Diane Sawyer and “Primetime Thursday” have done it again, “it” being last year’s controversial segment featuring Belladonna, which will run tonight on ABC, updated with a slant covering the recent HIV outbreak.
“It’s an update of the report we aired last year and there’s some new footage mostly with Lara Roxx and Sharon Mitchell,” a spokesperson for ABC told AVN.com, estimating that 20 to 30 percent of the footage in tonight’s segment is new.
The report that “Primetime Thursday” aired in January, 2003 followed Belladonna’s career through the adult industry for two years, and what came out of the editing bay was "Young Women, Porn and Profits: Corporate America's Secret Affair," viewed by virtually everyone within the adult industry as a hatchet job.
"I was embarrassed," Belladonna told AVN.com in a previous interview regarding the ABC segment. "I said a lot of things that I really wanted everyone to hear and they took everything bad and made the whole story look like I was a victim. Anyone who’s seen my movies knows that I sure as hell wasn’t a victim. Seriously, watch the movies, I’m smiling most of the time - if I don’t have anything in my mouth."
“Primetime Thursday” depicted Belladonna as a young woman trapped in a lifestyle and profession she despises, and in a relationship with Nacho Vidal that seems abusive.
The new material that will run in tonight’s show consists largely of interviews with Lara Roxx, the 22-year-old woman that was the first to be diagnosed as HIV-positive during the recent HIV crisis, and AIM Healthcare Foundation’s Dr. Sharon Mitchell, PhD, with presentations by co-anchor Diane Sawyer
After the January 20003 show aired Belladonna became the target of criticism from within the adult industry for having become involved in the story, though for every critic she had an apologist suggesting “Primetime Thursday” was the appropriate object of any scorn.
Though Belladonna rarely performs anymore, when she does, she’s still considered one of the top performers in adult.
