#StayInLA Campaign Aimed at Bolstering Hollywood Production Accelerates
Hollywood heavyweights have started a campaign "Stay in LA" to pressure California Governor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the California State Legislature and the city council to join forces in working on critical measures to incentivize entertainment production in the city.A Stay In LA petition created by "film/TV workers and concerned citizens of Los Angeles in the wake of the Eaton, Hughes, and Palisades Fires," has already garnered nearly 20,000 signatures. The creatives behind the push wrote: "We were already deeply worried about the livelihoods of Los Angeles area cast and crew, not to mention the countless small businesses suffering from production moving out of state and overseas. The fires have made a desperate situation worse. We are terrified that the city we love so much may lose its most vital resource: its people."Among the thousands who lost everything in the wind-fueled infernos that ripped through Los Angeles for weeks, killing 29 Angelenos, were more than a dozen celebrities. Paris Hilton. Mel Gibson. Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, who shared a touching Instagram post about how the fire left a heart-shape in their son's bed."The one positive sign i saw as our house burned down was ours sons bed burned in the shape of a heart. A sign of how much love was in this house so thankful for all the years and memories there with our family," Pratt wrote. As countless Angelenos work to rebuild their lives, other actors - including Keanu Reeves, Kevin Bacon, Bette Midler, Olivia Wilde - along with directors, showrunners, and writers are asking Job losses centered on television and movie productions in Los Angeles were already staggering before the wildfires devoured thousands of homes and businesses and displacing 150,000 in and around the devastating burn zones. Stay in LA organizers want California politicians to uncap the tax incentive for productions that shoot in L.A. county for the next three years, as well as studios/streamers to pledge at least 10% more production in LA over the next three years. Newsom has already authored a proposal to increase California's film/tv tax incentive to $750 million annually, which needs the approval of the legislature. Last summer Bass implemented an Entertainment Industry Cabinet in an effort to keep production jobs in LA, but those measures have not stemmed the loss of L.A. based work, writers, actors, and below the line workers say.
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