Prop. 8 Plaintiffs Marry In California, After Stay Is Lifted

Kris Perry, left, kisses Sandy Stier as they are married at City Hall in San Francisco Friday. The two got their marriage license after a federal appeals court cleared the way for California counties to resume issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Same-sex marriages have now resumed in California, after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday removed a stay that had kept counties from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. The court's move comes two days after the Supreme Court ruled on a case involving the state's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage.

Update at 8:05 p.m. ET: First Gay Marriage After Prop 8

Kristin Perry and Sandy Stier, who were plaintiffs in the Proposition 8 case, "were first in line at San Francisco City Hall waiting to get their marriage license," reports SF Gate.

And they held a ceremony immediately. Photos from the scene show State Attorney General Kamala Harris officiating, as the couple stands in front of a large crowd.

SF Gate reports that San Francisco's City Hall will stay open late Friday, and through the weekend, to handle the marriage requests.

Our original post continues:

After the Supreme Court's ruling this week, initial reports stated that the circuit court would take 25 days to act, a result of the delay between a decision's being made and the lower court's being officially informed of the ruling.

With the stay lifted, gay marriages can resume almost immediately.

After this week's Proposition 8 ruling, California Gov. Jerry Brown said he "directed the California Department of Public Health to advise the state's counties that they must begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in California as soon as the Ninth Circuit confirms the stay is lifted."

In that statement, Brown also said the Department of Health would send a letter to county officials when the stay is lifted.

As The Two-Way reported Wednesday, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the sponsors of Proposition 8 did not have legal standing to defend the law in court, after California's government had declined to defend it. As a result, the case was referred back to the circuit court.

The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has lifted a stay that had kept counties from issuing marriage licenses to gay couples. The court is in San Francisco, where City Hall currently sports rainbow-colored lights in honor of Gay Pride weekend.

Gay marriages resume in California after five-year hiatus

Sandy Stier (L) and Kris Perry, plaintiffs of the lawsuit against Proposition 8, is being married by California Attorney General Kamala Harris at City Hall in San Francisco, June 28, 2013. Same-sex couples rushed to San Francisco's City Hall on Friday to be legally married after an appeals court officially ended California's ban on gay marriage following a landmark ruling at the Supreme Court this week.

SAN FRANCISCO - Same-sex couples - some in shorts and jeans, some in their work clothes - rushed to be wed in California on Friday after a court abruptly ended the state's five-year ban on gay marriage in the wake of landmark rulings at the Supreme Court.

On a balcony overlooking the grand staircase at San Francisco City Hall, an ornate space that has long been a magnet for weddings, the couple whose case sparked this week's Supreme Court decision exchanged vows. The ceremony was officiated by state Attorney General Kamala Harris, and the ring bearer was the couple's 18-year-old son.

"This is the first day of the rest of our lives together, said Kristin Perry, who with her fiancée, Sandy Stier, filed the lawsuit against Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California in 2008.

Stier turned to the horde of reporters and well-wishers crowding the room, smiled and said: "Thank you so much for coming to our wedding."

At the city clerk's office, other couples waited for their marriage licenses. Two men - one in jeans and the other wearing a pair of shorts - exchanged vows after Stier and Perry.

Four hundred miles to the south, Paul Katami and Jeff Zarrillo, a second couple who were plaintiffs in the case, wed at City Hall in Los Angeles.

"You are just as in love today as you were when you met 12 years ago," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who conducted the ceremony, told the two men, who wore suits with boutonnieres.

The California marriages capped a historic week for gay rights in the United States. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court issued two key rulings - one that extended federal benefits to married gay couples and another that allowed a federal court's order striking down the California marriage ban to stand.

TAKEN BY SURPRISE

On Friday, a panel of three federal appellate court judges responded by formally lifting an injunction against the marriages. That move took brides, grooms and public officials by surprise. They had expected the judges to wait for a more formal ruling from the Supreme Court due in about three weeks.

Within minutes, couples were descending upon San Francisco City Hall, and California Governor Jerry Brown had ordered county clerks throughout the state to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Cassie Coleman and Rosa Sanchez were at work when the ruling came down. They agreed via text message to meet at City Hall, and called their mothers to ask permission. They got some roses - red and pink.

"That was it," Sanchez said. "We just jumped in."

The impromptu weddings and the jubilant participation by public officials prompted angry responses from some opponents of gay marriage.

"This outrage tops off a chronic pattern of lawlessness, throughout this case, by judges and politicians hell-bent on thwarting the vote of the people to redefine marriage by any means, even outright corruption," said Andy Pugno, general counsel for the ProtectMarriage.com Coalition.

But he did not, however, actively threaten to fight on.

"It remains to be seen whether the fight can go on, but either way, it's a disgraceful day for California," he said.

John Eastman, a constitutional law professor at Chapman University who was a key backer of the ban, said the appellate court judges should have waited for a 25-day "reconsideration" period to elapse, in which opponents would have had one last chance to ask the Supreme Court to change its mind.

California briefly allowed gay marriages in 2008, before the ballot initiative was enacted. It now becomes the 13th state, and the largest, to allow same-sex marriage - just in time, advocates point out, for Gay Pride weekend.

"On my way to S.F. City Hall," tweeted Harris minutes after the injunction was lifted. "Let the wedding bells ring!"

Court lifts ban on gay marriage in California

1 of 3. Rainbow colored flags fly outside City Hall in San Francisco, California June 28, 2013. The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday handed a significant victory to gay rights advocates by ruling that married gay men and women are eligible for federal benefits and paving the way for same-sex marriage in California.
SAN FRANCISCO - Same-sex marriages were set to resume in California on Friday, after the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a surprise order lifting an injunction preventing the unions.
The order came in response to an opinion released Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court that effectively killed a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriages in the state.
Within moments of the ruling, couples, officials and activists began to converge on San Francisco City Hall, where unions were due to resume immediately.
"On my way to S.F. City Hall," tweeted the state's attorney general, Kamala Harris. "Let the wedding bells ring!"
Harris arrived with her arm around a key lawyer in the case, as the couple at the heart of a case challenging the state's ban waited eagerly for their marriage license to be issued.
"This is really a great day," said Cindy Stier, who with her fiancee Kristin Perry filed the lawsuit against Proposition 8, the ballot initiative that outlawed same-sex marriage in California in 2008.
The 9th Circuit had been expected to wait 25 days before lifting the injunction so the Supreme Court would have time to release a formal order. But the judges decided to act instead on Friday, a move that would allow the marriages to begin in advance of Gay Pride weekend.
"The stay in the above matter is dissolved effective immediately," the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said in its ruling.

TV Pilot Production Increases as California Loses Market Share: Study

More TV pilots than ever are being made, while production continues to spread to more places,  according to an annual survey by Film L.A.

There were 186 pilots shot for broadcast and cable TV during the 2012-13 development cycle (January-April) -- the most ever.

PHOTOS: The Faces of Pilot Season 2013

Of those, 96 were shot in L.A., the second-largest tally in history. From Jan. 1-June 10, permitted production days for pilots were up almost 40 percent compared to last year.

The bad news, however, is that L.A.’s share of the market fell to 52 percent, the second-lowest on record, down from 82 percent in 2006-07.

“The scary thing for the Los Angeles region,” says Paul Audley, president of Film L.A., ”is we continue to lose ground in our share of work to other states and countries.”

Drama pilots in particular went elsewhere. L.A. had 83 percent of comedy pilots (down from 91 percent last year) but only 22 percent of drama pilots (down from 28 percent last year and 63 percent in 2006-07).

“Comedy has traditionally stuck around Los Angeles,” says Audley, “because the turnaround time on writing for comedy is so short. They are writing up to the time of filming frequently, while dramas have a greater lead time. Comedies are also less expensive to shoot, so the incentives don’t have as much impact.”

The average cost for a half-hour comedy pilot is $2 million, according to the study, while a drama costs $5.5 million for an hour.

Film L.A. estimates that about $277.8 million was spent on TV pilot production in Los Angeles during the most recent development cycle, up from $262 million last year. That is about 39 percent of the total spent by all producers in all locations. In the same period last year, L.A. had about 40 percent of the spend.

“Drama producers use incentives to offset the increased cost of long-distance production,” says the study, “while affording higher-end production values. Often this means financial concerns trump creative concerns when deciding where to shoot.”

During the past three pilot seasons, drama pilots were filmed outside L.A. by a ratio of more than 2-to-1. In the 2012-13 cycle, the ratio was closer to 4-to-1.

“Dramas are highly lucrative,” adds Audley. “States are fighting to get those television dramas and keep them. We continue to lose ground substantially in that area.”

After L.A. (96 pilots) the top production locations were New York (19), Vancouver (15), Atlanta (nine) and Toronto (six), followed by Chicago and New Orleans (five each). All offer greater production incentives than California.

This marks a surge for Atlanta, which passed Toronto for the first time thanks to Georgia’s generous tax incentives, new studio facilities, efforts to train crews and the growing activity of Tyler Perry.

PHOTOS: Summer TV Preview: 51 New and Returning Series

“Atlanta sees itself as a future production center and is really working hard to entice (productions) with money and new facilities,” says Audley. “They have been successful this year.”

One consideration, says the study, is where the comedy or drama is supposed to be set. While L.A. often subs for other places, New York and Chicago mostly play themselves. New York is often used in place of Washington, D.C.

Digital distributors like Netflix and Amazon represent a small but growing part of the total. One difference is that like many cable TV networks, the emerging digital players create pilots throughout the year.

There are real consequences to these location shifts as shown by an additional study done by Film L.A., which analyzed new and continuing pickups of series on broadcast networks during primetime for 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14.

At the beginning of the 2012-13 season, there were 47 L.A.-based shows on broadcast (18 dramas, 29 comedies). There also were 24 shows shot elsewhere (23 dramas, one comedy). “Last year,” says the study, “marked the first time during Film L.A.’s ongoing study in which L.A. accounted for less than 50 percent of network screen time devoted to primetime scripted drama.”

Audley is frustrated by the California incentive plan, which serves up $100 million annually but does not come close to meeting the demand. That law, he notes, does not even include incentives for broadcast network or premium cable series – unless they are returning to the state after shooting elsewhere for at least one full season.

He says California is shortsighted and as a result is losing one of its most important industries.

“If the pilots go, that means the shows will also go elsewhere,” says Audley, “and that’s tens of thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars being spent outside of California.”

Film L.A. is a nonprofit organization that coordinates permits for filmed entertainment shot on location in Los Angeles and L.A. County.

 

Weekend Plan: MOCA Opens New Southern California Architecture Show

There is a large grey mouse sitting cartoon-like on its tail, with a Pac-Man figurine nestled in a niche within its belly, in a large grey room in a major museum in Los Angeles. Beside it, there is a crude finger drawing of two dancing teeth on the wall. To the left a sculpture of a powerful man aggressively absconding with a reluctant woman melts before the museum-goer’s eyes. The head of the man has severed due to the heat and fallen to the floor. No, this work by Urs Fischer at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA is not an homage to Jeffrey Deitch so far as I know (though numerous Deitch portraits that were crafted by the 1,500 Angelenos who helped Fischer can be seen in the installation). But the scrutiny and criticism that Mr. Deitch has received since his arrival as director of MOCA in 2010 somehow connects the two. And as the tragic/heroic/comic sculpture by Fisher is still lit by candles within, Deitch forges on and continues to deliver a fresh, invigorating museum experience at MOCA.

Earlier this week saw the opening of an exhibition at MOCA whose name won’t stop changing (A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture from Southern California at the moment of publication) of 38 emerging and established architects from Los Angeles and the immediate vicinity. This ambitious and mesmerizing multi-media installation endured some controversy in its inception due to the sudden exit and eventual return of Gehry Partners from the lineup of studios selected.  The show is a remarkable collection of meticulously executed architectural models interspersed with drawings and schematics organized by broad categories of building type. Three pavilions produced by some of the edgier, emergent design firms and a series of multi-media overhead projection shells energize the space and remind viewers of the spatial emphasis of the exhibition.

STORY: A Self-Consciously Weird 2013 MOCA Gala Raises $2.5 Million

The Hollywood Reporter sat in on a panel discussion featuring five architects included in the show: Thom Mayne of Morphosis Architects; Georgina Huljich of Patterns;  Tom Wiscombe of Tom Wiscombe Design; Neil Denari of Neil M. Denari Architects (NMDA); and Eric Owen Moss of EOM Architects, who was the moderator of the discussion.

The panel discussion was most interesting when it highlighted the differences between the different generations of architects participating.  In a discussion of who defines architecture, the more established architects, Mayne, Denari and Moss, were determined that it was the architect’s role to define the term. The younger, emerging talents Huljich and Wiscombe argued for a more fluid, less categorical approach in which the user ultimately determines the boundaries of the concept. Following the discussion, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with architect Thom Mayne and MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch about some challenges for architecture in Los Angeles and about the exhibition on view. Below are some excerpts from the conversations:

THR: Do you see this younger group of LA architects embracing the challenge of civic architecture and taking on projects with public spaces?

Thom Mayne: Well, the civic entity has to engage the architect. Architects, by nature, we’re trained in a classical way. It starts with Vesuvius, Palladio, and the highest esteem of architecture is public work. Everybody as a student knows that. Somehow in their brain they have an idea of a trajectory as an architect as they grow older. They’re going to build a concert hall, a music hall, a city hall, a school, a building on a college. That’s the work. And to get there you do residential work. In some cases, you continue doing that. But that’s still the highest order of work – it has a broad social agenda, a cultural agenda. You are invited for that. The architect doesn’t get the choice for that.

THR: So in a way you have to earn that.

TM: In a way. The council, the mayor, the city decides that architecture is important and instead of hiring a business practice just to build a building, they hire someone to design a building that has monumental, enduring qualities, which by the way is the history of the world -- it’s nothing unusual. Any city, if you look at buildings, you can immediately differentiate important buildings by the stature of the architect.

PHOTOS: Top Ten: Back to Black at MOCA's 2013 Gala

THR: In that case, do you think that cities are embracing the challenge of hiring architects?

TM: This city has started to. Obviously with the Caltrans building and Frank [Gehry] with Disney Hall.  It’s a young city, so it’s just beginning the process. It’s a signal of an early development of a city. It’s a big city, but it’s a young city. It’s a city that you could say started at the first of the twentieth century, but really started as a city with institutions in post World War II. So here we have a city that is only half a century old – it’s a young, young city -- it’s first growth.  If you think about even our institutions -- you look at Ahmandson, you look at MOCA and LACMA -- it didn’t have museums or concert halls until the early 1960s.  Well, now you couldn’t even define it as a city without those things…There is no possibility that it won’t take place. It will take place, but it just takes time.

THR: There has been a little bit of turmoil with this show coming together. Based on your life with MOCA so far, would it be fair to say that you might be a little disappointed if this show just came together without a hitch?

Jeffrey Deitch: See, this is what the creative process is about. And I’ve been immersed in this for forty years. To realize a great creative project it’s not always a smooth course. And sometimes you have to change course, sometimes there are impediments, but if you have the belief, the vision, I try to push it through. And in the best cases, when there is some difficulty, if you approach it strategically and understand how to deal with the challenges you can make it better. And in this case, we were able to make the show better than we would have imagined in the beginning. And the privilege of having one of the greatest architects alive conceive the installation -- what a privilege. This is incredible. It is very difficult to make an exhibition of primarily architectural models and drawings -- 38 architects -- look exciting. And Thom Mayne and his team have succeeded in doing that. And in addition to creating this visually exciting platform here, they’ve figured out a way to put the central content up there on these screens – images of the real buildings in the world, the voices of the architects.  It adds tremendously to the experience of the exhibition.

A New Sculpturalism: Contemporary Architecture from Southern California will be on view at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA through Sept. 16.  The exhibition is presented in conjunction with Pacific Standard Time presents: Modern Architecture in LA, an initiative of the Getty Museum.