X-Rated Video Stars Lobby Legislature

In what was billed as the first organized lobbying effort of its kind, a platoon of actors, actresses, directors and other representatives of the X-rated video business descended Tuesday on the Legislature.

Leaving their high-gloss makeup and low-cut dresses at home in favor of conservative skirts and blouses and business suits, the contingent blended in with the many lobbyists and special interest groups usually found in the Capitol’s corridors.

And like most special interest groups, they were narrowly focused.

Their goal: Kill bills that would clamp more government regulations on the adult entertainment industry and support proposals to toughen penalties against child pornographers and sexual offenders.

“We are real people, not trench coat people,” said actress Julie Ashton, who described herself as a star of adult videos and host of the cable television show “Night Calls.”

Another entertainer, Nina Hartley, a self-described “erotic actress-model” from Berkeley, insisted that the market for adult movie rentals is rapidly expanding and may even promote romance for middle-aged couples in the privacy of their homes.

“It’s no different than Hamburger Helper,” Hartley told a news conference called to kick off the first organized lobbying campaign by adult video performers.

Kat Sunlove, publisher of the adult video magazine Spectator, claimed that “more adult videotapes are rented than votes are cast in general elections.”

The seven X-rated video performers and publishing representatives said that state government is trying to regulate them out of what they said is a $3-billion-a-year national business.

Their arrival in Sacramento, they said, represented an attempt to fight back. “We’re citizens of this state, and we have every right to participate in government just like everybody else,” said Michael Ross, a lobbyist representing the California Adult Business Assn.

A goal of the group was to draw a distinction between what it termed nonviolent X-rated movies of consenting adults and hard-core pornography involving children, which it said should be outlawed.

The performers-turned-lobbyists appeared to receive a cordial Capitol welcome, but the effectiveness of their persuasion was mixed.

“They may have some impact, but the bottom line is that public sentiment is not on their side,” said freshman Assemblyman Scott Baugh (R-Huntington Beach).

Baugh is the author of a bill that would grant local governments greater power to regulate community entertainment, ranging from adult arcades and nonalcoholic juice bars to theatrical performances and concerts.

The bill is opposed not only by the adult video business but also by most segments of the entertainment industry as a threat to free speech.

Baugh, who met with some adult video representatives for half an hour Monday, said he found their arguments “not at all persuasive.”

But Assemblyman Kevin Murray (D-Los Angeles), who also met with them Monday for about 10 minutes, said he agreed that the Baugh bill represented a free speech threat to theater and concert artists, but added, “I certainly don’t advocate any expansion of the adult entertainment business.”

Murray voted against the Baugh bill in the Assembly. He is a former talent agent and entertainment attorney.

No lawmakers appeared at the news conference with the X-rated entertainers. And lobbyist Ross said he was reluctant to identify any legislator as an ally because of what he called the “delicate” nature of the issue.

But actress Hartley said she was upbeat anyway. She said the meetings with Baugh and Murray were special because she had been told that most visitors usually are detoured to meet with legislative aides.