Labor & Management Working To Extend Hollywood’s Covid Protocols To Address Omicron Surge

A successful film director who worked with Hollywood A-listers has been jailed after terrorising a woman during a vile stalking campaign.

The extension had been agreed between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios in labor negotiations, and representatives from the Directors Guild, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE and Teamsters Local 399 back in late December as the spike in COVID-19 infections fueled by the Omicron variant was taking root in Los Angeles. Between Dec. 16 and Jan.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterThe protocols that govern film and TV production in the COVID era have been extended yet again, this time to Feb. 13, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said Monday.The rules govern vaccine mandates, masking, quarantining, and other measures to suppress the spread of COVID-19.

Hollywood’s Covid safety protocols have been extended to February 13. In the meantime, with the surge of the Omicron variant, the industry’s unions have asked the studios to increase testing and upgrade personal protection equipment, and most of the companies have been doing that until new guidelines can be adopted.

Los Angeles reported 102 Covid-related deaths today, the highest total since last March. That’s still well below the 290 deaths recorded last January, but the trend line is not good.

here.The Annie Awards have been handed out since 1972, initially to give lifetime-achievement honors and then, beginning in 1992, to honor the best animated films of the year. In the 20 years since the Academy Awards created a category for animated features, more than 93% of the Oscar nominees in the category have first been nominated for Annie Awards in either the Best Feature or Best Indie Feature category.

The Annie Awards will be virtual for a second consecutive year. The board of ASIFA-Hollywood said today that the live ceremony for its 49th annual trophy show has been canceled and replaced by the livestreamed virtual format.

Many restrictions in Scotland will be scrapped from Monday as cases from the Omicron surge fall.

In what may be the first sign of the beginning of the end of the Omicron surge in Los Angeles, the 7-day average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus has fallen dramatically in the past week. Test positivity is considered a better measure of the rate of spread than raw case counts because it is a percentage that is averaged over a week’s time.

The Omicron surge has forced another change in the movie awards-season calendar, with the Producers Guild of America saying Thursday it has decided to postpone its 33rd annual Producers Guild Awards.

“I think, in many respects, Omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will, ultimately, find just about everybody,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci yesterday during a “fireside chat” with the Center for Strategic & International Initiatives. His comment came one day after the U.S. set an all-time record for daily infections, at 1.4 million, and also for test positivity, at 26%, per Johns Hopkins University.

EXCLUSIVE: With the Omicron variant continuing to surge across Los Angeles causing many of the major agencies keep their offices closed, sources tell Deadline WME is planing a transitional return on January 31 with hopes of a full return on February 15. Insiders add that boosters will be required in order for WME employees to return and that things could still change given the fluidity of the situation.

Broadway’s traditional post-holiday January doldrums teamed up with a slate of show closings and a national skyrocketing surge in Omicron cases to send box office tumbling by nearly a third last week. Combined grosses of $18 million for 27 Broadway productions were down 31% from the previous week’s $26 million.

With infections still surging, Los Angeles County’s cumulative number of Covid cases throughout the pandemic surpassed the 2 million mark today, with 43,582 new cases confirmed. Those new cases lifted the county’s cumulative case total to 2,010,964 since the pandemic began. Daily cases in the county set an all-time high on Sunday at 45,584.

California Governor Gavin Newsom offered details about the impact of Omicron during a press conference about his 2022-2023 budget proposal.

Scientists have cast doubt over the discovery of the so-called ‘Deltacron’ Covid strain, which is said to combine the Delta and Omicron variants of the virus.

A radical plan to pay family to take care of a loved one to ease the crisis in the NHS is being considered across Scotland.

NATPE Miami has become the latest major in-person entertainment industry event to be shelved due to concerns over the current Covid spike driven by the highly infectious Omicron variant.

E3 will once again take on a virtual and online-only format in 2022, becoming the latest event casualty of the Omicron variant.