They Hassled the Hoff

LA Turned Its Back on Hollywood - Now the Golden Goose needs CPR

In the golden haze of the rare stretch of Malibu coastline that didn’t succumb to the Palisades Fire, the rebooted *Baywatch* crew arrived on set with high hopes and a $21 million California tax credit in hand. The plan was simple, or so it seemed: revivify the sun-drenched, wave-crashing, slow motion bouncing babe nostalgia of the original series at its spiritual birthplace.

When it was revealed that the iconic series reboot was initially shunning LA to shoot in Australia, Gavin Newsom panicked about the optics; losing Baywatch to a prison colony 7,500 miles away would be the death knell for California’s languishing film industry. The Governor pulled out all the stops, desperate for a symbolic victory, and threw enough favors at the production to convince them to film back home.

Yet within days, the production hit a wall…not from celebrity tantrums or even wildfires, but from the debilitating bureaucracy that now plagues filming in Los Angeles. Beach and Harbors officials shut down parts of the shoot after complaints about parking, traffic, and “inconvenience fees.” Permit riders arrived late, tacked with surprise charges. FilmLA, the city’s permitting gatekeeper, processed updates with the urgency of a DMV clerk. By week’s end, whispers circulated in industry group chats: the show might decamp elsewhere for Season 2. Even *Baywatch*, the ultimate and most definitive California icon, couldn’t reliably film in Malibu anymore.

According to a production insider, “Los Angeles itself has become part of the problem. Despite what Gavin Newsom or Karen Bass say publicly about being film-friendly, the departments that operate under and alongside them–like FilmLA–often feel more like obstacles than support. Los Angeles is not film friendly.”

Baywatch insider says LA is not film friendly thanks to Newsom & Bass

This is not an isolated production snafu. It is the new normal in a city once synonymous with the dream factory. Hollywood, as both a mythic force of American culture and the physical town, itself, is crumbling…not from a lack of talent or audience appetite, but from a perfect storm of self-inflicted wounds. Onerous permitting at FilmLA, skyrocketing fees, and overbearing unions locked in denial of a globalized, post-streaming world have turned Southern California into a hostile filming environment. Productions are fleeing en masse to Georgia, Canada, the UK, Australia, and beyond, where tax credits can top 40 percent and red tape is virtually nonexistent. Even my old mainstay, REALITY TV, is filming overseas.

Los Angeles County has shed more than 42,000 entertainment jobs since 2022. Nationwide film and TV employment dropped 30 percent from late 2022 levels. The U.S. share of global production plummeted from 52 percent to 38 percent in just a few years. Nearly half of all scripted series and features now shoot outside the country.

Many jaded moviegoers outside of California, disillusioned by the entertainment’s woke work product in recent years, often celebrate our demise, cheering on flops as though they were effigies of wokeness and the unmoored preening celebrities they’ve come to resent. Hollywood was never just an industry; it was Los Angeles’ circulatory system, pumping billions into the SoCal economy while shaping the world’s imagination. From its quaint origins amid orange groves to its 1990s zenith of blockbusters and cultural dominance, our city was built on celluloid. Today, as soundstages sit empty and below-the-line workers line up at food banks, the question isn’t whether great, successful films can still be made…they can, and are. Ryan Gosling’s Project Hail Mary, a good old-fashioned, effects-heavy space epic tentpole picture, has already shattered records, grossing over $300 million globally in its first weeks and becoming the year’s top earner (it’s a fantastic film, by the way). It proves that the requisite skill isn’t lost; but the will to endure Los Angeles’s bureaucratic gauntlet is.

This is the tale of an industry town eating itself alive. Bureaucracy, union intransigence, and political fecklessness have accelerated Hollywood’s precipitous decline. Mayor Basura and Governor Newsom have offered feeble tax-credit Band-Aids while ignoring the arterial bleed for far too long. The result? A cultural force that once exported American optimism is now exporting its jobs, its expertise, and its soul. We need a tourniquet.

To understand how far our industry has fallen, we must rewind to its rise. In the late 19th century, Hollywood was a tranquil hamlet of ranchers and farmers, its hills dotted with orange groves and fig orchards. Incorporated in 1903 as a prohibitionist suburb of Los Angeles, it boasted dirt roads, a single hotel, and a population under 500. Then came the moviemakers.

Hollywood before it became Hollywood

Directors like D.W. Griffith and producers fleeing New Jersey winters discovered Southern California’s endless sunshine, and its cheap, diverse landscapes all within a 30-mile radius: deserts for Westerns, beaches for romances, mountains for epics. Between the Angeles Crest and Vasquez Rocks, LA County could play as any place on (or off) earth. By 1910, Hollywood had annexed itself to Los Angeles for water and infrastructure. Studios sprouted like milk vetch after a wildfire. The orange groves gave way to backlots, soundstages, and the iconic Hollywood sign (originally “HOLLYWOODLAND”, an ad for a real-estate development).

By the 1920s, the Golden Age was in full swing. By mid-century, Hollywood wasn’t just making movies, it was building Los Angeles’s middle class; entertainment became the city’s economic backbone. Real estate, restaurants, cafes, lumber yards, even dry cleaners thrived on studio money. A single blockbuster would inject tens of millions into local businesses. In a town notorious for its serendipitous lack of inclement weather, Hollywood was making it rain.

Fast-forward to the 1990s, Hollywood’s undisputed Golden era. The entertainment boom lifted Southern California out of the post-Cold War aerospace bust. Jobs in film and TV surged 83 percent in 7 years, reaching 262,000 by decade’s end, surpassing defense as the region’s leading economic engine. In the 90’s golden age, Hollywood spoiled us beyond belief. Every film in your top 10 list was made in the 90’s. Hell, it was likely that every film in your top 10 list was made in just a single year, in the 90’s! In 1994, alone, Hollywood blessed us with Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, The Lion King, Dumb and Dumber, Ace Ventura, The Mask (what a generational run for Jim Carrey), The Professional, Speed…just one random year in the 90’s produced enough indelible classics that would eclipse our entire last decade.

Los Angeles was the place. Producers didn’t blink at location fees because the talent pool, infrastructure, weather, and cachet were unrivaled. Even grips earned union scale that bought homes in Encino with pools. Every ship was lifted with the “entertainment boom.” Indirect jobs…hotels, tourism, restaurants, car services,…everything grew exponentially. The Hollywood sign, once a gimmicky real-estate ad, became a global beacon of luxury and success, harkening prom kings and queens from around the nation to move west and chase their dreams. Los Angeles wasn’t just an industry town…the industry was Los Angeles.

Was.

Cracks appeared in the 2000s. States and countries woke up: why not lure productions with tax breaks? Georgia launched its 20-30 percent credit in 2005—no cap, easy application. Canada and the UK offered rebates covering labor and above-the-line talent, plus nationalized healthcare that erased line items like pensions and insurance. If you’re wondering why Hungary (of all places) now hosts an outsized number of productions (including massive Villeneuve tentpoles like Dune and Blade Runner), it’s not coincidence…

Barack Obama’s ambassador to Hungary (2014-2017) was Colleen Bell, a high-roller TV producer of The Bold and the Beautiful (on which I recently had a walk-on role, btw). She spent her ambassadorship training the Hungarians to do as the Californians do, but for cheaper. She then facilitated the outsourcing of major tentpole pictures to Budapest, siphoning production work out of LA, and leaving the local economy to languish. In fact, she was so effective at helping Hungary extract wealth from the Los Angeles economy, they awarded her with the prestigious Dr Ivan Völgyes award and the Order of Merit Middle Cross, the second-highest State Order of Hungary. After observing how effective she was at draining the California economy of its crown jewel, the most destructive Governor in our state’s history, Gavin Newsom, then appointed her as the Director of the California Film Commission, to inflict more damage to our economy. She injected steroids into her HungaryWood express, solidifying Budapest as permanent satellite of Hollywood. While Budapest booms, and the LA-based executives are still stacking residuals from the Dune franchise, all of the blue collar LA talent is left in the dust, and the local economy is withering. Denis Villenueve’s tax dollars go to Montreal, and everyone but America benefits from the industry that WE built for them; given away with a golden bow by our own turncoat politicians.

By 2017, global incentives had ballooned 39 percent. The 2023 union strikes (116 days for writers, 118 for actors) halted production for months, costing the state $5 billion+. Studios only trimmed the fat further, and became even, hungrier for savings.

As if politicians weren’t making life difficult enough in Hollywood, you also have big money developers using lawfare to kneecap the entertainment industry as it fights on life support. Part-time social media political commentator, Rick Caruso, who famously complained about CEQA restrictions blocking development throughout his failed Mayoral bid…recently leveraged CEQA to file a lawsuit to block expansion of CBS’ Television City production lot adjacent to his crown jewel, The Grove. Fortunately, the City Council told him to shove it, and approved the expansion, in spite of his objections.

Today, the numbers are grim. FilmLA reports first-quarter 2025 production down 22 percent year-over-year. Soundstage occupancy hovers but with fewer tenants. Workers flee to Atlanta or Vancouver, where crews are now battle-tested and rival the OG Californians. The U.K. alone saw U.S. investment surge 83 percent in 2024, thanks to 25.5 percent rebates.

Film LA is widely blamed for making LA hostile for production

At the heart of the bleed is FilmLA, the nonprofit that has held the city’s film-permit contract for decades. Its fees have become infamous deterrents. Add location scouting fees, police/fire standby, and “inconvenience payments” demanded by neighborhoods. Total for a modest shoot can hit thousands long before cameras roll and the coked up starlet has her first hissy fit. Compare to Atlanta’s $400 or London’s subsidized $540. FilmLA’s independent structure means no government subsidies; it funds itself via producers. So the producers look elsewhere.

All of my industry friends have the same complaints: permits arrive at 5 p.m. the night before a shoot, loaded with surprise fees. Drone approvals, helicopter clearances, even lane closures trigger add-ons. You can budget for $50,000 for a week in LA, and FilmLA and city departments eat $12,000 before you even turn on. In Georgia, they do it for half. A simple location change requires a rider. FilmLA claims 24/7 support and three-day processing, but everyone will tell you their system is a mess. I remember when we were saddled with FilmLA permit narcs even when we were filming in my own house! Nonetheless, FilmLA’s five-year contract renewal in 2025 passed despite industry outcry. Other cities subsidize offices and prioritize filmmakers. Los Angeles treats them like nuisances.

The ripple effects are devastating. The indie flicks that used to be the lifeblood of LA are the first to flee. Big studios increasingly shoot tentpoles abroad, returning only for reshoots. Malibu’s beaches, once Baywatch’s playground, are a minefield of coastal commissions, parking battles, violent robberies, and resident pushback. The marbled walk of fame, once the pinnacle of glamor and decadence…now a piss-stained husk of its former self, replete with zombies. We’ve killed the golden goose.

Mayor Basura and Governor Gavin Newsom have only made performative overtures. David Spade, on his podcast, lamented the “terrifying” death of Hollywood, blaming Basura and Newsom directly as lots like CBS Radford face bankruptcy. Incentives help, but they cannot offset FilmLA fees, union fringes, or permitting hell. Georgia’s credit is uncapped and transferable; California’s is competitive, capped, and excludes above-the-line talent. Other states offer first-come, first-served ease. Newsom’s impotent efforts are too little, too late.

Now grips are trying to make ends meet as Uber drivers, families are uprooting to “Y’allywood” in Atlanta, and LA’s middle class, built on Hollywood, continues to erode. If we want to resuscitate our golden goose, we have to recognize what time it is. Now is not the time to milk pennies from productions with fees; we need the exponentially larger economic stimulus of productions in LA. There should be ZERO disincentives for filming in Los Angeles. We have the highest number of film-friendly weather days on the planet; we should see productions rolling 24/7/365.

As Mayor, I will push to subsidize FilmLA, slash location fees in half, and I will create a dedicated concierge team. I will issue an Executive Directive expanding Reel Change to force 7-day FilmLA approvals and zero on-set city staff for 90% of productions. I will direct all departments to waive all location, staff, and inspection fees for shoots under $2M. I will mandate LADOT/Police/Fire instant pre-approvals for standard street closures and safety plans.

Beyond that, and perhaps above all else, I will make LA camera-ready again. We need to clean the streets of Zombieland, and make this city a safer and more appealing place to shoot; we can’t expect every production to be a zombie apocalypse film. I will deploy dedicated LAPD units to filming hotspots with zero-tolerance on theft, vagrancy, and harassment of crews. I’ve had too many friends tell me stories of being robbed of their camera equipment in broad daylight, and locations PAs threatened with guns when approaching raucous neighbors with a wad of petty cash to stay quiet for a few takes. That anarchy ENDS when I am Mayor.

For better or for worse, Hollywood is the lifeblood of our city, and we are bleeding out. Project Hail Mary gave me a glimmer of hope, though; we can still make great blockbusters, and there is most definitely a market for entertainment beyond 6 second vertical TikTok videos. I believe we need a Hail Mary for our city, itself, and I’m not afraid of taking bold action. We have a simple choice: reclaim the industry that built Los Angeles, or watch the final reel fade to black, and our city will follow into the abyss. The talent endures. The question is whether the city that once nurtured it still has the will. I know I do.