Lesli Linka Glatter, president of the Directors Guild of America, has announced that director and DGA sixth VP Lily Olszewski has been appointed chair of the Guild’s Network Negotiating Committee. Director Brett Holey and associate director/DGA assistant secretary-treasurer Joyce Thomas have been appointed co-chairs. The DGA’s Network Negotiating Committee negotiates with ABC, NBC and CBS for DGA directors and their teams working in news, sports, operations and local.
Glatter said, “With decades of working experience at the top of their craft, combined with years of expertise as leaders in prior network negotiations, this team will be a significant asset to the Guild when it comes time to negotiate our network contracts in New York.”
The National Board of Directors unanimously approved these appointments at its recent March meeting. The DGA announced earlier this year that director Jon Avnet will chair, and directors Todd Holland and Karen Gaviola will co-chair, the Feature Film and Television Negotiating Committee.
The DGA’s current Network Agreement expires on June 30, 2023.
Olszewski is an Emmy-award winning director of ABC’s Good Morning America, where she has been for more than 13 years. She broke into the industry as an associate director at Spanish language TV station KVEA, where she received her first directing opportunity. Her credits include Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Jenny McCarthy Show, Latin Billboard Awards Red Carpet, Premios Fox and Sesame Street. A DGA member since 2015, she currently serves as the sixth VP of the DGA and is a member of the Eastern Directors Council, the Focus on Women Committee and was a co-chair of the Network Negotiations Committee in 2019.
Holey is the sr. director for NBC News, where he oversees the directing team, production and aesthetics. He has directed all NBC News programs including election coverage, breaking news and primetime programming. He’s currently working with the launch of NBC News Now, the first U.S.-based, international streaming news service. Previously, Holey served as director and sr. broadcast producer of the NBC Nightly News and director of special projects. Holey’s work has earned him 13 Emmys, a number of Edward R. Murrow Awards and a National Headliner Award. He has been DGA member since 1984, has served on the Eastern Directors Council and has previously served as co-chair of the Network Negotiations Committee for the past three negotiations.
Thomas has worked at CBS for more than 30 years, joining the Guild in 1996 as an associate director/technical supervisor in the Broadcast Operations Department and currently works as an associate director/technical manager at the network’s Media Distribution Center in New York. Thomas serves as assistant secretary-treasurer on the National Board and has served on the Eastern AD/SM/PA Council for more than 20 years, including three terms as Council chair. Thomas is co-chair of the Focus on Women Committee, a former co-chair of the Eastern Diversity Steering Committee and has served on three previous Network Negotiating Committees.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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