Local residents, and even a few in the adult industry, have been entertained for the last year or so by reports that Cody Cluff, the head of the agency that sells filming permits in the greater Los Angeles area — the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. (EIDC) — may have embezzled upwards of $150,000 from corporation revenues and grants that were supposed to be earmarked for promotion of film production in Los Angeles.
Cluff was indicted for his crime on Aug. 20, amid allegations that he spent the agency's money in places like fancy restaurants and strip clubs but so far, he hasn't been prosecuted. Couple that with the fact that although 20 city officials plus Mayor James K. Hahn were ostensibly on the agency's board of directors, several claimed they didn't even know they were on the board, and others admitted that they never attended board meetings or voted on what the money was used for — leaving the agency in one big mess.
The board members' ignorance and sloth, however, didn't stop them from attempting to "clean up" the agency, and to that end, the 49 former members of the board, before resigning en masse, voted to shrink the board by about two-fifths, and recommended that a new board of directors be appointed from "the movie industry and labor and business groups, along with at-large members from neighborhoods where residents have complained about the disruptions caused by filming," according to a story in the Dec. 2 Los Angeles Times.
And now, the new board is in place, including members from Universal Studios, Columbia, Paramount, MGM, Disney, Warner Bros., Fox Television, even camera supplier Panavision and the Motion Picture Assn. of America (MPAA)! Also now on the board are representatives from all the major Hollywood unions, as well as "neighborhood representatives" from the Antelope Valley, Altadena, Pacific Palisades, Westwood, Santa Monica, Ladera Heights and, soon, Hancock Park, all areas where mainstream filming frequently takes place.
Anybody notice anything missing?
"The omission of adult industry representatives on the reconstituted film board is a problematic but not surprising development," noted Free Speech Coalition board chairman Jeffrey Douglas, when the situation was brought to his attention. "Hollywood consistently refuses to acknowledge how much of southern California's production revenue is generated by the adult industry. Considering the percentage of productions that the adult industry contributes and the amount of employment and taxes the industry brings to California, and specifically to the Los Angeles area, the omission is that much more disheartening."
Hollywood is responsible for releasing approximately 250 major productions over the course of a year, many of them shot on location far from Los Angeles — the very situation the EIDC was created to correct! — and it's been long established that many television series have fled to Canada to shoot in order to save big bucks on everything from locations to extras to wages.
The adult industry, on the other hand, produces over 3,500 features annually, almost all of which are shot in the San Fernando Valley, and almost none of which are shot more than 50 miles from downtown L.A. And in the years since the adult industry has become more business-like and mainstream in its practices, a large percentage of those shoots have gone through the official permitting process, thereby bringing sizeable revenues to the EIDC.
"Because adult filming has unique issues, it makes sense for everyone, including the community, that adult representatives be there," Douglas continued. "If they're concerned, as they clearly are, that adult shoots might have an impact on local communities if filmed in somebody's home, then by all means, they should have responsible adult representatives on the board."
Since it appears that the adult industry is being ignored by local officials as it was ignored for many years in Sacramento, Douglas said that he would bring this to the attention of the Free Speech Coalition at the earliest opportunity, and see what could be done to right this grievous wrong.
