Valley’s Seamy Side Has Its Say on Secession

Dear Valley Diary:

Day Two

On the historic day the breakup of Los Angeles made the ballot, a pigtailed actress named Xiu Xiu was sold into bondage in Chatsworth. Another day, another dollar in a multibillion-dollar industry that could help determine whether a new Valley city can make it on its own.

“Can you keep it down?” a production manager asked. “We’ve got dialogue in this scene.”

“There’s dialogue in this movie?” quipped Scott Justice, executive vice president of Sin City Entertainment. He referred to “Whoriental Sex Academy 4” as a “one-day wonder,” meaning he intended to shoot the entire 90-minute film in about 12 hours.

Such fare may be offensive to some. But Justice, a former stockbroker, offers no apologies for making 72 adult movies a year in the San Fernando Valley, the undisputed world capital of an industry that employs thousands and pays a fortune in taxes.

“The business is recession- proof,” he said, unlike the stock market, and unlike Boeing and many other Valley industries.

Sept. 11 had no impact on adult entertainment, Justice added, seated in an office at a rented studio on Canoga Avenue.

As would happen many times throughout the day, our conversation was interrupted by a crisis. This one involved a last-minute replacement for a no-show actress.

“She’s not Asian, but she looks Asian,” one of Justice’s partners told him.

“Get her,” Justice responded with urgency.

Meanwhile, back on the set, the action heats up in the Virgin Paradise Room:

Xiu Xiu: “What would you have me do first?”

Aaron: “First I must inspect your flower.”

After an “inspection” that went on for a solid hour, Aaron put his pants back on and spoke passionately about Valley secession.

I chatted mainly with Aaron because Xiu Xiu, who recently moved from the Valley to West Covina, was unaware of a secession movement, or “succession,” as most of the cast and crew referred to it.

Also unaware were Ming Lo, Geisha Girl No. 1, and Nathan, who was having trouble figuring out which Geisha he was supposed to be with in the movie, let alone whether the San Fernando Valley should pull out.

“Secede from who?” asked Nathan.

He is far more worked up about how Viagra has turned “every guy on the street into a porn star,” making jobs scarce for old-school performers, such as he, who insist on honest artistic expression.

But for fellow actor Aaron, who believes that Valley people are friendlier and more community-minded than the rest of L.A., the breakup couldn’t happen soon enough.

“The new city would be more manageable,” he insisted, and more attuned to the needs of Valley folk.

My own feeling is that secession proponents have not offered a scintilla of proof that services would improve--or that they wouldn’t be even worse--in a new city of roughly 1.35 million, with no true center or collective interest. But Aaron, who lives near Warner Center, reduced the issue to this:

“Smaller is better.”

I cast about for Chad, the actor respectfully known in the industry as Sledge Hammer, to ask his thoughts. He was unavailable.

There was some concern among cast and crew that the creation of a new city could be catastrophic for the adult entertainment industry. What if incoming politicos include religious types? And what if they see the Valley as a bedroom community of the conventional sort, and call for a crackdown on porn?

No way, said Sin City’s Justice, who wore a silver cross at the neck of his open shirt but insisted he was bar mitzvahed at 13 and wears the pendant “as a piece of jewelry and not a religious symbol.”

The new city needs porn, he said, because of the taxes it generates. Adult video sales last year totaled roughly $900 million, wholesale. And then there are billions more from worldwide rentals, pay-per-view and Internet sales. A piece of every dollar would stay in the Valley if it seceded.

But the porn industry contributes more than money. Bud Lee, director of “Sex Academy 4,” describes with pride how the industry is a partner in the community, sponsoring local Little League teams, for example.

Banner-toting secessionists never mention porn when they’re selling Paradise, of course. But given the industry’s sense of corporate citizenship, you could make an argument for including a G-string on the new city seal.

It’s not as if the porn industry owned sin unto itself, says Mark Kernes, senior editor of Adult Video News. If the Valley wants to crack down on immorality, he said, “they should have an ordinance that says you can’t have a school within a hundred yards of a Catholic church.”

“Yeah,” said Aaron, who was filling out an IRS form, reporting his income for the day’s workout with Xiu Xiu. “How often do you hear about a porn star raping a 10-year-old boy?”

In the latest crisis update, the actress who only looks Asian was allegedly on her way to the studio. Meanwhile, Sledge Hammer was headed for the Paradise Virgin Room with Geisha No. 1, who said she thought the Valley was already its own city.

Justice still insisted that “Sex Academy 4” would wrap in a day, even if it took until midnight. By the way, he said, he’s got a plan to protect the porn industry should the Valley become a city.

He, as a successful captain of industry, might just run for mayor.

*

Steve Lopez writes Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Reach him at steve.lopez@latimes.com