Gloves may come off in WGA candidate forum

Sparks could fly tonight when the Writers Guild of America, West hosts its annual "Candidates Night" town hall election forum.

The 6 p.m. meeting, held at the guild's headquarters in the Fairfax District, is supposed to give guild members an opportunity to "meet and discuss the issues with prospective candidates," according to a guild statement. Six candidates are vying for three officer positions that up for reelection, while 17 candidates are competing for eight open seats on the guild's board of directors.

The polite language of the guild's press release aside, the gathering probably won't be a genteel affair. The two presidential candidates, John Wells and Elias Davis, have been locked in a highly charged contest. 

Davis' supporters, including outgoing President Patric Verrone, have all but branded Wells, a former guild president and executive producer behind the hits "ER" and "The West Wing," as a turncoat who can't be trusted because of his relationships with management. Wells, in turn, has accused Verrone of doing anything to get Davis elected, including lying about Wells' actions during last year's writers strike. Davis, a writer for "MASH" and "Frasier," is the union's secretary-treasurer.

Guild members have already received ballots and statements from candidates. Election results will be tallied Sept. 18.

-- Richard Verrier

Photo (top): Elias Davis. Credit: Elias Davis

Photo (bottom): John Wells. Credit: Jill Connelly / Associated Press

Writers Guild Presidential Candidate John Wells calls out Verrone

John Wells fired back at the outgoing president of the Writers Guild of America, West, accusing Patric M. Verrone of lying about his involvement in last year's contract negotiations.

Verrone and John Bowman, who chaired the guild's negotiating committee last year, alleged in a missive last week to union members that Wells kept them in the dark about his "negotiations" with the Directors Guild of America, which reached an early contract with the studios while the writers were on strike. The men said Wells' actions undermined their own bargaining efforts.

But in his own letter to members, Wells accused the men of "mischaracterizing" his actions. Wells, a candidate for president in elections that will be decided Sept. 18, wrote that he was not involved in the DGA negotiations and never claimed to be. Rather, he said he was attempting to "find out whatever I could about the details of the deal they were planning to negotiate, which would inevitably become the basis of our deal." He added that he was also trying to "lend much needed credibility to our very strained relationship with the DGA."

Moreover, Wells said he briefed negotiating committee members on several occasions, and cited specific meetings and e-mails in which he communicated with Bowman about the DGA talks. Two members of the guild's negotiating committee confirmed that Wells did in fact keep them informed about the DGA negotiations.

"Let me say simply and directly that Patric Verrone and John Bowman are not telling the truth, and that they know they are not telling the truth,'' Wells wrote. He further accused the men of "besmirching my name in order to win an election for their colleague Elias Davis."

Verrone and Bowman had no immediate response. They are backing Davis, who is the union's secretary treasurer, and sought to portray Wells, the executive producer of NBC's "Southland" and the hits "ER" and "West Wing," as someone who is too close to management. Wells' supporters have cited his experience as a former guild president and his deep knowledge of the business.

-- Richard Verrier

Photo: John Wells. Credit: Jill Connelly / Associated Press

 

Writers Guild president blasts challenger John Wells [UPDATED]

UPDATED WITH JOHN WELLS' RESPONSE AT BOTTOM

The contest to elect a new president of the Writers Guild of America, West took an unusually heated turn today, when the union's current president and a key figure in last year's contract negotiations blasted John Wells, the writer and producer who aims to be the union's next leader.

In an e-mail to guild members, Patric M. Verrone, the union's outgoing president, and John F. Bowman, the former head of the negotiating committee, accused Wells of undermining their efforts during last year's contract negotiations.

They openly disputed Well's claims that he worked with guild leaders in the last contract negotiations to forge a deal that ended a 100-day strike in February 2008. The men alleged that Wells kept them in the dark about his involvement in Directors Guild of America negotiations. The DGA deal served as a template for the Writers Guild contract that Wells had openly supported in a widely circulated e-mail last year before the writers concluded their own talks.

"As it worked out, after John publicly supported the DGA deal, without also publicly stating his own involvement, our hands as negotiators were tied,'' Verrone and Bowman wrote. "We'd been on strike for three months and people wanted to go back to work.  We understood this. What we did not understand, and still don't, is why one of our own would negotiate with the DGA without informing his Guild's president or the chair of its negotiating committee."

"This is what you get with John Wells.  He does his own thing.  He doesn't depend upon the will of our Guild's membership, but upon the strength of his relationships with management, " the e-mail continued.

Wells, who backed the strike but has criticized the guild's confrontational style with studios and its  campaign to organize reality TV workers, was not immediately available for comment. Wells and his supporters have touted his experience as a negotiator, citing contract gains the union achieved in 2001 and have rejection assertions that he is too close to management.

"There's a huge difference being cordial with management and being beholden to management,'' Wells wrote in his candidate statement. "Vilifying those across the table may feel good, but it's bad business for us, just as they've discovered vilifying writers was bad business for them ... you can't accomplish anything if you're not talking."

Animation actors get new contract

SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) and Homer Simpson (Dan Castellaneta) are getting a modest pay raise.

The Screen Actors Guild and the major studios have reached agreement on a new contract covering about 5,000 actors who provide voices for animated television shows.

The two-year contract, which is retroactive to June 10, is patterned on a deal the union negotiated earlier this year with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of the studios.

The agreement includes annual raises of approximately 3% and establishes payments for shows that are distributed over the Internet, the guild said.

-- Richard Verrier

Photo: The Simpsons. Credit: Fox

Taylor Hackford elected president of Directors Guild without opposition

Continuing its reputation as the least politicized of Hollywood's unions representing creative talent, the Directors Guild of America has selected Taylor Hackford as its new president without opposition.

Hackford was elected to a two-year term unanimously at the DGA's national convention Saturday, which is held every other year. He was the only candidate nominated after former President Michael Apted chose to step aside after serving for six years.

In a farewell letter posted on the DGA's website, Apted outlined the major challenges that Hackford will face:

Economic news remains grim, Internet piracy threatens our ability to earn a living and the next cycle of negotiations will be upon us before we know it. We are now deep into a digital age that has begun to fundamentally alter the relationship between creators and the audience.

The president of the DGA and other officers are not chosen directly by the guild's 14,000 members but by the 135 delegates they elect to represent them at the convention.

Hackford's directing credits include "Ray," for which he was nominated for an Oscar, "Proof of Life" and "An Officer and a Gentleman." He has been part of the DGA's national board of directors since 2002 and served as third vice president since 2005. He also has been chair of the guild's political action committee.

In a statement, Hackford said that his top legislative priority will be pushing for further government action to combat Internet piracy.

By late next year, however, his energies will undoubtedly turn to the DGA's contract with the Hollywood studios, which expires June 30, 2011. Contracts for the two major acting unions, the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, end at the same time; the Writers Guild of America's pact expires two months earlier.

That sets up another potentially hostile showdown between Hollywood and its creative talent. The WGA went on strike in late 2007 and early 2008, primarily over payments for digital media work. The DGA, under Apted, reached an agreement with the studios during that time that ultimately provided a template for deals struck by the  WGA, SAG and AFTRA.

SAG, which recently has been the most fractious Hollywood guild, is gearing up for a new leadership election between moderates and those who think the latest agreement should have been rejected. Actor Ken Howard on Thursday announced his candidacy for president of SAG as part of a moderate slate.

-- Ben Fritz

Photo: Taylord Hackford. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times.

SAG group announces slate

Ken Howard is running for president of the Screen Actors Guild as head of the Unite for Strength ticket, the group of moderates seeking to strengthen their hold on the national board.

A current Emmy nominee for best supporting actor in HBO's "Grey Gardens," Howard's career has spanned four decades. (Avid television viewers may recall him from his role as a retired professional basketball player who takes a job as a head coach of a Los Angeles high school in the late 1970s series, "The White Shadow.") He is joined on the slate of 33 nominees by Amy Aquino, a candidate for secretary-treasurer.

"With increasing consolidation of media companies and new technologies transforming our business, we will pay dearly if we're not smart and strategic about our future," Howard said. "I'm running for president as a Unite for Strength candidate because I believe the only way actors will get our fair share of the pie is if we're united both internally and with our labor partners."

This coalition of self-described moderates were behind the January ouster of the Union's executive director, Doug Allen, whom they accused of mishandling negotiations with the major Hollywood studios and dividing the 120,000-member union.

--Dawn C. Chmielewski

Wells, a moderate, to again seek WGA presidency [updated]

John Wells, the executive producer behind "Southland" and the hits "ER" and "West Wing," may have a second act at the Writers Guild of America.

The nominating committee of the Writers Guild of America, West on Monday announced that Wells (pictured) was one of two candidates qualified to run as president of the union in board elections this fall.

Wells, who keeps an office on the Warner Bros. lot, is known as a moderate whom some writers criticize as being too cozy with the studios. He was president of the guild from 1999 to 2001. He will run against Elias Davis, who is currently the union's treasurer and a supporter of outgoing president Patric Verrone, who is finishing his second term and cannot run for a third because of term limits.

Verrone led the union during a 100-day strike that shut down TV production last year. Although Wells supported the strike, he was among a group of high-profile writer-producers who helped pave the way for a settlement.

There are 16 candidates nominated to run for eight open seats on the guild's board of directors. Votes will be tallied Sept. 18.

-- Richard Verrier

UPDATE: Reached in Hawaii, where he was vacationing with his family, Wells said he chose to run after a member of the guild's nominating committee approached him. "I care a lot about the guild and have been meeting to get back in it,'' Wells says. "I was on the board and involved in various committee work for 14 years. I just took a reasonable break." Wells says he believed his experience would help the guild in the next round of negotiations as Hollywood continues to grapple with recession and the spread of online entertainment. "The business is going through extraordinary changes,'' he says."I'm hoping some of my experience members will see as valuable."

Photo: Jill Connelly/AP

State resorts to lottery to dole out film tax credits

Demand for the state's new film tax credit program is so high that the California Film Commission
will use a lottery system next month to select which applicants get reviewed first.

"No one needs to send a PA [production assistant]to camp outside for five nights on Hollywood Boulevard,'' Amy Lemisch, director of the California Film Commission, told a crowd of production executives at a reception in West Hollywood today.

The film commission, the state department that is running the film tax credit program, has been inundated with phone calls from film and TV producers inquiring about how they can apply for the credits.

Amid rising evidence that the state was losing shows to other cheaper locales, the state Legislature this year agreed to allocate $500 million in film tax credits over a five-year period. Producers can obtain a  tax credit totaling 20% to 25% of "qualified production expenses." But there are key restrictions: Only feature films that cost $75 million or less are eligible. The program also is limited to new basic cable TV series, movies of the week or miniseries and existing TV series that move back to California.

Despite the limitations, there's plenty of interest. Lemisch expects up to 50 applications will pour in July 1, when the program debuts. However, the state only has enough money to fund about 30 projects in the first year. That has led some to question how effective the program will be at curbing so-called runaway production.

But Lemisch predicts the program will have an immediate effect. "If I can keep 30 projects, that's millions of dollars in revenue and hundreds of jobs that would have otherwise left the state." 

-- Richard Verrier

No surprise: Los Angeles is losing share of TV pilot production

As if L.A. needed any more reminders of just how much production is leaving town, along comes fresh data to document the grim trend.

While much attention has focused on the migration of feature film production, a new survey highlights how the exodus of production is eroding another key segment of the local economy: the filming of television pilots.

TV pilots, the pool of contenders from which the networks choose their series, on average employ 150 people per show and have budgets from $3 to $5 million.

But as any location manager will tell you, this year's pilot season was a bust, reflecting a steady erosion in the local industry.

The number of pilots produced in L.A. fell nearly 42% to 59 from 101 between 2004 and 2009, according to a report from FilmL.A. Inc, the nonprofit group that handles film permits. In large measure that's because the networks are ordering fewer pilots as they rely more on reality programming in prime time.

But the survey also provides evidence that some of the loss is due to market share going to other locales. Consider: In 2004 L.A. hosted 81% of all pilots. That dropped to 57% in 2009. Of 103 pilots produced this year, 59 were shot in L.A. and 42 were produced outside California, mostly in Canada and states such as New Mexico, Louisiana and Illinois that offer film tax credits and rebates.

"The fact that so many of this year's pilots chose to film outside the area shows that no facet of the entertainment industry can be considered captive in Los Angeles,"  said FilmL.A. President Paul Audley.

-- Richard Verrier

SAG members, finally, approve contract

Hollywood's largest actors union strongly endorsed a new film and TV contract, closing the chapter on a year-long dispute with the major studios.

The vote, which was expected to be close, drew a stronger show of support from the membership of the Screen Actors Guild, with 78% supporting the deal, and 22% opposing it.

The approval comes nearly a year after the guild's current contract expired and is largely similar to a deal the studios offered the union last fall. SAG's bargaining clout was hurt by the weak economy and a series of strategic missteps by the union's former chief negotiator, who was ousted in a boardroom revolt in January.

Although the contract was expected to be ratified, the vote puts to rest lingering fears in Hollywood that the entertainment industry would face another strike following last year's walkout by writers.

It could also help spur at least some independent film production that has been held up because of the dispute. The uncertainty had caused some insurance companies to stop issuing completion bonds -- ensuring that a film will be done on time and within budget -- that independent filmmakers depend on.

The contract was patterned after similar agreements negotiated last year by three other talent unions. It includes an immediate pay increase of 3% and for the first time gives actors residual pay for shows that streamed for free on websites like Hulu.

But SAG's members were sharply at odds over the terms. Stars lined up on either side of dueling campaigns. A group of A-list actors led by Tom Hanks and George Clooney backed the contract as the best that could be had in a difficult economic climate.

Another group that included former SAG President Ed Asner, Ed Harris and Martin Sheen blasted the agreement, saying it shortchanges actors for work that is distributed on the Internet.

Underscoring the divisions, the contract was supported by a majority of the board and the union's executive director, but opposed by the union's president, Alan Rosenberg, who vigorously campaigned against the contract.

Rosenberg was an ardent backer of former SAG executive director Doug Allen, who was ousted after a group of dissident actors won control of the board in elections last fall. They replaced him with veteran negotiator John McGuire and David White, the union's former general counsel.

--Richard Verrier