Patrick heads to Hollywood

June 10, 2008 02:53 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Matt Viser, Globe Staff

The governor is going to Hollywood.

Governor Deval Patrick is planning to meet with film studio executives next week to discuss plans that could bring them to Massachusetts.

“I hope … that we’ll be able to spend a few hours [next] Thursday morning up in L.A. talking with some studios who are interested in investing in Massachusetts,” Patrick told reporters this afternoon. “It’s all about growing jobs.”

Patrick said the details were still being worked out, but he hoped to meet with three sound studios that have expressed an interest in building in the Bay State, where film tax breaks have led some to start calling Massachusetts, "Hollywood East."

Patrick and a cadre of state politicians are planning to leave for California on Monday for a three-day biotechnology conference in San Diego. They are hoping to be able to promote state legislation that would spend $1 billion over 10 years in trying to grow the state’s life sciences industry. That legislation has been bottled up in a committee of House and Senate lawmakers, but is expected to emerge by the end of the week.

After leaving California, Patrick may attend a meeting in Chicago for Democratic governors who support Senator Barack Obama in his presidential bid.

He will also travel to Washington on Friday, where he hopes to meet with the federal secretary of Health and Human Services, Michael Leavitt, about Medicaid reimbursement waivers that the state is seeking.