CHATSWORTH, Calif. - Lara Roxx, the first innocent victim of the HIV firestorm sweeping through the adult industry, never wanted to be the center of attention.
All The News Thats Fit To Post
firestorm sweeping through the adult industry, never wanted to be the center
of attention.
When she arrived in L.A. in mid-March from Montreal, on a ticket paid for
with borrowed funds, her short brown hair streaked with pink, all she wanted
to do was perform in enough scenes to create a nest-egg that she could take
back to Canada and use to go on with her life.
Instead, she's now broke, jobless and had been staying with friends, and if
the tests come back Saturday evening as she's hoping they won't,
HIV-positive.
HIV Update
Industry Offers Aid
Call for a Production Moratorium
Quarantined Performers
Mark Anthony Talks About James
James Well-Liked
Lara Roxx Test HIV-positive
HIV: The Industry's Response
Day After: Search for Second Gen.
Darren James Tests HIV-positive
AVN Calls for Production Halt
"My manager [Daniel Perrault] woke me up on that morning that they all found
out," Roxx told AVN.com. "I was very upset on that day; I don't even
remember what day it was."
It was Tuesday, April 13, the day the news broke that popular performer
Darren James had contracted HIV - the first active performer on the straight
side of the industry to do so in nearly five years.
But for Roxx, the story started two months earlier.
It was around February 10, 2004. Roxx had been performing, mostly for
Canadian-based Internet sites, for exactly one month, and she was about to
do her first boy/girl scene for an American video feature.
"When I first walked into Daniel Perrault's office, I told him what I was
ready to do, and he told me he wasn't ready to represent me under those
conditions," Roxx stated on April 16. "I told him I wasn't interested in
anal at all, and I was a little freaky about the no-condom thing, too. I'm
educated about the STDs since I'm in grade 3. I was educated about condoms.
I knew I didn't want any STDs. I was protecting myself in the proper ways to
not catch STDs, the ways I was taught."
But though she'd been a dancer for three years, Roxx wasn't very familiar
with the adult video industry, and she admits that later, when she decided
to accept offers to do scenes in L.A., Perrault advised her that he thought
she was too innocent to survive the U.S. porn scene.
Perrault nonetheless brought Roxx into contact with director Marc Anthony,
who was reportedly in Montreal scouting for talent, and he in turn
introduced her to his actors, Darren James and Max Black. Roxx thinks there
was another actor, possibly Canadian, named Max who was also present.
Perrault had arranged for Roxx to have an HIV test, but she's not sure what
kind of test that was; just that blood was drawn for it.
"Really, that's a question for Daniel Perrault or the lab where I took my
test," Roxx responded. "I think it's AIM's equivalent in Canada, but we don'
t have to test for Chlamydia or gonorrhea; we only test for syphilis and
HIV."
Patricia Petite, who also works with Perrault, is said to have been working
with an ELISA test. Petite is on the first-generation A list, those who had
sexual contact with James.
At this point, Roxx doesn't know whether the test was PCR-DNA or ELISA, but
when she flew to Los Angeles a few weeks later, at the urging of L.A.-based
manager Thomas Hope, one of the first things she did was go to AIM for a new
PCR-DNA test, and that was negative for HIV.
"There's a rumor out there that I might have given him [Darren] the virus,"
Roxx noted, "and I don't care about what people say because I know the truth
and that's what's important to me."
The executive director of AIM, Dr. Sharon Mitchell, confimed today that
James' is still believed to be the source of the HIV-virus, and he is
believed to have obtained the virus from Brazil.
Now freshly tested, Roxx was booked for some scenes for Devil's Films. and
then she got another offer from Marc Anthony for March 24.
"When I got there, me and Marc had a little conversation, because Thomas
Hope told me I was going to do a d.p., and so I get there and Marc Anthony
tells me it's a d.a., which stands for double anal, " Roxx recalled. "And I'
m like, 'What? I've never done a double anal.' And he's like, 'Well, that's
what we need. It's either that or nothing.' And that's how they do it.
"But Marc Anthony was playing that, and I think that really sucks, because I
'm mad at the friend I thought I had in Marc, because he knew double anal
was dangerous. I knew it too, really, probably, but I was just putting it
way back in my mind because I was down in California to make the maximum
amount of money, to come back home wealthy. I had plans for the money."
The scene was to be with Marc and Darren, but before getting into the
action, the performers chatted, with Marc telling Roxx about his and Darren'
s recent trip to Brazil.
"He told me that, but I didn't take that as, oh, people in Brazil may be
fuckin' dirty or whatever," Roxx explained. "I was like, 'Oh, cool; how was
Brazil? How was their festival over there? Was it fun?' I didn't ask him if
Darren slept with a girl with HIV over there, you know."
But not being schooled in the ways of porn, Roxx didn't know that it was
commonplace for performers to show each other their tests before beginning a
scene.
"I wasn't experienced enough to go up to people and ask them for their test,
and the only person that showed me their test before we had a sexual
relation was, unfortunately, Marc Anthony."
The double anal came off as planned, but the next day, Roxx made a painful
discovery.
"The day after that scene, I had a rash appeared on my ass; a rash like I've
never had before, and I was in pain. I couldn't sit on my butt."
Roxx went to the medical clinic run by Dr. Rigg, where a doctor - Roxx's not
sure who - prescribed a course of antibiotics.
"That stupid doctor prescribed me stupid antibiotics without even looking at
it [the rash]," Roxx protested. "He was like afraid."
A friend, actress RayVeness, took Roxx back to the Rigg clinic on March 30
and raised hell about the treatment she had been given there.
"The first medicine, the antibiotics I was taking," Roxx said, "were so
strong that they gave me a yeast infection, so the rash on my butt was gone,
but I had a huge, huge - the biggest yeast infection I've ever had in my
life."
"I spent all my money from that scene that was remaining, after I paid
[them] back for my plane ticket, on doctors," Roxx said bitterly.
"After that, I saw another doctor from AIM," she continued, "because I was
like, 'Fuck Dr. Rigg.' I felt sick and I didn't want to work while I was
feeling sick; I felt so sick I wasn't able to work. So I went to see that
[AIM] doctor; he was very young, but I'm sure he was very well intentioned
and he very much cared about his job and the people he was taking care of,
and I think that was a good doctor. So we did all kinds of tests, but they
wouldn't give me test results because I just spent all my money at Rigg."
Roxx isn't sure just when she saw the AIM doctor for her yeast infection,
but she knows it was sometime in early April.
"They were not only taking my blood; they were doing all kinds of - they
were taking mucus samples from my toes, my vagina, everywhere," she
recalled. "The AIM doctor prescribed me something for bacterial vaginosis,
which I took, and I hope I'm rid of that shit now. And he diagnosed me with
genital warts, which I think that might have [caused] the rash on my butt on
that day. I don't know too much except for what was on that paper from AIM."
Roxx also developed a case viral pharyngitis, for which she went to
Northridge Hospital on April 10 and received medication. It was while she
was taking the prescribed drugs and recuperating that Roxx received the
fateful call from Perrault.
"When Daniel told me that Darren James was HIV positive, it totally freaked
me out," Roxx said. "It totally made me realize how I trusted this system
that wasn't to be trusted at all, because it obviously doesn't work.
"We should think about these issues right now, to change stuff around to
make this a safer fuckin' business. It isn't a safe business, and I thought
it was, and I would have not did that scene with no condom with Darren James
if it would have crossed my mind that those tests weren't good and that I
couldn't trust him or the people he's been with. I thought porn people were
the cleanest people in the world, is what I thought."
As this is written, Lara Roxx is waiting for the results of her second round
of tests for HIV, hoping that the first positive test was just a mistake.
She's also thinking about what her future will be like if she has the virus,
and muses about taking some classes in filmmaking at UCLA - if she can
afford it.
Those wishing to make contributions to help Roxx get back on her feet can
send them or drop them off at AVN, 9414 Eton Ave., Chatsworth, CA 91311, and
they will be delivered to Roxx.