Was 'Baywatch' booted off Venice Beach?

Good morning, it’s Tuesday, April 7 and you can expect morning clouds then rampant sunshine (mid 70s). 

In today’s newsletter, we have an unexpected gift from President Trump to California Democrats, Spencer Pratt’s residency kerfuffle and the return of Kanye West. But first, a dispatch from Venice Beach.

When the Baywatch reboot announced plans to shoot in Los Angeles, everyone from Gov. Gavin Newsom on down cheered the news. 

It was a bright spot in an otherwise bleak landscape: Los Angeles had been losing production jobs to far-flung climes with more bountiful tax incentives, cheaper labor and less bureaucracy, amid a broader downturn in film and TV production. Now, an iconic series that helped export the fantasy of California beaches (and make them a global tourist destination) was back — and hiring.

When filming began last month, Traci Park, the L.A. city councilwoman who represents the coast, stopped by the Venice Beach set to herald the production. 

But things took a turn for the messy last Sunday, when a popular anonymous Hollywood crew Instagram account posted a lengthy alleged firsthand account from a Baywatch crew member.

The production had already been kicked off Venice Beach and told by the county department that oversees beaches that they “weren’t wanted back,” the post said. Several local media reports soon repeated the claim. 

But it’s not true, according to both county officials and Fox, the network co-producing the series. 

The production can still film at Venice Beach, said Constance Farrell, a spokesperson for County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, whose district includes the coast. 

But, Farrell said, there have been a number of “small” issues around parking and the size of the production footprint, along with issues with how the production’s Coastal Development permit from the California Coastal Commission squares with the actual reality of the production. (Photos published by local outlet Mar Vista Voice suggest the production’s footprint spilled out beyond its authorized area into local side streets.) 

“All of these things we expect to be able to resolve,” Farrell said.

Baywatch completed production of its premiere episode last week, including all scheduled days at Venice Beach, according to a Fox spokesperson. Production is continuing as planned at a number of county beaches, including more shoot days at Venice, the spokesperson said. 

Still, the brouhaha speaks to some of the broader issues with filming in Los Angeles.  

The knotty matter of jurisdiction is a complicating factor for any production filming at the beach. In this case, the county oversees the actual beach, while the parking lots in use belong to the city. And the notoriously demanding California Coastal Commission is also involved in aspects of this production.

“These are issues that we’ve been trying to deal with for decades,” said Teamsters political director Ed Duffy, who previously spent decades as a Hollywood location manager.

Productions have been filming on California beaches for more than a century, Duffy explained. But, he said, restrictions from the County Department of Beaches & Harbors and the Coastal Commission can be cumbersome. These restrictions “were much simpler and easier to work with” when the original Baywatch series was filming here three-plus decades ago, Duffy said. 

Representatives from the city and county will head to the Fox lot this week to meet with the production and hopefully iron out the issues, local officials said. 

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In a move that could offer an unlikely boon to California Democrats, President Donald Trump waded into the state gubernatorial race late Sunday night, throwing his support behind conservative commentator Steve Hilton.

With less than two months until the June 2 primary, the California Democratic establishment has been collectively freaking out over the possibility that two Republicans could advance to the November general election, locking out Democrats despite the party’s lopsided voter registration advantage. (There are an overabundance of prominent-ish Democratic candidates running for governor and just two prominent Republicans, effectively fracturing the Democratic field and making Hilton and fellow Republican Chad Bianco the two front runners in some polling.)

But Trump’s support for Hilton could consolidate Republican voters behind the British TV host, making the possibility that two Republicans make it to the November ticket less likely.

WHO CAN REPRESENT L.A.? L.A. mayoral candidate Spencer Pratt said he had been living in Carpinteria after his house was destroyed in the Palisades fire — an admission that could raise questions about his eligibility to run for mayor, though his family’s burned-out lot remains his permanent address. Pratt, meanwhile, was outraged that anyone would question him running for mayor from his disaster-relocated digs, saying in an X video, “Hey, brain surgeon, my house burned down.”

KANYE RETURNS: Ye, the artist formerly known as Kanye West, made $33 million with his two sold out shows at SoFi Stadium last week, Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw reports. Ye, who previously talked about going “death con 3 on Jewish people” amid other antisemitic outbursts, has been a public pariah in recent years, and Shaw looks at whether the successful SoFi shows mark a possible comeback.

TERRIFYING SURPRISE: Easter egg hunters found what might be a small human skull in a Long Beach park. 

INTRA-CALIFORNIA COMMUTING: Southwest has restored daily service from San Francisco International Airport to Hollywood Burbank Airport.

THE UNWRITTEN RULES OF CELEBRITY PODCASTS: In case you missed it in yesterday’s newsletter, our latest L.A. Material exclusive offers an insider look at how Hollywood built a press machine out of friendly conversations, discreet edits, and the tacit understanding that no one is going for the jugular.

For today’s peek inside our subscriber-only Discord server, @aherman2006 reports back from the buzzy Yerord Mas in #i-was-here:

AND FINALLY… A poem to pair with your morning coffee: “Hollywood Elegies” by Bertolt Brecht, translated from the German by Adam Kirsch.

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