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EXCLUSIVE: MPTF Pushed Tillman To Exit

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday February 3, 2010 @ 7:16am PSTTags: Moguls, MPTF

UPDATES Tillman Exits Controversy-Plagued MPTF

MPTF 2OutsideSources associated with the Motion Picture and Television Fund have confirmed to me that president/CEO Dr. David Tillman was pushed to exit because of the public relations nightmare over the closing of the acute care hospital and long-term elderly care facilities. “He left because of the process and how it was handled. Life is about execution. So if you can’t execute something well, it doesn’t matter how good the plan is. He resigned because that was the appropriate way to handle it,” an MPTF insider explained to me late last night. Nor, I’m told, was the $600,000-a-year Tillman — at one point named by MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann ”World’s Worse” person because of the closures — surprised to hear that board members were dissatisfied.

KatzenbergREVISEsmallerI also learned that Jeffrey Katzenberg, who’s been on the receiving end of the criticism for the closures, was not directly involved in Tillman’s removal because the DreamWorks Animation CEO doesn’t sit on that board subcommittee which made the decision. But “it’s safe to assume that nothing there is going to happen unless Jeffrey is OK with it,” the MPTF assured me.

Tillman’s exit came yesterday just a few weeks before Katzenberg hosts his major MPTF fundraiser, “The Night Before” party held annually on the eve of the Oscar broadcast. Last year’s limousines arriving for the Saturday fete were greeted outside the Beverly Hills Hotel venue by 250 caregivers, entertainment industry figures, and family members of the facility’s elderly residents protesting the MPTF-ordered closures.

It’s widely felt that exiting Tillman is a first step in the board trying to bring the Hollywood community, and especially members who’ve been most vocal on this issue, back together in its decades-old support of the MPTF. “I hope they see improved operations from our end of the table,” the MPTF insider told me.

WheelchairBut reconciliation can only occur when the bigshots behind the MPTF remember that it’s been kept going by generations of movie and television workers for some 90 years. And that more effort must be made to reach out to the Hollywood community ahead of time whenever big decisions like the closures are about to made or even considered. In turn, the Hollywood community must figure out a way to better support the MPTF through payroll deductions, union-organized tithing, something. Or else the fatcats who give the big donations will always have the final say in what happens there.

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Tillman Exits Controversy-Plagued MPTF

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday February 2, 2010 @ 6:37pm PSTTags: MPTF

WOODLAND HILLS, CA, Feb. 2, 2010 – The Boards of Directors of the Motion Picture and Television Fund today announced that Dr. David Tillman has resigned as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Bob Beitcher, an MPTF board member since 2007 and former president and CEO of Panavision

… Read More »

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Kevin Spacey Responds To MPTF Emails

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday November 19, 2009 @ 10:33am PSTTags: MPTF

UPDATES EMAILS TELL THE STORY: A-List Board & Foundation Members Hiding From MPTF

Kevin Spacey has responded with this letter to me after I posted that email exchange between his London PR and an Independent UK journalist … Read More »

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EMAILS TELL THE STORY: A-List Board & Foundation Members Hiding From MPTF

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Tuesday November 17, 2009 @ 1:18pm PSTTags: MPTF

WheelchairIt’s time to once more highlight the discraceful silence of Hollywood stars over the long-term care closings at the Motion Picture & Television Fund. Particularly appalling is the extent to which A-list board and foundation members now are distancing themselves from the MPTF and … Read More »

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MPTF: Open Letter To Jeffrey Katzenberg

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Monday November 16, 2009 @ 4:33am PSTTags: MPTF

WheelchairThe group “Saving the Lives of Our Own” has released an Open Letter to Jeffrey Katzenberg in answer to two full-page advertisements by the Motion Picture & Television Fund in a print trade publication last week. Katzenberg is the Chair of … Read More »

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PROTEST AT MPTF FUNDRAISER TONIGHT: …”Evening Before Emmys” Or …”Evening Before Evictions”?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday September 19, 2009 @ 9:35pm PDTTags: AFTRA, Guilds, MPTF


mptf rally sept3

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 … Read More »

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MPTF Or USC School Of Cinema: Guess Which Fast-Tracked H’wood Fundraising?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday March 19, 2009 @ 5:43am PDTTags: Moguls, MPTF, Studios

Interesting how the same Hollywood moguls who say the necessary millions can’t be raised for the expansion and modernization of the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s acute care hospital and longterm care nursing home are instead meeting lofty fundraising goals for the expansion and modernization of the USC … Read More »

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SHOCKER! Motion Picture & TV Fund Will Close Its Hospital And Nursing Home By End Of 2009; How Can This Happen?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday January 14, 2009 @ 6:45pm PSTTags: Finance, MPTF

The reason, according to today’s unexpected announcement (made while I was gone for the afternoon), is because the MPTF’s acute care hospital and long term care nursing home are losing $10 million a year. ”This shortfall is expected to widen significantly in … Read More »

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