World Modeling's Jim South was asked to respond to allegations put on RAME, in recent weeks, that he knew Marc Wallice was HIV positive and allowed him to work in sex scenes anyway. South was also asked about his role in the original HIV test results-gathering process.
South: "I love this business. I've worked so hard to get the AIDS testing started, and literally bellowed at people that would go out and work if their test wasn't current. First of all, for anybody to even imply that me, or World Modeling, or anybody up here would give the go-ahead for people to work without tests, or outdated tests, or forged tests is absolutely ridiculous and ludicrous. They're asinine even to suggest it. Because if my recollection comes around right, World Modeling and Jim South helped get the AIDS testing started.
"Now, it was a lot of work of trying to do all of this - especially if somebody called World Modeling instead of calling the talent directly for work. It was a lot of work for us to look up the talent tests; for us to get on the talent in not having their tests current, and for us explaining to girls and guys without exception, when they're interviewed, if they're going to do adult movies. It was a lot of work explaining the necessity of a PCR-DNA test, and that the talent absolutely get the original test and bring the original here; that we will make copies for them to hand out; never to hand the original out on the set. You show the original; you give a duplicate.
"World Modeling kept track of the ELISAs when they were the norm. We absolutely did, and what happened was we used to make a copy of it, originally. We kept it on file. Because of something that was said by a competitor, in reference to World Modeling having copies of all tests [which we really didn't want to do anyway], because it was a lot of paperwork and a lot of hours put into it - we stopped making copies of it. But we would never, ever let a girl or guy work if they didn't have a current test, or if they had never gotten a test, or if they had forged a test; and God forbid, if they were Positive. What is the point of all of these years of keeping tests?
"Listen, whether you're an agent, producer, director, distributor, manufacturer, it doesn't matter. I've said for years in meetings in front of talent, the only people that can protect talent is talent themselves. Now, in the past, we've caught one or two people forging tests. Instantly, we came down on them. Instantly, we told them they absolutely could not work. If they tried to work until they got their test, we would do everything we could do to keep people from using them. And you can say what you're going to say, but I'm going to stand up and be counted.
"If Marc Wallice did what people are saying that he did, then something should be done. On the other hand, I don't convict anybody until it's proven to me. You're going to have to prove it to me that not only did he forge the test, but he forged the test knowing that he was HIV+. At this point, I don't believe he did this. You'll never convince me somebody could purposely go out to kill people in this industry.
South said that it's not an uncommon occurrence to have wrong information like 49 & female appear as it did on Wallice's 3/30/99 ELISA test.
South: "In a meeting of free speech, it was discussed by Bill Margold that that isn't uncommon. It really isn't. We've found everything in the world from the wrong name, or somebody walking in to get a test where they don't even ask for ID. They can come back and say they're female when they're not. They can have the age screwed up. The key issue here, and I'm not being facetious, isn't the age; it's whether or not he [Wallice] forged the test. And more key is whether or not he knew he was infected, which I don't believe unless it's proven to me. And I'd do that with anybody. I'm not going to convict on maybes. I'm just not.
"Nobody has proven it to me - and I can't say that enough - If anybody in this business - I don't care who they are; I don't care who their agent is; I don't care what distributor, manufacturer, producer, director they work for - anybody in this business openly works on a forged test, knowing that they are infected, is a murderer, and the court should act accordingly. I'm the first one that would come down on somebody. But I'll say again, I'm not convinced - it's never been proven to me that Marc forged it. I don't believe that. You're going to have to prove it to me. This is a touchy thing for me.
"Even if I wasn't his agent - I wouldn't care if he was with Pretty Girl or who he was with, I would still say the same thing. I'm not going to convict somebody until it's proven to me that he did this horrible thing. Because you're calling a person a murderer. I mean, I'm not trying to be melodramatic. But think of the years. A lot of people in this business have worked very hard, including World Modeling, to get these people tested. It was the same as me asking [Brooke Ashley] not to do the 25-guy gangbang because we had a previous positive [Tricia Devereaux] and we were in the massive amount of work of getting everybody retested. We only had about 50-60% of the people retested. And I asked Brooke in front of people, don't do it. She even told me she was going to call up [Dan Beck] and say, 'I'm not gonna do it.' She called me back the following day and said, 'He upped the ante. I couldn't turn it down.' And I said, 'Brooke, I wish you wouldn't do it.' Now, that doesn't sound like anybody that knowingly would let a person work, knowing they were infected. Please, give me a break! People that aren't friendly to World Modeling have implied that. That's ridiculous. You'd have to be nuts to do that."
