Posted 29 March, 2009 in WI News
Former “Malcolm in the Middle” star Jane Kaczmarek is getting in the middle of the battle over Wisconsin’s film incentives.
She and her “West Wing” actor husband Bradley Whitford, both of whom are Wisconsin natives, sent Gov. Jim Doyle and legislative leaders a letter recently asking them to work on improving the state’s current incentive program rather than scrap it.
“Monk” star Tony Shalhoub, a Green Bay-native, also sent Doyle a similar letter on Thursday. Shalhoub spent three weeks in February shooting the independent film “Feed the Fish” in Door County and said that wouldn’t have been done here without the incentives.
Doyle wants to eliminate the program that grants tax incentives up to 25 percent of what is spent in the state, saying it is too costly in light of a record-high $5.7 billion budget shortfall. In its place he wants to award grants of up to $500,000 per year for projects that create permanent jobs.
“One year hardly seems like a sufficient time to make an informed determination on whether the incentives should be discontinued,” Kaczmarek and Whitford said in the letter dated March 3 that film backers in the state sent out late last week.
The actors ask Doyle to reconsider eliminating the program, consider other economic impacts beyond those reported by the state Commerce Department, and work with those who want to modify the current incentives.
Kaczmarek said in an interview Monday from her home in Pasadena, Calif., that she visits family and friends in Wisconsin four times a year. Kaczmarek, who has children age 6, 9 and 11, said because of her family she refuses to film outside of Hollywood. But she said she would make an exception if she could come to Wisconsin for work.
“There’s something about this place,” she said of Wisconsin. “It’s magical, it’s beautiful. It offers everything you could possibly want.”
Shalhoub said he hoped Wisconsin would nurture its film industry “and allow us to continue to showcase the beauty of the area and the tremendous capabilities of its residents.”
Doyle’s spokesman Lee Sensenbrenner had no immediate comment on the letters.
The letters are the latest push by supporters of the state’s fledgling film industry to save the incentives.
In their first year, nine feature films, including the Johnny Depp movie “Public Enemies,” and 16 television shows filmed in Wisconsin.
There is support within the Legislature to modify the current incentives program rather than do what Doyle wants. State Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, circulated an outline of a bill last week that she said would close loopholes, reward hiring Wisconsin workers, and place a cap on the credits.
One of the co-chairs of the budget-writing committee, Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, expressed support for keeping the program during a hearing last week. Grigsby is also a member of that committee that will make a recommendation on whether to eliminate or change the current program.
Kaczmarek and Whitford have been supporters of the incentives from the beginning, mailing letters of support back when the idea was proposed in 2006. Kaczmarek, who is from Milwaukee, also previously donated her time and likeness to the Film Wisconsin Web site.
She is best known for playing the mom in the “Malcolm in the Middle,” receiving an Emmy nomination for each of the seven years the show aired on Fox. Whitford, who’s from Madison, starred on “The West Wing” for seven years and won an Emmy for playing deputy chief of staff Josh Lyman in 2001. (reported by Business Week)
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