News Round-up

NY's tax credit program revamped
Empire State Development execs are hoping to salvage New York's depleted Empire State Film Production Tax Credit program by floating a number of options, including scaling back the dollar value of the incentives offered to bring film and TV productions to the state.

No Doubt guesting on GOSSIP GIRL
On the heels of the announcement that Orange County's finest are reuniting for a summer 2009 tour, their first in five years, comes news of the band's appearance on teen-soap GOSSIP GIRL. That they'll perform 1981 classic "Stand and Deliver" by Adam and the Ants, and that it will be the show's finale, airing May 11.

WGA Strike One Year Later: WGAW Executive Director David Young Speaks
"Our current contract was the result of a months-long effort to negotiate in good faith with the companies, who unfortunately forced us into a 100-day strike. The struggle was marked by a high degree of unity among writers — television and screen, broadcast and cable, blockbusters and indie film. Thousands of you marched, picketed and blogged, and won the solidarity and support of union members, fans and the general public, in the US and around the world.

We didn’t achieve everything we wanted – we never do – but we achieved our most important objectives, something we hadn’t done for decades. Over the past 20-plus years the companies have tried to use every important development in the industry – be it distribution technology or reuse method – to weaken our strategic and financial position. A difficult strike in 1985 led to a rollback on home video. This has never been corrected and has cost writers about $1.5 billion in lost residual income. We could not get global jurisdiction of scripted programming on basic cable, and to this day we are still fighting with the companies to cover many cable shows. Genres like reality and animation, where the WGA lacks coverage, have grown into a large portion of the worldwide market and are now significant areas of non-Guild production."

GENERATIONS: Morokas are like family now
South Africa’s longest-running soap opera, GENERATIONS, turned 15 recently. To celebrate, fans were treated to an hour of interviews with Mfundi Vundla, the mastermind behind the popular series, and some of the stars, and snippets from the first episodes.

Connie Ferguson, who plays Karabo, was hostess at the event on Thursday at the Westcliff hotel in Johannesburg — no one knows the show better than this leading lady who has been on GENERATIONS from episode one.

INTERVIEW: DANTE'S COVE's Charlie David (Toby)
David appeared on "Robert Reid Live" on Thursday.