Hollywood Jobs Move to Canada

Your Aug. 27 article highlighting the booming film business in Vancouver mentions some well-known stars working there when the article was researched. The list included Sharon Stone, Jeff Gold-blum, Robin Williams and Tim Robbins. It seems to me that a simple and effective way to stop the loss of behind-the-camera jobs in California to Canada, or elsewhere, would be to have these stars boycott filming outside of this state.

This is a major step that actors could take to separate themselves from the basic greed that they accuse entertainment and business executives of having. Or, will we find out that actors are truly cut out of the same cloth? Stayed tuned, film at 11!

KENNETH KELLER

Valencia

*

While experts argue about how many billions of dollars have been lost to the U.S. economy because of runaway production, what’s important to me is the testimony of the Screen Actor’s Guild that, in the 1998-99 production season alone, approximately 11,300 acting jobs were lost. To each of those lost jobs, we can add hundreds of crew and craft people who did not get that work either; we can add the losses to rental companies that supply equipment, food vendors, independent studios that rent out stages, caterers and other enterprises. Canada is offering very generous tax incentives, both federal and provincial, up to 22% of labor costs, because Canadian, not American, workers get the jobs.

I also cannot explain away the voices of my constituents--hard-working, self-sufficient people who have built stable careers in entertainment, the last people who would ask for help if something was not seriously wrong--who are telling me that the loss of work in film and television production is substantial, becoming more extreme and having a severe impact on a great many lives. That’s why, along with my Assembly colleague Scott Wildman, I’ve authored legislation to create tax incentives that reward production companies for shooting in California. The unions have done more than their share--the Teamsters and the directors have lowered their rates all they can to keep their members working. This threat is real, and now we have to stay ahead of the curve and keep jobs and the dollars they generate here.

SHEILA JAMES KUEHL

Assembly, D-Santa Monica