Carol Lombardini Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

EXCLUSIVE: First among Hollywood unions this year, the WGA is going face-to-face with the studios starting Monday in what’s expected to be contentious negotiations for a new overall contract. However, the atypical pole position for the hard-hitting scribes this labor round is a consequence of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ rebuke of the DGA efforts to strike a pact a few months ago.

Just hours before the WGA and the studios are scheduled to start stridulous talks on a new overall contact, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have decided to publicly play nice, firmly.

“despicable” in a series of terse email exchanges with president Carol Lombardini during the run-up to the last round of contract talks in 2020. The WGA has released its pattern of demands for membership approval and is still conducting meetings with members to iron out negotiation priorities.

EXCLUSIVE: The WGA is planning a series of meetings with top tier showrunners this week as it looks to rally the troops and gain support ahead of its negotiations with the AMPTP.

Disputes over residuals that flow from new revenue streams have been at the center of every major film and TV strike in Hollywood’s history. And as the WGA, SAG-AFTRA and the DGA all preparing for contract talks early in 2023 with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, residuals could again be the flashpoint for the first industry-wide strike in 15 years.

Scott Rowe has been named communications consultant for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, succeeding Jarryd Gonzalez in the role. Rowe’s appointment comes as the AMPTP is heading into what could be contentious contract negotiations next year with the WGA, SAG-AFTRA and the DGA.

EXCLUSIVE: Lindsay Dougherty, the newly re-elected leader of Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399, sees the Teamsters becoming “a more militant union,” and is already looking ahead two years to when the local’s film and TV contract will be up for renegotiation. The current contract, which she negotiated last summer with Carol Lombardini, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers, expires July 31, 2024.

A tentative agreement has been reached for a new three-year contract covering casting directors and associate casting directors in Los Angeles and New York.

Members of Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new Location Managers Agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The new contract, which takes effect March 13, covers location managers, key assistant location managers and assistant location managers.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterA coalition of Hollywood crafts unions announced on Friday evening that they have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract.The coalition of five bargaining groups represents about 7,500 electricians, drivers, plumbers, laborers, animal trainers and others. The three-year agreement must still be approved by a vote of the membership.No details of the contract were released. The unions are expected to reveal the terms of the contract to members ahead of the vote.The negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers began in December, shortly after the 60,000 members of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees narrowly ratified their new contract.

A tentative agreement has been reached for a new film and TV contract covering Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 and the Basic Crafts. The agreement was reached this evening, and the unions’ bargaining committee is unanimously recommending it for ratification. The deal, which covers union work in 13 Western states, must now be ratified by the members of Local 399 and the Basic Crafts, which include IBEW Local 40, Studio Utility Employees Local 724, Studio Plumbers Local 78 and Studio Plasterers Local 755.

IATSE and Hollywood’s major studios are closing in on a deal that would avert a strike that threatened to shutter most film and TV production in Hollywood.Industry sources said virtual negotiations between the sides went late into Friday night as Carol Lombardini, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers bargaining organization for the major studios, addressed numerous IATSE leaders about the details of deals on thorny issues of working conditions that were sorted

IATSE and the AMPTP are “still talking” and are expected to return to the virtual bargaining table again Friday. Armed with strike authorization from his members, IATSE president Matthew Loeb can call a nationwide walkout of film and TV workers at any time if he and AMPTP president Carol Lombardini can’t reach a fair deal.

IATSE and the AMPTP have resumed bargaining today after working all day Tuesday to avert a threatened nationwide strike against film and TV productions.

In an overwhelming show of union solidarity, IATSE members have voted to authorize a nationwide strike against film and TV productions if last-ditch negotiations with the AMPTP fail to produce a fair deal.

Political pressure is mounting on the AMPTP to negotiate a fair deal with IATSE. In the past two days, more than 200 state and federal Democratic lawmakers have signed letters to AMPTP president Carol Lombardini, urging her to bargain fairly and avert a labor stoppage during the pandemic. The union’s members began voting for strike authorization on Friday, and results will be announced Monday.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has agreed to a proposal from the Writers Guild of America that talks between the parties, delayed from March 23 by the pandemic, will start next month, according to a letter obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

By Dave McNary

Talks between the Writers Guild of America and major motion picture and television studios, originally scheduled to begin March 23, may start next month: the WGA West proposed in an email disclosed Friday that the parties exchange initial proposals May 1 and begin talks the week of May 11. The email, from WGAW executive director David Young to Carol Lombardini, president of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, also proposes extending the existing contract to June 30.

By David Robb

By Dave McNary

By David Robb