The Producers Guild of America has elected Hollywood veterans Stephanie Allain and Donald De Line as its new presidents, the organization said Tuesday.
Allain, a longtime producer behind films like "Dear White People," "Hustle & Flow" and "Beyond the Lights," is the first woman of color to assume the role in the organization's history. De Line's credits include "Ready Player One," "The Italian Job" and "Pain & Gain."
The nonprofit trade group represents more than 8,000 producers in film, television and new media and is behind the annual Producers Guild Awards, which has become the best bellwether for predicting the eventual best picture winner at the Oscars.
In a joint statement, Allain and De Line said that, "We will continue to educate the industry on the role of the producer, support producers' efforts for fair and commensurate compensation and benefits, welcome and encourage a more diverse membership, and endeavor to attain broader healthcare coverage while educating members on the current benefits and opportunities available to them."
They replace outgoing presidents Gail Berman and Lucy Fisher who were in the role since 2018, during which they helped guide the guild through changes from the #MeToo revolution, the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More