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Tonight is the 3rd annual “Evening Before Emmys" fundraiser for the Motion Picture & Television Fund. But outside the event in Century City, the grassroots organization "Saving The Lives Of Our Own" held a candlelight vigil to protest the "Evening Before Eviction" -- its moniker for the MPTF closures of the acute- and long-term care facilities. Tonight's protest was expected to include members of SAG, Teamsters Local 399 (one of the leaders, Steve Dayan, is being interviewed photo), AFTRA, the WGA, DGA, IATSE and others. "Saving The Lives Of Our Own" is a grass-roots coalition of entertainment industry workers, long-term care residents, their families, and community members. In weeks leading up to the event, the protest group wrote to the partygoers and said:
We respectfully ask that you please reconsider your decision to participate in the MPTF's September 19 'Evening Before Emmy' event.
Unfortunately, the money raised at this event will NOT go towards saving this historic and vital long-term care facility, which these residents depend on now and future generations of Hollywood's rank-and-file workers will depend on in the future. Though fundraising offers have been made, the Fund’s administrators have responded by saying that no amount of money would change their closure decision.
The MPTF’s sacred promise, 'We Take Care of Our Own,' its noble mission since its founding by Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford in 1928, has been broken.
The appeal was directed to “Evening Before Emmy” Host Committee Members Christina Applegate, Simon Baker, Drew Barrymore, Kate Capshaw & Steven Spielberg, Courtney Cox & David Arquette, Ellen DeGeneres & Portia De Rossi, Jillian & Patrick Dempsey, America Ferrera, Tina Fey, Sally Field, Mariska Hargitay & Peter Hermann, Neil Patrick Harris, Holly Hunter, John Krasinski, Hugh Laurie, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Conan O’Brien, Amy Poehler & Will Arnett, Ellen Pompeo & Christopher Ivery, Ryan Seacrest, Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Bacon, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jon Stewart, Kiefer Sutherland, Mark Wahlberg, Jennifer Westfeldt & Jon Hamm, Rita Wilson & Tom Hanks.
Tonight's protest sparked this statement from MPTF Foundation CEO Ken Scherer:
"We are very gratified by tonight’s strong showing of support for MPTF from our sponsors, the television studios, networks, talent agencies and individual participants in The Evening Before. It is a demonstration of their awareness of the Fund’s importance in the lives of so many people in the Hollywood community.
“It is regrettable that some people have chosen to use tonight’s benefit as an opportunity to protest the closing of the MPTF hospital and long-term care unit. The funds we are raising will be used not only to continue providing care to the members of their families whom we serve, but also to their colleagues and friends. In some cases, the protestors themselves are the beneficiaries of the many programs and services provided by this charity.
“MPTF’s Board of Directors has also approved the allocation of millions of dollars to facilitate safe and responsible transitions for the residents of our Long Term Care Unit as they transfer to new facilities.
“Tonight is a celebration of artistic achievement on the eve of the Emmy’s. It provides a wonderful opportunity for the television community to come together in that spirit and to give back in a positive way to those who are served by MPTF.”
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Considering that MPTF has raised our co-pays and premiums, increased the number of hours needed to be eligible, is forcing us to use the mail order pharmacy or we have to pay 100%, increased participant’s copays on drugs without warning, taken drugs and procedures and anesthesia for certain procedures off the benefits list, put unreasonable caps on expendable equipment,and are acting like any other loathsome HMO/insurance company that the president is trying to reform, just who is the money from the charity going to go to? If not to take care of the long term residents who were promised we’d take care of our own? I don’t believe it’s going to us, considering how they have recently dramatically increased prices and dropped services. More likely to line the administrators’ pockets so they can live the life they’ve become accustomed to, never mind the rest of us. I have to say that I’m ashamed of everyone on that list, that they are complicit in this closing and that they haven’t used their influence to see that this injustice doesn’t occur. I’m really surprised at some on the list, because I thought they were better than this.
What is regrettable, Mr. Scherer, is that you chose last night’s benefit to raise and earmark funds for anything but those that need it most. The board has allocated millions of dollars to facilitate safe and responsible transitions? Why not allocate those millions of dollars to keeping the long term care unit viable? Now you have millions of dollars to transfer patients? I hope that includes grief counseling, because the residents and families will need it. However you want to spin it, you are losing lives, and you’ve been warned by your own staff about the inevitability of ‘transfer trauma’.
I hope every celebrity who participated at your event wakes up to read this article. Thanks Nikki. You may have noticed us outside.
We’re the ones who are fighting for the future of your healthcare. You may be able to afford the best for your parents – private pay in some great health institution. However, the industry workers that have enabled your great wealth are dependent on the promises of this once great establishment.
Wake up. Don’t be a part of their eviction, be a part of the solution. One is out there, and all we ask is that we work together with the MPTF to find that solution to insure the care that this industry is known for.
http://www.savingthelivesofourown.org – please review the facts.
I heard that Anne-Marie Johnson gave a speech at the rally that rattled the facades of the Century Plaza Hotel across the street. People were hanging off the balconies like Blanket Jackson trying to listen. It was powerful, and challenging. I hope Schwarzenegger heeds her challenge and steps up to the plate to intervene.
This is the Hollywood that I would hang my hat on. Not the fat cats inside who seem oblivious to the issues that effect 99% of the industry.
Hey, Steven & Kate! How was the food?!
Could this be another PR hack’s lame attempt at being relevant to the situation, or is Ken Scherer just clueless?
“MPTF’s Board of Directors has also approved the allocation of millions of dollars to facilitate safe and responsible transitions for the residents of our Long Term Care Unit as they transfer to new facilities.
Am I missing something? They are now willing to spend millions to relocate, but not millions to keep in place? Add that to the money that is being spent on Stalinesque security.
Aren’t you appalled Steven Spielberg? Doesn’t this seem strange to you Mark Wahlberg? Did you heed the words shouted out to you last night in a desperate plea for understanding, Anne Heche?
All of you who were at the party should reflect this morning on this situation and not drink the Kool-Aid that has been served to you by Mr. Scherer and his puppet masters. Will not one of you stand up for the elderly that built this industry and say “I demand that this situation be brought to the light of day for all to work out a solution!”
Are we as entertainers that naive? Do we just lay down and accept the word of these people without sitting down with the families to gain understanding of what they claim is the truth?
This is not our legacy! We are an industry that the world looks to. We entertain, we contribute. We are the first to show diversity of race and religion in our works. We are the first to bring political and social issues to the screen!
Why are we now the first to cast aside our own elders? We need to be involved with the family members at the grassroots level. We need to prevent this nursing home from closing!
Yes, Ken Scherer, it is “regrettable”.
It is “regrettable” that the MPTF’s Financial Plan for fiscal solvency is to declare Moral Bankruptcy.
It is “regrettable” MPTF flatly refuses to accept donations earmarked to save Long Term Care.
It is “regrettable” MPTF arrogantly continues to ignore the constantly expanding public outrage and disapproval from the rank and file members of the Unions and Guilds, whose support comprises the backbone of the MPTF.
It is “regrettable” the retirees who currently live on the Wasserman Campus are one serious accident or stroke away from being thrown out of their homes in the Stark Villa, Goldwyn Lodge, Cottages and Harry’s Haven – homes they were promised would be theirs for life.
It is “regrettable” MPTF’s CEO, Dr. David Tillman, insists closing the Hospital and Nursing Home is a “fait accompli” and “no amount of money” will alter that decision.
It is “regrettable” that Board Chairman, Frank Mancuso, has the audacity to suggest the care of 80 people will cause the bankruptcy of an organization that serves 60,000 – especially since MPTF receives $10,500 per month, per individual, for their care.
It is “regrettable” Fund President, Jeffrey Katzenberg,believes the reason MPTF deserves an “F” for its decision to ‘relocate’ the mentally and physically frail elders in its care is because the MPTF’s P.R. firm mishandled the press release announcing the closure.
It is “regrettable” MPTF’s COO, Seth Ellis, says “We don’t want this to be a place that looks at sickness…we want this to be a place where people age successfully.”
It is “regrettable” a self-serving misguided Administration has blinded an out-of-touch Board and blindsided the community that has proudly upheld and generously supported the 84-year MPTF promise: “We Take Care of Our Own”.
It is “regrettable” the MPTF – once a shining example of all that is good in our industry – now symbolizes betrayal and deception.
Yes, Ken Scherer, it is “REGRETTABLE”
Scherer failed to mention that in some cases, the protesters themselves are donors.
Both of my parents were in show business. My father was an officer in the local Musicians Union(47)and a member of the International Executive Board my whole life. He worked for the betterment of musicians fighting for scale, pension and health and welfare benefits. My mother is a retired singer. She worked in Radio when she was a kid and later on TV shows and Movies. For years, my mother has been planning on living out the rest of her life at this facility. Many of her friends from “back in the day” have been and are there. When my dad dies, she wants to be near her friends and “family” who reside there. People she can relate too, people who have been in the same business as she. We have kept her dues active all these years looking forward to her having a safe place to be. AMONG HER OWN… My mother will be 80 on her next birthday. Just when she is about to need it you are closing the facility that will provide the care she needs? What about your promise to take care of your own?
Doing a quick google search, looks like many good people are standing up for the promise. If the Fund doesn’t have integrity, the supporters have both integrity and courage. I signed the online petition at:
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/keepthemptfhomeopen
The appeal was directed to “Evening Before Emmy” Host Committee Members Christina Applegate, Simon Baker, Drew Barrymore, Kate Capshaw & Steven Spielberg, Courtney Cox & David Arquette, Ellen DeGeneres & Portia De Rossi, Jillian & Patrick Dempsey, America Ferrera, Tina Fey, Sally Field, Mariska Hargitay & Peter Hermann, Neil Patrick Harris, Holly Hunter, John Krasinski, Hugh Laurie, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Conan O’Brien, Amy Poehler & Will Arnett, Ellen Pompeo & Christopher Ivery, Ryan Seacrest, Kyra Sedgwick & Kevin Bacon, Jada Pinkett Smith, Jon Stewart, Kiefer Sutherland, Mark Wahlberg, Jennifer Westfeldt & Jon Hamm, Rita Wilson & Tom Hanks.
It looks like the people on this list support gutting the facility. Have any of them come out against it? How vacuous… How very, very sad… “Let them eat cake!”
Unfortunately for all of us in the industry, the people on the party list live in the bubble of perpetual childhood, so they see no need to care for the elderly. Party-on!
Where are the audits?! Get to the bottom of this! Get to the books! Both sets! Follow the money!