MPTF notifies residents of care unit's closure by end of the year (NYT, DHD, LAT, TW)

By Nancy Tartaglione

Residents of the Motion Picture and Television Fund's long-term-care unit and associated hospital were notified yesterday that they need to find new homes by year's end. Following several tumultuous months, the move means residents can now expect what amounts to an eviction notice if they do not accept the fund's help in finding a new home or otherwise relocate, says The New York Times.

The Fund maintains that its long-term care unit and adjacent hospital have been generating huge losses that would jeopardize the fund's various other services, which include operating six area health centers that serve 60,000 industry workers and their families.

Family members say, however, that closing the facility violates the implicit promise the fund made to care for infirm entertainment industry workers, The Los Angeles Times says. The MPTF was established by Mary Pickford and Charlie Chaplin 87 years ago.

The notification follows months of upset over the proposed closing and will very likely result in a lawsuit by residents and others against both the fund and the Hollywood producers, executives and union leaders on one or more of its governing boards.

The charity's various boards include such big industry names as Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jim Gianopulos, Jay Roth, Nora Ephron, David Geffen and Warren Beatty.

The MPTF told DeadlineHollywoodDaily that it was making the move now because four months of settlement talks have broken down with Girardi & Keese which is representing the patients and their families and friends who want to keep open the facilities.

According to Dr. David Tillman, the fund's chief executive, more than 20 residents have accepted help in the past few months in finding beds elsewhere, including at the nearby Los Angeles Jewish Home.

The NYT notes that legal action may help sort through claims that have "turned the dispute into a crucible for debate about the sustainability of premium care for an aging population and about whether Hollywood's wealthiest power brokers are turning their backs on their own during hard economic times."

The fund's initial decision earlier this year to close the unit came on the heels of a report by the Camden Group, a consulting firm that said the residential unit and hospital were dragging the fund toward bankruptcy.

About half of a projected operating deficit of $23 million annually was attributed to the long-term-care unit, making it a prime target for a cutback.

However, public financial statements through 2007 actually showed growth in net assets, leading to criticism from residents and commentators. In 2008's reporting, net assets declined by 26%, to about $168.8 million.

David Tillman, president and CEO of the MPTF, said 2007 had been an anomaly, however. "2007 was an extraordinary year for us because of investment returns above our average," he told TheWrap. "We also got two gifts totaling $15 million. Without that, we would have been in a loss position."

Still, an inevitable argument has held that Hollywood's rich and famous could simply give a little more.

Actress Diane Ladd for one, said that she and a handful of allies were scratching for a solution on their own. Ladd will join Ed Asner, Elliott Gould and others to host a fund-raiser this weekend, the NYT says. Proceeds are intended both for SAG's Membership First faction and for assistance to the soon-to-be-displaced residents - but not for the fund.

In response to the fund's letter to residents, the 3,600-member coalition of MPTF residents, family members and friends, Saving The Lives Of Our Own, wrote its own letter. It reads in part:

"In reaction to a 'pre-eviction' notice released by the Motion Picture Television Fund today, residents of the MPTF long-term care facility and their families rejected the letter as an example of continued strong-arm tactics by the Fund and its administrators...The letter was released to the media before being delivered to the residents and their families, in the presence of security guards, in a further attempt to intimidate and frighten the elderly out of the Home they were promised would be there for them until the end of their days."

The requests in the letter are for an immediate reversal of the decision to close the long-term care facility; a dedicated fundraising campaign for the purpose of keeping the facility open and financial transparency in the form of a comprehensive and independent audit of the MTPF and all its related entities.

Asked if he believed there would be a lawsuit, anti-closure activist Richard Stellar told TW, "Absolutely. We don’t want one. We’re being pushed into a corner...At the end of the day a lawsuit will be very painful. But we're prepared for this."

In the wake of Tuesday's letter, TW spoke to Ken Scherer, CEO of the MPTF who said, "I'm not a lawyer. We have done everything. We've done our research, and we feel they do not have a legal case."

Related Links

Movie Fund Set to Close Housing Unit for the Aged (NYT)
Breaking News! MPTF Declares Impasse (DHD)
Don't hold the presses: Plan to close 'motion picture home' affirmed (LAT)
MPTF Activists Promise Lawsuit, Protest after Negotiation Breakdown (TW)
TheWrap Goes One-on-One With MPTF's Ken Scherer (TW)