Club cancels Newport advertising show

A group that hoped to tout TV commercials’ artistic value as “very

short films” instead got a taste of what it might be like to gain

admission into the Hollywood big leagues.

In fact, the mighty power of the Screen Actors Guild weighed so

heavily on the Orange County Ad Club’s “Best in the West Advertising”

event at the Newport Beach Film Festival that planners decided to cancel

the event altogether.

Attributing the decision only to second thoughts not prompted by any

guild action, Ad Club President Billy Fried on Friday announced that the

event was canceled.

He said that organizers did not want to risk any action by the guild

for exhibiting the commercials without the actors’ approval.

“I’ve seen many screenings like this done but they were done under the

SAG’s radar,” Fried said. “Because this event is more high profile, we

figured it was too risky.”

Originally scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Edwards Island

1 as part of the citywide festival, the event was to examine commercials

as art and as a venue for directors who want to break into the feature

film business.

-- June Casagrande and Lolita Harper