In a soiree intersection of media, labor and real politick, SAG-AFTRA wants to pull the home of Hollywood together to get Tinseltown working again.
“Revitalizing California’s most recognizable industry isn’t just about making things better for show business, it’s about making things better for everyone,” proclaimed Joely Fisher last week at a literal and figurative high level get-together in the penthouse of the SAG-AFTRA Foundation .
As uncertainty rolls an industry already rocked by change and contraction, the words of the SAG-AFTRA Secretary-Treasurer and National Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee co-chair had an added resonance on May 8 with below-the-line workers and almost everyone else hurting hard as production and jobs are scarce.
In the hopes of turning things around, California Governor Gavin Newsom’s aim of pumping up the Golden State’s film and TV tax incentives to $750 million annually is moving steadily through the Legislature in Sacramento with deep support. In DC, talk of a federal incentive has the attention of Donald Trump for now through a plan co-crafted by Special Ambassador to Hollywood Jon Voight. In fact, today, SAG-AFTRA joined Voight and fellow Special Ambassador Sylvester Stallone, plus the DGA, the WGA, the Teamsters, the PGA, the MPA and more in a letter the White House that “applauds President Trump’s focus on protecting American jobs and affirms its support for urgent federal action to combat the exodus of film and television production,” in the words of SAG-AFTRA national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
Speaking briefly and calling it “a wonderful chance to reconnect,” Crabtree-Ireland was at the Here’s Looking At You event last week. In a very clear case of the strange bedfellows coming together in hopes of saving the middle-class Hollywood dream, newly minted AMPTP boss and ex-SAG leader Greg Hessinger was there also.
In a mix of players and interests in supporting the industry, Senator Lola Smallwood-Cuevas (CA Senate, District 28), Assemblymember Tina McKinnor showed up. Co-host Jodi Long (SAG-AFTRA LA Local President & National Vice-President, LA) told the inaugural HLAY L.A.: “We’re are all in this together.” Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (Democrat, CA District 37) shared with the crowd her pride in her SAG-AFTRA member mother, and the need for even more money for tax incentive programs.
Also in attendance were Shari Belafonte (SAG-AFTRA National VP, Actors), Linda Powell (SAG-AFTRA EVP), David Joliffe, Spencer Garrett, Alfred Molina and Jason George (SAG-AFTRA National Board). Star Trek: Picard alums and committed activists Michelle Hurd (SAG-AFTRA National Board), and Jeri Ryan (SAG-AFTRA LA Local Board) were on deck too.
Among the elected representatives, LA Mayor Karen Bass spoke of her very personal commitment to better and bigger incentives on the state and even national level.
“Three generations in my family have been connected to the industry, and I think that a lot of education needs to happen in our city and in our state about all of the ancillary businesses, the caterers, the florists, the tailors, all of the people whose livelihoods depend on this industry,” the first term Mayor said. “You have taken a major blow over these last few years, from COVID to strike and now this but we’re going to turn it around,” Bass concluded, pledging to make it easier to film in the City of Angels with lower permit fees and a more streamlined process for productions.
Just like the Rock The City event in NYC last month, Deadline was SAG-AFTRA’s media partner for the May 8 event.
