Hollywood Techs and B Actors Look to Porn in Case of Strike

LOS ANGELES – Many mainstream movie technicians and B-movie actors are looking to the porn industry to line up work if Hollywood actors and screenwriters go on strike this year.

At Sin City Entertainment in Chatsworth, a number of people have called inquiring about jobs, said spokesman Jeff Wozniak. "They're trying to line things up now in case there is a strike," he said.

The firm has been contacted by a few mainstream film editors, grips, one director of photography and "several B-movie actors and actresses looking for nonsexual roles."

At Hustler, Jimmy Flynt said he's logged at least three dozen calls in recent months from Hollywood technicians inquiring about temporary work. Hustler produces about six videos a month requiring 120 film freelancers, ranging from cinematographers and production managers to line producers, he said.

"People of very high caliber are interested in finding work," said Flynt, adding that the pay generally is less than Hollywood union scale. A line producer, for example, will make $2,500 for a three-day adult shoot where he could make $50,000 to $75,000 for a regular movie.

Contracts covering TV and movie writers expire May 1. A summer strike by the Screen Actors Guild, whose contract expires June 30, is also looming.

Union leaders told the Los Angeles Times that they hadn't heard whether members had been contacting the porn shops.

"It doesn't sound bad to me," joked Norm Glasser, business agent for Hollywood electricians, Local 728, of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Turning serious, he added: "If there's a strike, everybody's on their own, more or less."

While those in Hollywood may be looking for a temporary haven in the adult entertainment industry, displaced dot-com employees have found a more stable home.

It wasn't too long ago when porn executives faced many recruiting challenges. One of the biggest, they say, had been matching promises of stock-option bonanzas and early retirement by Internet firms.

But that was more than a year ago, before the NASDAQ tanked and dot-coms collapsed. The fallout has been a boon for adult entertainment, Vivid Entertainment Group President Bill Asher said.

"At least I know my paycheck isn't going to bounce," said Jon, 25, who asked that his last name be withheld. Jon told the Times that he jumped to take a Web designer job at Vivid after he was laid off last winter from Los Angeles music start-up ArtistDirect Inc.

The company, which makes up to six adult videos a month and recently expanded its online team, says that 35 percent of its technical staff hail from the dot-com world.

Jon now spends eight hours a day digitally covering up female nipples for the company's front-page, which entices visitors to pay for the full peep show. "My mom would kill me if she knew," he said.

E-commerce sex Web sites blossomed from 230 in 1997, to 1,100 sites in 2000, according to American Demographics Magazine, citing a report from sextracker.com. Web sites offering free sex content jumped from more than 22,000 to nearly 280,300 during the same period.

According to research by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago-based employee outplacement firm, over the last 16 months, more than 75,500 Internet workers lost their jobs.

"We get bombarded with calls all the time," said Jimmy Flynt II, director of marketing and public relations for Hustler, founded by his uncle Larry. "The sex industry really isn't affected by the markets. Sex always sells."