Political Landscape:

Assemblyman Paul Krekorian (D-Los Angeles) celebrated two entertainment-industry successes this month, including the passage of his bill meant to thwart scam artists acting as talent agents.

Another Krekorian-sponsored plan, which created the state’s first tax incentives for film and television productions to stay in California, has been extended to more than 50 projects so far, the California Film Commission reported this week.

A total of 36 productions are set to begin filming before the end of the year, Krekorian announced.

Lawmakers and entertainment industry executives have applauded the incentive plan to battle the occurrence of runaway productions, projects that studios opted to film in other states and countries offering generous incentives to pull the job-creating endeavors away from California.

“This is great news, not only for those who work in film and TV production, but also for the hundreds of thousands of employees in supporting businesses who each day depend on local filming for their livelihood,” Krekorian said in a statement. “What these new figures show is that we will aggressively protect our jobs and inject our economy with the necessary tools to lift us up from the worst economic crisis in 80 years.”

Representatives from the Screen Actors Guild were on hand last week to trumpet Krekorian’s bill targeting unscrupulous talent scouts who swindle actors into paying for a slew of services with the promise of giving them agents and pathways to stardom.

“These scams financially and psychologically hurt Californians because state law was inadequate to properly deal with disreputable talent scouts,” he said in a statement. “My bill offers a comprehensive approach to protecting children and others by setting guidelines under which legitimate businesses can operate, alerting consumers to dishonest business practices and by providing law enforcement with the tools necessary for investigation and prosecution. With this law in place, we now have a powerful tool that will protect children and save California families millions of dollars.”

Sherman not happy with plan to help big firms

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) launched heavy criticism at Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner this week after the release of a plan to help dismantle firms that are considered “too big to fail.”