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New Mexico denies film incentive application on 'Rust' movie after fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin

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New Mexico denies film incentive application on 'Rust' movie after fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin
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New Mexico denies film incentive application on 'Rust' movie after fatal shooting by Alec Baldwin

2024-07-03 13:07 Last Updated At:14:01

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Producers of the western movie “Rust” may have to forgo a robust economic incentive as they try to sell the film to distributors and fulfill financial obligations to the immediate family of a cinematographer who was fatally shot by Alec Baldwin during rehearsal in 2021.

New Mexico tax authorities denied an application this spring by Rust Movie Productions for incentives worth as much as $1.6 million, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. A late July deadline for producers to appeal the decision is approaching.

Meanwhile, Baldwin is scheduled to go on trial starting next week on an involuntary manslaughter charge in Halyna Hutchins' death. The lead actor and co-producer of “Rust” was pointing a gun at Hutchins when it went off, killing her and wounding director Joel Souza.

Melina Spadone, an attorney representing the production company, said the film production tax incentive was going to be used to finance a legal settlement between producers and Hutchins' widower and son.

“The denial of the tax credit has disrupted those financial arrangements,” said Spadone, a New York- and Los Angeles-based senior counsel at Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman. She helped broker the 2022 settlement that rebooted the stalled production of “Rust” in Montana with some of the original cast and crew, including Baldwin and Souza. Filming wrapped up last year.

Terms of the settlement are confidential, but producers say finishing the film was meant to honor Hutchins' artistic vision and generate money for her young son.

Court documents indicate that settlement payments are up to a year late, as attorneys for Hutchins' widower determine “next steps” that include whether to resume wrongful death litigation or initiate new claims. Legal representatives for Matthew Hutchins did not respond to telephone and email messages seeking comment.

The prosecution of Baldwin and the film’s tax incentive application both have financial implications for New Mexico taxpayers. The Santa Fe district attorney’s office says it spent $625,000 on “Rust”-related prosecution through the end of April.

The state's film incentives program is among the most generous in the nation, offering a direct rebate of between 25% and 40% on an array of expenditures to entice movie projects, employment and infrastructure investments. As a percentage of the state budget, only Georgia pays out more in incentives.

It includes a one-time option to assign the payment to a financial institution. That lets producers use the rebate to underwrite production ahead of time, often layering rights to the rebate and future movie income into production loans.

Among the beneficiaries of the rebate program are the 2011 movie “Cowboys and Aliens” and the TV series “Better Call Saul,” a spinoff of “Breaking Bad.” As for current productions, New Mexico is the backdrop for a new film starring Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera about the rescue of students in a 2018 wildfire in the town of Paradise — the most destructive in California's history.

Charlie Moore, a spokesperson for the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department, declined to comment specifically on the “Rust” application, citing concerns about confidential taxpayer information. Applications are reviewed for a long list of accounting and claim requirements.

During a recent 12-month period, 56 film incentive applications were approved and 43 were partially or fully denied, Moore said.

Documents obtained by AP show the New Mexico Film Office issued a memo in January to “Rust” that approved eligibility to apply for the tax incentive, in a process that involves accounting ledgers, vetting against outstanding debts and an on-screen closing credit to New Mexico as a filming location. Taxation officials have final say on whether expenses are eligible.

Spadone, the attorney for “Rust,” said the denial of the application is “surprising” and could disrupt confidence in the tax program with a chilling effect on rebate-backed loans that propel the local film industry.

Alton Walpole, a production manager at Santa Fe-based Mountainair Films who was not involved in “Rust,” said he faults the movie's creators for seemingly cutting corners on safety but officials have an obligation to review its tax credit application based on legal and accounting principles only — or risk losing major projects to other states. Movies are inherently dangerous even without firearms on set, he noted.

“They’re going to say, ‘Wait, are we going to New Mexico? They could deny the rebate,’” Walpole said. “They’re watching every penny.”

“Popular opinion? I’d say don’t give them the rebate. But legally, I think they qualified for it all,” he said.

At least 18 states have enacted measures to implement or expand film tax incentives since 2021, while some have gone in the opposite direction and sought to limit the transferability and refundability of credit.

Under Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, New Mexico has raised annual spending caps and expanded the film tax credit amid a multibillion-dollar surplus linked to record oil and natural gas production. Film rebate payouts were $100 million in the fiscal year ending in June 2023 and are expected to rise to nearly $272 million by 2027, according to tax agency records and the Legislature's budget and accountability office.

Democratic state Sen. George Muñoz has criticized the incentive program and asked whether taxpayers should be responsible for unforeseen expenses.

“If we’re going to do tax credits and there’s a problem on the film or the set, do they really qualify or do they disqualify themselves?” said Muñoz, chairman of the lead Senate budget writing committee.

“Rust” does not yet have a U.S. distributor as producers shop the newly completed movie at film festivals.

FILE - A musician plays a violin behind a photograph of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a vigil in her honor in Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. New Mexico taxation authorities in April denied an application for tax incentives worth as much as $1.6 million to Rust Movie Productions, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)

FILE - A musician plays a violin behind a photograph of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a vigil in her honor in Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. New Mexico taxation authorities in April denied an application for tax incentives worth as much as $1.6 million to Rust Movie Productions, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)

FILE - In this image taken from video released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, Alec Baldwin speaks with investigators following a fatal shooting on a movie set in Santa Fe, N.M. New Mexico taxation authorities in April denied an application for tax incentives worth as much as $1.6 million to Rust Movie Productions, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. (Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

FILE - In this image taken from video released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, Alec Baldwin speaks with investigators following a fatal shooting on a movie set in Santa Fe, N.M. New Mexico taxation authorities in April denied an application for tax incentives worth as much as $1.6 million to Rust Movie Productions, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. (Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

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Vatican excommunicates former US ambassador Vigano, declares him guilty of schism

2024-07-05 22:47 Last Updated At:22:52

ROME (AP) — The Vatican has excommunicated its former ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable end for the firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis ' most ardent critics and a symbol of the polarized Catholic Church in the U.S. and beyond.

The Vatican's doctrine office imposed the penalty after a meeting of its members on Thursday and informed Vigano of its decision Friday, a press statement said.

It cited Vigano's “refusal to recognize and submit to the Supreme Pontiff, his rejection of communion with the members of the church subject to him, and of the legitimacy and magisterial authority of the Second Vatican Council.”

The Vatican excommunication means that Vigano is formally outside the church, and cannot celebrate or receive its sacraments, for having committed one of the gravest crimes in canon law: schism. A schism occurs when someone withdraws submission to the pope or from the communion of Catholics who are subject to him.

It is considered particularly dangerous to the faith because it threatens the unity of the church, which is built on obedience to the pope. And Vigano had created a following of like-minded conservatives and traditionalists over the years as he delved deeper and deeper into conspiracy theories about everything from the coronavirus pandemic, to what he called the “Great Reset” and other fringe ideas.

His dire pronunciations about the current state of the Catholic Church, amplified on Catholic social media sites and by ideologically friendly bloggers on both sides of the Atlantic, were an exaggerated version of the chasm between U.S. ultra-conservatives and Francis. While the Italian prelate enjoyed mainstream support among conservative bishops early in his public career, many distanced themselves as his ideas became more and more extreme.

Vigano, who hasn't been seen publicly since before 2018, knew the schism declaration was coming after the Vatican informed him that it was launching a penal process against him last month. He defiantly called it “an honor” and refused to appear in person or in writing to defend himself.

Vigano issued a lengthy public statement last month justifying his conduct and refusing to recognize the authority of the Vatican's doctrinal office “that claims to judge me, nor of its prefect, nor of the one who appointed him.”

But he didn’t directly respond to the schism declaration Friday on X, his usual forum. About an hour before the Vatican decree was made public, he announced he would be celebrating a Mass on Friday for those who have been supporting him and asked for donations.

Vigano first burst into the public's awareness in 2012, during the first Vatileaks scandal, when Pope Benedict XVI’s butler leaked the pontiff’s private papers to an Italian journalist to try to draw attention to corruption in the Holy See.

In some of the leaked letters Vigano, then the No. 2 in the Vatican City State administration, begged the pope not to be transferred after exposing corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros (dollars).

The entreaties didn’t work: By the time the letters were published, Benedict had transferred Vigano to be the Vatican’s ambassador to the United States, certainly a prestigious post but one that took him far from Rome and out of the running to one day be a cardinal.

Vigano reappeared on the scene during Francis’ 2015 visit to the United States, which as nuncio Vigano helped organize. Everything was going fine until Vigano arranged for Kim Davis, a Kentucky clerk at the center of the U.S. gay marriage debate, to be among a small group of people at the Vatican residence to greet Francis.

Davis had risen to prominence for refusing to issue all marriage licenses rather than be compelled to issue licenses to same-sex couples. She became a hero to the conservative right in the U.S., with whom Vigano had increasingly identified during U.S. culture wars over gay marriage and religious liberty issues.

After the visit ended, Davis and her lawyers claimed the encounter with Francis amounted to an affirmation of her cause. The Vatican later turned that claim on its head when it released footage of what it said was the “only” private audience Francis had in Washington: with a small group of people that included a gay couple.

Vigano’s deception in inviting Davis to meet the pope, who had wanted to steer clear of the U.S. culture wars during his visit, appeared to put the two on what would become a collision course that exploded in August 2018.

At the time, the U.S. church was reeling from a new chapter in its clergy sex abuse scandal: One of the most senior U.S. churchmen, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, had been accused of molesting a minor and a Pennsylvania grand jury had issued a devastating investigation into decades of abuse and cover-up.

As Francis was wrapping up a tense visit to Ireland, Vigano published an 11-page screed accusing him and decades of U.S. and Vatican officials of covering for McCarrick. Specifically, Vigano accused Francis of rehabilitating McCarrick from sanctions imposed by Benedict, and called on him to resign.

The accusations were explosive and helped create the greatest crisis of Francis’ then-young pontificate.

Francis quickly authorized an in-house investigation to determine who knew what and when about McCarrick’s penchant for sleeping with his seminarians.

The report, released in 2020, confirmed that a generation of church officials, including Pope John Paul II, had turned a blind eye to McCarrick’s misconduct. It largely spared Francis who eventually defrocked the churchman.

But the report also faulted Vigano for not looking into new claims against McCarrick or enforcing Vatican restrictions on him when specifically ordered to do so by the Vatican.

At that point, Vigano’s claims against Francis began to become more unhinged. He endorsed conspiracy theories about the coronavirus vaccines, appeared at far-right political rallies in the U.S., backed Russia in its war and, eventually, refused to recognize Francis as pope.

FILE - Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., listens to remarks at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall meeting in Baltimore, Nov. 16, 2015. The Vatican has excommunicated its former ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable end for the firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis' most ardent critics. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

FILE - Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S., listens to remarks at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' annual fall meeting in Baltimore, Nov. 16, 2015. The Vatican has excommunicated its former ambassador to the U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, after finding him guilty of schism, an inevitable end for the firebrand conservative who became one of Pope Francis' most ardent critics. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

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