SAG-AFTRA Re-Elects Clyde Kusatsu as National VP for Los Angeles
SAG-AFTRA delegates have re-elected veteran actor Clyde Kusatsu to a two-year term as national VP for the Los Angeles branch — the largest of the performers union.
Kusatsu, who lost the presidency of the Los Angeles local chapter to Jane Austin in August, won re-election Friday at the SAG-AFTRA biennial convention at the Sheraton Universal. The four -day event is closed to the news media.
Kusatsu has dozens of credits including a recurring role on “The Young and the Restless,” and is part of the ruling Unite For Strength faction, led by President Gabrielle Carteris.
Rebecca Damon won re-election to a two-year term as executive vice president of the performers union over Matthew Modine. The exec VP slot is the second-highest elected post in SAG-AFTRA and acts in the place of the president if the president is absent.
Six other national VPs were elected — Liz Zazzi, New York; Ilyssa Fradin, Mid-Sized Locals; Suzanne Burkhead, Small Locals; Samantha Mathis, Actors/Performers; Catherine Brown, Broadcasters; and Dan Navarro, Recording Artists/Singers. SAG-AFTRA has about 160,000 members.
Carteris opened the convention Friday morning by acknowledging the mass shooting in Las Vegas and the victims of recent hurricanes that have devastated Puerto Rico and the Gulf Coast. As a musical tribute, members Dan Navarro, Carlos Ricketts, Gerald White, Jim Ferguson, and Jasper Randall sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” in commemoration.
Nancy Meyers, producer of “What Women Want” and “Home Again,” discussed opportunities for women in a keynote conversation with Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Fritz. She said that executives interpret the success of female-directed or female-starring films as a fluke.
Gabrielle Carteris is pictured above.
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