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Rhode Island
In R.I. to film a movie, Jamie Lee Curtis tells California: ‘This is how you do it’ – The Boston Globe
“We are here because there weren’t a lot of opportunities around the country and particularly in California,” she said. “So for my friends in California, and California government: This is how you do it.”
The Rhode Island Film & Television Office uses motion picture production film tax credits to try to bring film crews to Rhode Island, and state officials said the “Ella McCay” production will create jobs, bolster tourism, and shine a big spotlight on the smallest state.
“If you don’t want us to leave and go to places like Rhode Island, then you have to create tax incentives for the people in California, or we are going to come here, every time,” Curtis said.
Steven Feinberg, executive director of the Rhode Island Film & Television Office, said filming will begin Monday, taking part mostly in Providence but in other parts of the state as well. Film crews will be here through March or April, he said.
The production will result in an estimated 300 full-time jobs and 500 part-time jobs, and the production will result in “spending million of dollars on the ground in Rhode Island,” Feinberg said.
The film credit is for 30 percent of state-certified production costs that can be directly attributed to activity within the state. The film or television production needs to be shot primarily in Rhode Island, meaning that 51 percent of principal photography must take place in the state. A minimum of $100,000 needs to be spent on the ground in Rhode Island.
In 2022, the Rhode Island Office of Revenue Analysis issued a report saying the state’s tax credit program fails to break even, its goals are “vague,” and data reporting requirements “lead to inconsistent and unreliable data on program performance.”
But Feinberg has strongly disagreed, saying the report contained “miscalculations” and “omissions.” He noted Industrial Economics, a company based in Cambridge, Mass., produced a report in 2022 saying every $1 in film tax credits generated $5.44 in economic activity, and that the benefit extended to nearly every city and town in the state.
During Thursday’s event in the State Room, Governor Daniel J. McKee emphasized the economic impact of the film.
“The whole strategy for us is putting people to work in good-paying jobs,” he said. “In this case, a number of the trades are going to be working on this project with you, and I think you will see second to none. I think you are going to be really, really pleased with what workers will be able to do.”
McKee, a Democrat who previously served as the state’s lieutenant governor, noted “Ella McCay” is a film about a lieutenant governor who becomes a governor.
The 20th Century Studios production tells the story of an “idealistic young politician” named Ella McCay, who will be played Mackey (known for her rolls in “Barbie” and “Death on the Nile.”) The title character juggles family issues and a challenging work life while preparing to take over for her mentor, California’s long-time governor, who will be played by Albert Brooks (known for “Broadcast News” and “Lost in America.”)
“This is a movie about ideas — politics, politicians, government,” Curtis said. “America is about ideas, and this is a movie about big ideas and people dreaming for the betterment for other people.”
Curtis said she’d given the cast and crew mugs emblazoned with a quote from the movie: “Government works best when citizens stay interested because, as has been said, if you don’t know what you want, you will probably get what someone else wants. Let’s get started.”
Brooks — the director, writer and producer whose credits include “Taxi,” “Terms of Endearment,” and “The Simpsons” — also spoke in the State Room, saying, “What I need is for this film to represent America in sort of the best sense possible. We looked at a lot of places, and I’m so glad we are here. We feel it every day. Everybody who goes out and is in this city just appreciates the graciousness of it and how much we’ve been welcomed.”
House Speaker K. Joseph Shekarchi, a Warwick Democrat, noted Rhode Island has also hosted film crews in Newport for the HBO series “The Gilded Age” and in Lincoln and Providence for the film “Hocus Pocus 2.” And he said he has backed the Rhode Island Film & Television Office and the film tax credits since he became speaker three years ago.
“Because it’s not just showing off our great state,” Shekarchi said. “The film industry is a revenue generator, and also people want to visit our state when they see the great locations on the big screen. It brings in more tourism dollars to our state.”
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Louis P. DiPalma, a Middletown Democrat, also spoke, with Feinberg introducing him as “Taxi’s own Lou DiPalma.” DiPalma joked that he believes he is the tallest Lou DiPalma, surpassing Danny DeVito’s taxi dipatcher character, “Louie DiPalma.”
“This is a great day for Rhode Island,” DiPalma said. The film tax credit program has provided a clear “return on investment” over the years, he said, and it has helped to “put Rhode Island on the map.”
Edward Fitzpatrick can be reached at edward.fitzpatrick@globe.com. Follow him @FitzProv.
New East Bay Bike Path bridges are open and ready for bikes
What’s it like to ride over the new East Bay Bike Path bridges? We sent a reporter to try them out.
I’ve long thought bike paths are among Rhode Island’s premier attractions, up there with the beaches, the mansions and the bay.
We like to knock government, but credit where it’s due, the state has done an amazing job building out an incredible pedaling network.
It’s clearly a priority.
At least I thought it was.
But they’ve just dropped the ball on what should have been a beautiful new stretch.
The plan was to finish a mile-long connector from the East Providence end of the Henderson Bridge all the way to the East Bay Bike Path.
There was even $25 million set aside to get it done.
Except WPRI recently reported that it’s now been canceled.
The main fault lies with the Trump administration, which is no friend of bike paths, and moved to kill that $25 million.
But it gets complicated, as government funding always does.
To try to rescue that money, the state DOT reportedly worked with the administration to refunnel it into a road project. Specifically, the $25 million will now be spent helping upgrade the mile-long highway between the Henderson Bridge and North Broadway in East Providence, turning it into a more pleasant boulevard.
That totally sounds worthy.
But it’s insane to throw away the bike path plan.
Especially for a particular reason in this case.
They’d already put a ton of money into starting it.
When state planners designed the new Henderson Bridge between the East Side and East Providence, they included a bike path.
It’s a beauty – well protected from traffic by a barrier, a great asset for safely riding over the Seekonk River.
The plan was to continue it another mile or so along East Providence’s Waterfront Drive, ultimately connecting with the East Bay Bike Path, which runs all the way to Bristol. Which, by the way, is one of the nicest bike paths you’ll find anywhere.
But alas, that connector plan has been canceled.
So the expensive stretch over the Henderson Bridge to East Providence is now a bike path to nowhere. Once the bridge ends, the path on it continues a few hundred yards or so and then, just … ends.
Too bad.
We were so close.
Most of the stories on the issue have been about the complex negotiation to rescue the $25 million by rerouting it to that nearby highway-to-boulevard project. But I don’t want to get lost in the weeds of that bureaucratic process here because it loses sight of the heart of this story.
Which is that an amazing new addition to one of the nation’s best state bike path systems has just been scrapped.
You can knock the Rhode Island government for blowing a lot of things.
The PawSox.
The Washington Bridge.
But they’ve done great with bike paths.
And especially, linking many of them together.
Example: not too many years ago, Providence bikers had to risk dicey traffic on the East Side to get to the more pleasant paths in India Point Park and on the 195 bridge to the East Bay Path.
But the state fixed that by adding an amazing connector that starts behind the Salvation Army building and beautifully winds along the water of the Seekonk River for a mile or so.
That makes a huge difference – and no doubt has avoided some bike-car accidents.
We were close to a comparable stretch on the other side of the river – that’s what the $25 million would have done.
But it’s now apparently dead.
Online commenters aren’t happy about it.
On a Reddit string, “Toadscoper” accused the state of being “complicit” with the feds in rerouting the money from bikes to cars.
And there was this fascinating post from FineLobster 5322, who apparently is a disappointed planner who worked on the project: “Mind you money has already been spent on phase one so rejecting it at this point is wasting money and also against the public interest … but what do I know? I only worked on the project as an engineer … I didn’t get into this to build more highways. I do it … to give back to communities and give them more access to their environment.”
Wow. One can imagine the state planning team is devastated. That’s not a small consideration. Good people go into government to make life better in Rhode Island, and it’s a bad play to take the spirit out of the job by first assigning a great human-scale project and then, after a ton of work, trashing it.
A poster named Homosapiens simply said, “We just accept this?”
Hopefully not.
The first stretch of the path over the Henderson Bridge is done, money already sunk.
What a shame to leave that as a path to nowhere.
It doesn’t have to happen.
Between Governor McKee and our Washington delegation, there’s got to be a way to get this done.
There’s got to be.
mpatinki@providencejournal.com
WARWICK, R.I. (WPRI) — Two people are dead and another person seriously hurt after a crash involving two vehicles on the highway in Warwick Saturday.
Rhode Island State Police said the crash happened around 1:34 p.m. on the ramp from Route 113 West to I-95 South.
According to police, a Hyundai SUV that was driving in the middle lane of the highway started to drift to the right, crossed the first lane, and then crossed onto the on-ramp lane. The car struck the guardrail twice before driving through the grass median.
The Hyundai then struck the driver’s side of a Mercedes SUV that was on the ramp, causing the Mercedes to roll over and come to a rest. The impact sent the Hyundai over the guardrail and down an embankment.
The driver of the Hyundai, a 73-year-old man, and his passenger, a 69-year-old woman, were both pronounced dead at the hospital.
A woman who was in the Mercedes was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital in critical condition.
State police said all lanes of traffic were reopened by 4:30 p.m.
The investigation remains ongoing.
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A federal judge on Friday tossed the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) lawsuit aiming to force Rhode Island to hand over its voter information as part of the Trump administration’s push to acquire voter data from several states.
Rhode Island U.S. District Court Judge Mary McElroy wrote that federal law does not allow the DOJ “to conduct the kind of fishing expedition it seeks here,” siding with Rhode Island election officials. She added that the DOJ did not provide evidence to suggest that Rhode Island violated election law.
McElroy, a Trump appointee, wrote that she sided with the similar decision in Oregon. That decision ruled that the DOJ was not entitled to unredacted voter registration lists.
“Absent from the demand are any factual allegations suggesting that Rhode Island may be violating the list maintenance requirements,” she said in her ruling.
Rhode Island Secretary of State Gregg Amore (D) praised McElroy’s decision. He said in a statement that the Trump administration “seems to have no problem taking actions that are clear Constitutional overreaches, regularly meddling in responsibilities that are the rights of the states.”
“Today’s decision affirms our position: the United States Department of Justice has no legal right to – or need for – the personally-identifiable information in our voter file,” he said. “Voter list maintenance is a responsibility entrusted to the states, and I remain confident in the steps we take here in Rhode Island to keep our list as accurate as possible.”
The Hill reached out to the DOJ for comment.
The DOJ called for the voter lists as it investigated Rhode Island’s compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, which allowed Americans to register to vote when they apply for a driver’s license.
The DOJ sued at least 30 states, as well as Washington, D.C., in December demanding their respective voter data. This data includes birth dates, names and partial Social Security numbers.
At least 12 states have given or said they will give the DOJ their voter registration lists, according to a tracker operated by the Brennan Center for Justice.
The department stated after it lost a similar suit against Massachusetts earlier this month that it had “sweeping powers” to access the voter data and that, if states fail to comply, courts have a “limited, albeit vital, role” in directing election officers on behalf of the administration to produce the records. The DOJ cited the Civil Rights Act as being intended to unearth alleged election law violations.
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