Creative panel on hunt for runaway prod'n

Confab is fourth in a series following D.C., Gotham, San Fran events

By DAVE MCNARY

Hunt

HOLLYWOOD -- Thesp Helen Hunt will host a Creative Coalition panel discussing the contentious issue of runaway production Thursday at the Four Seasons in Los Angeles.

Alec Baldwin, Lawrence Bender, Tony Goldwyn, Linda Obst, Peter Horton, Mike Farrell and Canadian consul general Colin Robertson are also expected to attend. Syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington will moderate the discussion at the 7:15 p.m. event.

Tax relief

Confab is the fourth in a series on the issue following events in Washington, D.C, Gotham and San Francisco. The first took place on the same day that Sen. Blanche Lambert Lincoln (D-Ark.) introduced a wage-based tax credit bill to provide relief for U.S. productions with budgets of under $10 million.

The Screen Actors Guild, which supports tax credits and a move to explore countervailing tariffs against producers who use Canadian subsidies, helped to sponsor the first three events but has taken a pass on participating in Thursday's confab because of scheduling conflicts.

Farrell, a candidate for SAG 1st VP, has criticized the guild's stance on the issue as counterproductive.