Exclusive: The closure, Tillman's near-$1 million compensation and the fund's "mess"
Just the MPTF Facts, Ma'am
Last week, we received word that the Teamsters have joined SAG in standing up against the closure of the Motion Picture and Television Fund Long Term Care facility. Our momentum in ramping up the heat is moving faster than the spinning dial on my bathroom scale.
Still, in the afterglow of this momentous development, I was surfing the IATSE website and came across a document that the MPTF is trying to put over entitled "Setting the Record Straight."
It reads like a script from Dragnet. Staccato "facts" that would be better delivered by a droll Sgt. Friday on the steps of a house in the Valley where the faint smell of contraband piques the ire of the deadpan Sgt. Friday and Officer Bill Gannon. You remember watching the show if you're my age -- that moment when fits of giggles takes over in reaction to a scene meant more for drama than comedy, because it is so ridiculous and absurd.
Well, here are the real facts ma'am, as the MPTF would want you to believe -- along with what the reality of the situation really is. You get extra points for keeping a straight face, even more for signing our petition:
1. FACT: MPTF IS NOT CLOSING -- MPTF IS CLOSING ITS HOSPITAL ONLY
Bull. More than the hospital is closing, much more. The long term care center, the final home to now around 80 elderly and infirm motion picture and television industry and union workers has also been scheduled to close. How bleak is the future of our health care when the hospital and nursing home that has been serving our industry for over 80 years is voluntarily closed by a bunch of ill-informed movie moguls? What's next? What services will be denied to us? They've already closed the ICU in the hospital, now they want to close the LTC -- is Harry's Haven next? Where will you go if you have something more severe than a hangnail or a hemorrhoid?
2. FACT: THE WASSERMAN CAMPUS RETIREMENT COMMUNITY CONTINUES TO BE A VITAL AND ACTIVE PART OF THE MPTF MISSON
Really? Retirement isn't all shuffleboard and bouncing the grandkids on the knee -- it's also about palliative care and care for advanced aging. If the MPTF had its way, this type of care will be performed by others, off campus, whose only affiliation with the Motion Picture Industry is the autographed picture of Hal "Goober" Lindsay in their waiting room. You will be taken out of your "home" and taken to other facilities for the rest of your days if your retirement finds you in need of round the clock skilled nursing. So much for a vital and active retirement community. Sounds a lot like the two dimensional community of "The Truman Show," where nothing was real. That metaphor now makes me part of the motion picture community too.
3. FACT: THE INDUSTRY COMMUNITY, BOTH WEALTHY AND RANK AND FILE HAVE BEEN EXTREMELY GENEROUS SUPPORTERS OF THE MPTF
This fact can cause spontaneous combustion in even the most devout MPTF'er. If this is true, then why were they not notified when, five years ago, it was discussed that the Long Term Care facility was spiraling down the drain? Would we be in the situation we are in today if the most generous supporters, of which there are billionaires, could not come together with the entertainment industry to raise the needed funds? They weren't even asked.
4. FACT: MPTF HAS A $130 MILLION INVESTMENT PORTFOLIO
The fact that a "nursing home" has the potential to bring down all of motion picture and television health care indicates the incompetence of management. Strategic planning in other health-care facilities have been able to deal with current economic conditions. The MPTF has weathered the Great Depression, Black Monday of 1987 and other serious economic challenges. Why is today different? With all its money and income, the MPTF does not want to provide the service -- end of story. It has other plans for the campus that do not include Long Term Care. It does not have that right.
5. FACT: MPTF HAS PROVIDED MORE THAN $2 MILLION IN FINANCIAL ASSTANCE TO 4000 INDUSTRY MEMBERS IN 2008.
We applaud and support the ongoing efforts of the MPTF to assist all of us in times of need, to support scholarship and to subsidize industry members and their families. This does not negate it responsibility to the aged of our industry and union.
This isn't the auto industry -- this is the motion picture industry where even in this economy robust revenues pour in with every new blockbuster. Yes, there are challenges -- but what type of industry are we if we turn our back on the most needy, infirm, elderly members that have bought and paid for the privilege of being a resident at the Motion Picture Home.
SAG and The Teamsters got it right. Please look to your union or guild and ask them to support us in the fight to keep the promise of "Taking Care of Our Own" to their board and membership.
Oh yeah, please sign our petition.
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Michele Santo Says
Thanks again, Richard, for setting the record straight with facts and real information. Charlie Chaplan is probably rolling over right now because of what's being done to the people over there. This is not what this place was intended for--some secret future plan of millionaires to close that campus off piece by piece to eventually use the property for something much more lucrative and interesting to them. It was intended for people to have a place until the end--like they were promised when they gave up all of their worldly goods to get a valuable spot over there.
It's DEPLORABLE.
Keep up the great work, spreading knowledge and information, Richard. What honorable work you do.
And thank you to Bill Smitrovich for his strong words and taking a stand. Very admirable. I know he has some other very powerful and high profile friends in the Board room of the Screen Actors Guild that would be really wonderful if they also stepped up to the plate and maybe made a video or something--a more powerful public statement done together to express their outrage. There were a ton of videos like this made a few months ago dealing with all the contract stuff at SAG. It would be really wonderful if that same type energy was channeled into something that could really make a difference for these people right now...
Bill Smitrovich Says
What a shame.
Shame on the MPTF.
Since the beginning of this ‘move’ by the MPTF to shut down LTC and Hospital they have failed in their obligation to be forthright and truthful. Their tax returns don’t match their claims. The manner in which the elders and their families informed? Shameful. What happened to common decency? Communication? Compassion? Responsibility? And, “taking care of our own”?
Their recent tax returns in November 2008 show no $10 million losses, or any losses at all. The fund’s assets actually increased in 2006 and 2007.
And then there’s this from Jeffrey Katzenberg, “We give ourselves a failing grade. This has not been communicated well.”
Aren’t we in the communication business? Isn’t he? I would like to think we are ALL in the communication business. The ‘failing grade’ is for far more than communication, it’s also about compassion and responsibility.
“Communications” can be bad or good but in this case we needed the plain and truthful variety. The thousands of donors, who gave millions and millions of dollars, and the patients and recipients of this care deserve an accounting.
I am surprised those people, including myself, who supported the MPTF with their dollars haven’t been more vocal? Where are the managers of the estates who are entrusted with donations? Where’s are the people who gave their “industry earned” dollars to The Fund? What’s the plan by the MPTF? Shouldn’t we all know?
If the injunction by Giradi and Keese is successful and this case does go to court, perhaps the truth, the book keeping and the true heroes will emerge. My heroes, as the line goes in the movies, are all about “Truth Justice and The American Way”. Is this the American way?
Well that’s my two cents.
SPEAKING OUT Says
The closing of the MPTF Long Term Care is HORRIBLE and an OUTRAGE !!!
We MUST fight for these residents and their caregivers as they are victims and we must fight for senior rights all throughout these United States.
Just because Richard Stellar sets up a website and holds up a sign doesn't make him a hero. Trust me, Richard Stellar is no hero. Far from it.
Might I redact "Johnny's" comments from another of Richard's articles -
Richard acts and functions like he knows what he is talking about! He is no better than those that are throwing the elderly out. Before all this closure talk even happened, barely anyone came to visit Mary. He knows it. We know it. You shouldn't act so high and mighty. It doesn't make you any better than them anyway. You were almost never involved in Mary's care once you sent her to the home. Visiting once a week, most times not even that. Let the truth be told.
Trying to Understand Says
There seems to be one person who wants to trash Richard Stellar. Please stop those postings! Are you the disgruntled brother?
It's great we have a voice like Richard's. He is one of a dedicated group of people fighting and working to MAKE A CHANGE. We simply cannot and WILL NOT let MPTF get away with their fraudulent ways!
This is bigger than the residents -- this is everyone's future in the Industry!
So, if you're not part of the solution, please keep your thoughts to yourself.
And for those of you with Hope and Conviction, thank you for your support.
SPEAKING OUT Says
The closing of the MPTF Long Term Care is HORRIBLE and an OUTRAGE !!!
We MUST fight for these residents and their caregivers as they are victims and we must fight for senior rights all throughout these United States.
Just because Richard Stellar sets up a website and holds up a sign doesn't make him a hero. Trust me, Richard Stellar is no hero. Far from it.
Might I redact "Johnny's" comments from another of Richard's articles -
Richard acts and functions like he knows what he is talking about! He is no better than those that are throwing the elderly out. Before all this closure talk even happened, barely anyone came to visit Mary. He knows it. We know it. You shouldn't act so high and mighty. It doesn't make you any better than them anyway. You were almost never involved in Mary's care once you sent her to the home. Visiting once a week, most times not even that. Let the truth be told.
Red Wine Says
I'm living for these updates. With each keystroke of Stellar's 'acid pen' it becomes clearer and clearer that the intent of closing the LTC is not one of concern for the future of our health care, but a nefarious scheme to rid the fund of the responsibility that was originally undertaken by the founders.
The state of the fund's hospital in Woodland Hills is unraveling. Tillman travels in the company of bodyguards. The 'rabbi' continues his game of duck and cover when he encounters one of 'us' who can see through his phony facade. We have to sign in and carry a badge stating where we are supposed to be. Funny that the Ark for the Spielberg Torah remains empty. Maybe that's a good thing because this once hallowed ground will now be ground zero for a fight that nobody wants, but we are prepared to wage.