PORN VALLEY—With all the public furor about the health of adult performers, Evil Angel honchos John and Karen Stagliano have stepped up to the plate to insure that all of the productions being released under their imprint are STD-free ... and it's that dedication that led to the company's decision to part ways with director/actor Brian Pumper.
When a report surfaced earlier this week that Pumper had included a forged STD test with the paperwork for a movie he had recently delivered to Evil Angel, the porn rumor mill quickly slammed into high gear, and the company soon realized that it would have to be more forthcoming as to the reasons for the split than its earlier announcement of "creative differences."
"Our priority is always performer safety, and then performer privacy," Evil Angel general manager Christian Mann told AVN. "We’ve met those standards. To address the inquiries and speculation, I can state with certainty that in this case, nobody's HIV status has been forged, and there are no performers in a position of risk. Pumper had been informed more than once that the Evil Angel testing protocol is inviolable. Pumper didn't comply. He submitted a test that he altered to remove a positive result for chlamydia. That’s why the deal with Pumper was terminated."
Sources close to the situation confirmed that Pumper had shot a scene with a new actress that he had discovered before she had had the usual battery of STD tests administered by AIM Healthcare Foundation, and that the woman was first tested two days after the shoot. That test was negative for HIV and several other sexually transmitted diseases, but positive for chlamydia. However, when the movie containing that scene was completed and delivered to the company along with the required paperwork, the space on the woman's STD test next the word "chlamydia" was blank, where other tests from AIM would have included the word "negative" or "positive." This deviation from the norm immediately raised suspicions at the company, and Pumper was questioned further about the test, which led to the confirmation that it had been altered.
Apparently, the woman at issue has not worked on any other adult productions, and Pumper's own STD tests have been clean both before and after the incident.
Pumper's last movie under his agreement with Evil Angel was released last week, and the company will continue selling Pumper's catalog, which he owns, through October.
Attempts to contact Pumper for a statement regarding the situation were unsuccessful.
