Porn Star's Secret Syphilis Shuts Down Industry

Two major porn studios have suspended production, and an industry group has called on others to do the same, after discovering that a male performer in LA was secretly harboring a syphilis infection. The performer allegedly worked in several films before his disease came to light, submitting forged STD test results each time, CNBC reports, so insiders fear the disease may have spread to his unwitting partners.

Normally it takes a confirmed HIV case to grind the adult entertainment machine to a halt, not a curable disease like syphilis, but since syphilis can be fatal if it goes untreated, and since it's unclear how many performers may have been exposed to it, the studios want to wait to shoot more until everyone has been re-tested. The incident isn't expected to hurt the industry much, but it may fuel calls for laws mandating condom use in the films. (More pornography stories.)