Saving the Lives of Own

Hi everyone -

It’s usually much easier to point a finger up as opposed to pointing a finger at an issue, a problem, or those responsible for the problem.

Now that we have kept the long term care facility open for the time being (the operating permit was renewed for another year), it is time to attack the root of the problem. Only in doing that will we be able to return the Motion Picture Home to its once world-class status as a care facility.

I am asking for the dismissal of CEO Dr. David Tillman and COO Seth Ellis. Beginning even before Dr. Tillman’s recommendation that the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit be abandoned, the dismantling of services as well as confidence in the fund would ultimately lead to where we are today – fighting for the future of motion picture and television healthcare.

Did Drs. Tillman and Ellis do this themselves? Of course not, but I feel that the agenda that they continue to pursue, characterized by some as ’successful aging’, is the death knell to motion picture and television healthcare.

As it is, they have attempted to transition some residents of the long term care unit to Harry’s Haven. Harry’s is an incredible facility for the care and treatment of Alzheimer’s patients. The dilution of the purpose and core competency of Harry’s is what is now happening.

So what will be next?

I’ve written a blog at

http://www.thewrap.com/blog-entry/brighter-side-mptfs-transfer-trauma-12003

I would appreciate your comments and your voices in demanding that a regime change is needed at the Motion Picture Home.

Hope you have a great holiday. 2010 will be our year.

Best

Richard

SAG Nominations

SAG noms revealed
‘Basterds, ‘Precious,’ ‘Up in the Air’ lead SAG noms
By Gregg Kilday

Dec 17, 2009, 09:22 AM ET
“Inglourious Basterds,” “Precious” and “Up in the Air” led the list, with three nominations each, as the Screen Actors Guild unveiled noms for its 16th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Thursday morning.

“Basterds” and “Precious” were both nominated for outstanding performance by a motion picture cast — SAG’s equivalent of a best picture award — along with “An Education,” “The Hurt Locker” and the musical “Nine.”

On the TV side, SAG also spread the love around, doling out three noms each to “30 Rock,” “The Closer” and “Dexter.”

“The Hurt Locker’s” Jeremy Renner, who was overlooked when the Golden Globe Awards nominations were announced on Tuesday, made the list of motion picture lead actor nominees along with Jeff Bridges (“Crazy Heart”), George Clooney (“Up in the Air”), Colin Firth (“A Single Man”) and Morgan Freeman (“Invictus”).

For lead motion picture actress, the nominees are Sandra Bullock (“The Blind Side”), Helen Mirren (“The Last Station”), Carey Mulligan (“An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (“Precious”) and Meryl Streep (“Julie & Julia.”).

For supporting male film actor, SAG rounded up Matt Damon (“Invictus”), Woody Harrelson (“The Messenger”), Christopher Plummer (“The Last Station”), Stanley Tucci (“The Lovely Bones”) and Christoph Waltz (“Basterds”).

The circle of supporting female film actors includes Penelope Cruz (“Nine”), Vera Farmiga (“Up in the Air”), Anna Kendrick (“Up in the Air”), Diane Kruger (“Basterds”) and Mo’Nique (“Precious.”)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

JEFF BRIDGES / Bad Blake – “CRAZY HEART” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
GEORGE CLOONEY / Ryan Bingham – “UP IN THE AIR” (Paramount Pictures)
COLIN FIRTH / George Falconer – “A SINGLE MAN” (The Weinstein Company)
MORGAN FREEMAN / Nelson Mandela – “INVICTUS” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
JEREMY RENNER / Staff Sgt. William James – “THE HURT LOCKER” (Summit Entertainment)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

SANDRA BULLOCK / Leigh Anne Tuohy – “THE BLIND SIDE” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
HELEN MIRREN / Sofya – “THE LAST STATION” (Sony Pictures Classics)
CAREY MULLIGAN / Jenny – “AN EDUCATION” (Sony Pictures Classics)
GABOUREY SIDIBE / Precious – “PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE” (Lionsgate)
MERYL STREEP / Julia Child – “JULIE JULIA” (Columbia Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

MATT DAMON / Francois Pienaar – “INVICTUS” (Warner Bros. Pictures)
WOODY HARRELSON / Captain Tony Stone – “THE MESSENGER” (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER / Tolstoy – “THE LAST STATION” (Sony Pictures Classics)
STANLEY TUCCI / George Harvey – “THE LOVELY BONES” (Paramount Pictures)
CHRISTOPH WALTZ / Col. Hans Landa – “INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS” (The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

PENELOPE CRUZ / Carla – “NINE” (The Weinstein Company)
VERA FARMIGA / Alex Goran – “UP IN THE AIR” (Paramount Pictures)
ANNA KENDRICK / Natalie Keener – “UP IN THE AIR” (Paramount Pictures)
DIANE KRUGER / Bridget Von Hammersmark – “INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS” (The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures)
MO’NIQUE / Mary – “PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL ‘PUSH’ BY SAPPHIRE” (Lionsgate)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

AN EDUCATION (Sony Pictures Classics)
DOMINIC COOPER / Danny
ALFRED MOLINA / Jack
CAREY MULLIGAN / Jenny
ROSAMUND PIKE / Helen
PETER SARSGAARD / David
EMMA THOMPSON / Headmistress
OLIVIA WILLIAMS / Miss Stubbs

THE HURT LOCKER (Summit Entertainment)
CHRISTIAN CAMARGO / Col. John Cambridge
BRIAN GERAGHTY / Specialist Owen Eldridge
EVANGELINE LILLY / Connie James
ANTHONY MACKIE / Sgt. J.T. Sanborn
JEREMY RENNER / Staff Sgt. William James

INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (The Weinstein Company/Universal Pictures)
DANIEL BRUHL / Fredrick Zoller
AUGUST DIEHL / Major Hellstrom
JULIE DREYFUS / Francesca Mondino
MICHAEL FASSBENDER / Lt. Archie Hicox
SYLVESTER GROTH / Joseph Goebbels
JACKY IDO / Marcel
DIANE KRUGER / Bridget Von Hammersmark
MELANIE LAURENT / Shosanna
DENIS MENOCHET / Perrier LaPedite
MIKE MYERS / General Ed French
BRAD PITT / Lt. Aldo Raine
ELI ROTH / Sgt. Donny Donowitz
TIL SCHWEIGER / Sgt. Hugo Stiglitz
ROD TAYLOR / Winston Churchill
CHRISTOPH WALTZ / Col. Hans Landa
MARTIN WUTTKE / Hitler

NINE (The Weinstein Company)
MARION COTILLARD / Luisa Contini
PENELOPE CRUZ / Carla
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS / Guido Contini
JUDI DENCH / Lillian
FERGIE / Saraghina
KATE HUDSON / Stephanie
NICOLE KIDMAN / Claudia
SOPHIA LOREN / Mamma

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL “PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE (Lionsgate)
MARIAH CAREY / Ms. Weiss
LENNY KRAVITZ / Nurse John
MO’NIQUE / Mary
PAULA PATTON / Ms. Rain
SHERRI SHEPHERD / Cornrows
GABOUREY SIDIBE / Precious

DML – Closing Windows?

Closing Windows?

Interesting email from my satellite company today. DirecTV urges me to order Julie & Julia on PPV. Not my cup of tea, thanks, though I suppose Julia Child probably had a clever way to brew a cup of tea while cooking up some unusual dish at the same time. But more interesting to me were two little notes that accompanied the ad: “Now Playing” and “Same Day as DVD.” The movie’s official Sony website confirms that this is non DirecTV-specific.

That’s intriguing. There’s usually an exclusive DVD window before the pay-per-view release, with the window averaging 37 days this year, up from 32 days last year, says research firm SNL Kagan. Even the shortest average was 20 days, over at Lions Gate.

Is this a trend or an experiment? Probably the latter, but who knows where it might go. And for those wondering what effect this might have on the guilds, consider that the DVD residual formula is much less favorable to talent than the pay TV formula. Time for guild members to cross their fingers and send Sony some holiday best wishes – and maybe a gift basket worthy of Julia.

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Subscribe to my blog (jhandel.com) for more about entertainment law and digital media law. Go to the blog itself to subscribe via RSS or email. Or, follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, or subscribe to my Huffington Post articles. If you work in tech, check out my book How to Write LOIs and Term Sheets.

SAG, AFTRA FACE DEADLINE

SAG, AFTRA face deadline
Unions must decide soon if they are to negotiate together
By DAVE MCNARY

The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists are facing a looming deadline within the next few months if they’re going to negotiate together on the primetime-feature contract with the majors.
The performers unions haven’t yet taken any formal steps toward joint bargaining, even with SAG obligated to begin seven weeks of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers on Oct. 1. The current SAG and AFTRA master contracts — negotiated separately for the first time in three decades — both expire on June 30, 2011.

AFTRA president Roberta Reardon has held informal discussions recently with SAG prexy Ken Howard about the issue. She admitted that a decision by AFTRA will probably be made before the end of the first quarter, given that both unions require several months for a “wages and working conditions” process of meetings with members to hammer out contract proposals prior to the start of bargaining.

“We’ve had a lot of internal discussion about joint negotiations but we haven’t formalized anything,” she told Daily Variety. “We would do it if it were something that’s to the advantage of all our members.”

SAG declined to comment on Reardon’s statements.

Reardon noted that AFTRA’s also facing looming expirations on two of its other major contracts — sound recordings, which expires June 30; and network code, which ends on Nov. 15. The AFTRA netcode pact covers about $400 million in annual earnings from dramatic programs in syndication or outside primetime, daytime serial dramas, gameshows, talkshows, variety and musical programs, news, sports, reality shows and promotional announcements.

“We have a little bit of a pileup in terms of scheduling,” Reardon added.

She also said that no definitive steps have been taken toward a SAG-AFTRA merger, voted down by SAG members in 1999 and 2003, indicating that combining the unions remains a long-term goal. “I got into AFTRA politics eight years ago because I believe that performers should be in a single union, but if we’re going to do that, we need to take the time to do it right,” she added.

Relations between SAG and AFTRA hit a low early last year when AFTRA angrily split off from joint negotiations over jurisdiction and reached its own primetime deal. SAG — which still hadn’t shifted control to the moderates — then blasted terms of the pact, which had a relatively low 62% ratification. With SAG not reaching a deal until a year later, AFTRA was able to sign up the lion’s share of this year’s TV pilots that were shot digitally.

In the fall of 2008, AFTRA and SAG agreed to a separate deal aimed at ending the bickering between the unions. Brokered by the AFL-CIO, the agreement included “nondisparagement” language along with fines and other discipline for violators; the unions then agreed to joint negotiations on the commercials contract and reached a new three-year deal with the ad industry last spring.

But the enmity toward AFTRA remains strong in some SAG quarters. Its Hollywood board passed a resolution in May to explore the “acquisition” of actors repped through AFTRA, leading to an AFL-CIO umpire warning SAG it would face “severe” fines for any further discussions of an “acquisition” and ordering the guild to officially disavow the statement.

SAG’s Membership First faction, which controls the Hollywood board, staunchly opposes any merger and contends that SAG should represent all acting work. Howard campaigned as the head of the Unite For Strength ticket, which explicitly advocates combining the unions.

“We should merge to create a single powerful union that covers all the work we do, making it impossible for our employers to divide us,” the faction has noted. “That’s what Unite for Strength is all about.”

SAG and AFTRA have shared jurisdiction over primetime series and the long-standing agreement has been that SAG reps all projects shot on film, while SAG and AFTRA have an equal shot at projects shot electronically. With more primetime skeins shot in high-def digital formats, AFTRA’s electronic purview has greatly expanded in the past two years as nearly all primetime pilots went AFTRA.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118012309.html?categoryId=13&cs=1

DML – Music

Little-Noticed Music Deal

Everyone listens to music, but musicians unions may not attract the same attention. Several people, including myself, reported on the composers and lyricists recently, but this time I’m talking about the musicians themselves, i.e., the performers. Turns out their union, the American Federation of Musicians, made a deal three weeks ago with the studios — but it appears (correct me if I’m mistaken) that no one reported it (though the LA Times did mention that the deal was in negotiation).

Let’s correct the omission. According to the AFM website, the two agreements (one theatrical, the other television) run through February 2013 and establish jurisdiction over productions made for new media, increase residuals for traditional product exhibited in new media (move-over product), and “provide a new income stream when music is used in New Media other than in New Media productions.” The agreements also include wage increases and “protect musicians’ health benefits.”

That’s all the detail I have at this point. A ratification package is going out to members shortly, or already has. More info to come when I have it.

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Subscribe to my blog (jhandel.com) for more about entertainment law and digital media law. Go to the blog itself to subscribe via RSS or email. Or, follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, or subscribe to my Huffington Post articles. If you work in tech, check out my book How to Write LOIs and Term Sheets.

Request from Richard

Dear Friends -

Tomorrow marks Thanksgiving. We are so thankful for your help, ideas, love and spirit. You have indeed saved lives as we celebrate the extension of the Motion Picture Home’s operating license for the Long Term Care and Acute Care Units for another year. This time next year I hope we are in an even greater mood as we celebrate the return to ‘Taking Care of Our Own’ in its original meaning and context.

Okay, got a favor to ask of you:

I’m putting up a special page on http://www.facebook.com/l/19ae2;www.savingthelivesofourown.org. Please send me photos of you, your mom and dad, or other images that I can put up on the website under the stirring words and music offered to us by the great Keith Emerson.

Being a last minute procrastinator – I need them right away. If you can get them to me a.s.a.p. I’ll be able to post them tomorrow.

Hope you have a great holiday!

Best,

Richard

Sounds of Silence DML

No More Sounds of Silence on the Music Composition Front?

Everyone knows that composers and lyricists makes scales … now they want to make scale as well. Union scale, that is (or, even better, above scale). One of the few non-unionized sectors of Hollywood, composers and lyricists – the people who write music (as opposed to musicians, the people who perform it) – are now in talks with the Teamsters for representation.

It’s not as strange as it seems: the macho union of dock workers and Hollywood truck drivers (Teamsters Local 399 on the West coast and Local 817 in New York) also represents casting directors, location managers, and various other tenderfoots. An earlier bid to join the Writers Guild (WGA) apparently gained little traction.

All this according to recent pieces in Variety (here and here) and a long piece today in the LA Times. An early-stage meeting Monday, supported by the Society of Composers & Lyricists (a trade group, not a union) attracted a massive 400 person attendance, almost half the 900 people who would be covered by a union agreement, according to an estimate by Teamsters organizer Steve Dayan.

In other audible union news, AFTRA recently approved its interactive (i.e., video game) voiceover contract, while SAG voted down its similar pact, representing a rare defeat for SAG’s new administration. Despite concerns with some aspects of the contract, that’s unfortunate for SAG, because I’m told this sector is only about 25% unionized (AFTRA numbers + SAG’s). That means that video game companies can easily move over to AFTRA – or go nonunion. The hard reality is that neither SAG nor AFTRA control the labor supply in this area, leaving them little leverage in negotiations. Sort of like bringing a PS2 to a PS3 meetup.

In still other news on the union front – sorry, I’ve been busy prepping for my UCLA gig, not to mention working for a living – the California Court of Appeals dismissed as moot an appeal by former SAG president Alan Rosenberg and his fellow Membership First plaintiffs newly-reelected 1st VP Anne-Marie-Johnson and board members Diane Ladd and Kent McCord of their suit against their own union. This cacophony lives on in the lower court, however, still costing the union money, but there’s some hope that that court will adopt the appeals court’s underlying reasoning and dismiss the entire proceeding on the same basis. Let’s hope.

Subscribe to my blog (jhandel.com) for more about entertainment law and digital media law. Go to the blog itself to subscribe via RSS or email. Or, follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, or subscribe to my Huffington Post articles. If you work in tech, check out my book How to Write LOIs and Term Sheets.

Needing a Publicist

We are at a point in our campaign where we need the expert help of a publicist and security consultant. If you know any who can work with us on a number of projects pro bono, please contact me at richard@richardstellar.com.

We are self-funded at this point, and have not asked for donations. Anyone helping us will be compensated with love and the satisfaction that they have helped to save lives, and the future of motion picture and television healthcare.

I was at the Motion Picture Home yesterday and I am happy to report that the residents and caregivers were all smiles. You’ve buoyed their feelings with the renewed hope that we will be able to return the MPTF to the original standard of excellent world class care that it was before the current regime stepped in.

As you may know, the original date of closing was to be late October, 2009. Here it is almost mid-November and those who refuse to leave are still there. The MPTF was forced to renew their operating license.

They will now be forced to adhere to their motto of ‘taking care of our own’ for years and years to come. We’re not giving up, and we ask you to dig in for the battles yet to come.

Great job again! You guys rock!!

Richard

Afrta Aproves Contract

Dear Friends,

AFTRA voters have approved the interactive contract by a margin of
about 2 to 1. The vote apparently went out to over 2200 AFTRA members
who have worked in interactive games over the past three years. I’m
going to guess that most all members who voted on this on the AFTRA
side are also SAG members, but I have no data on this.

I’m not sure where this leaves SAG or the out-of-sync interactive
contracts, with SAG’s caucuses having rejected the terms. The SAG
national caucus meetings got I believe only about 115 voters
nationally, with nearly 2 to 1 voting against the contract, although
all those opposed were here in Los Angeles only. All other cities
voted to approve it.

I suppose it is now up to us (along with our agents) to either accept
“atmospheric” work in interactive games or not.

Dee

http://www.aftra.com/D37BBD4F17234FEB81CC32B1828E3BB1.htm

The Wrap Article – STMPH

Dean Butler – one of the stalwart leaders of our crusade wrote this incredibly eloquent comment to the Wrap’s recent story on their tour of the Motion Picture Home, led by the fund’s spokeshole, Ken Scherer. While Ken was being lambasted unmercifully, this ray of clarity stood out in all the comments. Please leave your own at http://www.thewrap.com/article/tk-9840:

—

As the holidays approach its time for gratitude and peace, but its not Thanksgiving quite yet so there is still time for plain straight talk.

What a pathetic and revealing interview Mr. Scherer granted over the weekend to The Wrap. Why would the MPTF’s PR Crisis Manager allow it to happen? One could speculate that the force of events has begun to work against the MPTF’s draconian closure decision and now the tone of their words is shifting from arrogant certainty to verbal and body language hoping to evoke sympathy and pity from the community. Unfortunately he reveals his true agenda on the closure when he claims in The Wrap story that he can’t think about what to do with the buildings after the units close because he’s “too emotionally concerned with what ‘to do’ with the patients.” What “to do” with the patients? Scherer and his team don’t see their patients and residents as people to whom they made a promise of lifetime care, but rather as stuff they don’t want anymore.

At first the MPTF resolutely claimed they “had no choice” but to close. Now they’ve made “a few mistakes” and Mr. Scherer expresses concern that the organization’s reputation has been damaged by media and blogs that have publicly challenged the MPTF’s decisions since last January. Just in case you missed the story the MPTF is and has been the villain in this morality tale since the beginning. There is a right and wrong in this story and the MPTF is humanly, ethically, and morally wrong. They hide behind financial shortfalls that nobody believes exist.

Yes, Mr. Scherer, there have been mistakes — like making life changing decisions for residents in a vacuum, commissioning closure studies from consultants who were paid to provide pre-determined results, violating first amendment rights of family members, using social workers to mislead and frighten patients, having the in-house Rabbi comfort frightened residents by telling them “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger”, placing security guards and studio police cars at entrances to intimidate visitors, banning family members from campus, restricting press access to residents who disagreed with the closure decision, and intentionally locking doors to inhibit the free movement of residents in their home. Now Mr. Scherer is trying to affably distance himself and his fellow managers from their own hardball tactics. Yes, there were many mistakes — now — because their tactics didn’t work. If residents and their families had compliantly moved to other LTC facilities months ago their tactics would be smugly celebrated from behind the closed doors of their elegant Saban Health Center offices.

For Mr. Scherer to blame the media and blogs, such as this one, for the MPTF’s troubles is both delusional and galling. Nobody is responsible for the MPTF’s sinking reputation but MPTF leadership. The MPTF created this issue by abandoning its historic mission of charity. Members of the management team and board may be lying awake at night trying to figure out how their miscalculations destroyed their reputations and the trust our community once had in the MPTF. The good news is that there is nothing wrong with the MPTF’s historic mission. The MPTF’s problems reside in the leadership agendas that abandoned the mission. But management issues can be solved by new faces or, as in the case of Ebenezer Scrooge (a holiday reference), an enlightened view of the future.

Mr. Scherer looked uncomfortable as he tried to find the right words to shift the MPTF’s role from villain to victim. Is this a change of heart or sober reflection on the potentially devastating impact of legal action if the MPTF proceeds on its original course? If MPTF leadership believed they were on solid legal ground, our often disheartening knowledge of them suggests LTC residents would have faced even more aggressive tactics as the October 31 closure deadline approached.

Even as the MPTF bobs and weaves looking for the moral high ground that has eluded them since the beginning of this crisis, our community, in ever growing numbers, continues to support LTC residents who are in jeopardy of loosing their homes. Sadly, they aren’t the only victims of this MPTF misfire. In fact, the residents of the MPTF’s Independent and Assisted Living communities face an equally frightening plight because they live each day knowing that their MPTF LTC safety net is, at present, gone. They are all only one unexpected incident away from loosing their homes and their life affirming contact with spouses, friends and caregivers — a fact that MPTF management has refused to acknowledge. Maybe they’ve just lost sight of what is so clear to the rest of us — eventually most every resident on the Wasserman Campus will need LTC. If they can’t get it at MPTF, Independent and Assisted Living residents will be forced to leave their home…maybe never to return. Is this the new “aging in place” mission in action?

And so the days pass and the perception of winners and losers is giving way to the necessity of survival—for all parties involved. Keep your eyes open everyone…we’re going to be subjected to some fantastic, if not particularly believable MPTF performances in the weeks ahead.

Mr. Scherer, Dr. Tillman, Nurse Ellis, Mr. Mancuso, Mr. Katzenberg, Mr. Koch and all the rest of them who have caused and supported this nightmare are now seeking to stave off their day of legal comeuppance and save their public lives. And frankly, all things considered, we hope they can. In the weeks ahead we’ll be hearing more and more language calculated to release the pressure that’s been building steadily against them…and maybe right around Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanza, as if by magic, they will find the solution that only geniuses like them could have found…and the home will be saved, the fundraising money will roll again, and all will be forgiven. And Hollywood will have another story of redemption and the community will have gotten what its wanted and demanded all along — a happy, principled resolution to a crisis.