
who argue for regulation of the industry. It was filed in 1998, at a
time when, one by one, porn actresses were testing positive for HIV.
Among industry veterans, those years are now known as "the dark
times." In January of that year, actress Tricia Devereaux tested
positive. She was followed by Ballowe in March; a Hungarian performer,
who used only the stage name Caroline, in April; and Kimberly Jade in
May.

"I could have given this to my boyfriend," Jade says. "Any of us could
have and not known because we were getting tested only once a month,
for HIV. The only thing we all have in common is Marc. But we had no
idea how to prove that he did it."

Some companies, such as Vivid Video Inc. in Van Nuys and VCA Pictures
in Chatsworth, insist performers bring a recent HIV test to the set
and use condoms when they perform. But dozens of Triple-X filmmakers
have no such requirements. Even at those that do, the rules can be
easily overlooked, according to interviews with more than three dozen
actresses working for various Triple-X companies.

"It's up to the talent to say [to other performers], 'Let me see your
HIV test,' or 'Hey, I need a condom,' " says Robert Herrera,
production chief of Simon Wolf Productions in Chatsworth. "It'd be
great to have everyone wear a condom and a good thing to force
everyone to test for everything. But it's impossible to do that in
this business."

Gay pornographers abide by a different set of rules: No condom, no HIV
test, no audience. Nearly all gay Triple-X production studios
throughout the industry demand condom use and other protections. The
decision is rooted in financial concerns. While there is a niche
audience for films that depict unprotected sex, few retail and
Internet outlets will carry such movies for fear of drawing public
criticism.

"They all wear condoms," says Roger Tansey, former executive director
of Aid For AIDS, a West Hollywood-based nonprofit that provides
financial assistance for people with HIV. "Gay actors and gay viewers
don't see unprotected sex as a fantasy. They see it as watching death
on the screen."

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