FIRST OFF . . .

Porno film star John Holmes died of AIDS because of his job, not because of needles, his widow said this week. Laurie Holmes, his second wife, told talk-show host Larry King: “John never used intravenous needles and, in the last five years, has not been on any drugs at all. . . . In my opinion, the porno business (is) trying to cover up John’s death. They want to point their fingers anywhere but at themselves.” Holmes also insisted on her late husband’s heterosexuality, but said that diseases are easily transmitted because “actors and actresses have multiple sex partners, who have had multiple sex partners.” She contended that AIDS testing among porno actors and actresses “is also a cover-up,” saying most of them are tested infrequently. “Maybe some of them have had one or two tests,” she said, “but what they’re telling you is that person may have had a test six months ago, and since then they have been with a hundred different people, and might have been pulling--you know, doing prostitution on the side.” The late actor once boasted that he’d had sex with more than 14,000 women. As for the one gay film the late actor made, “they had a girl dressed up like a man,” according to his widow.