The Stage

Equity forced to apologise to Kenwright over pay jibe

Published Wednesday 25 June 2008 at 16:45 by Alistair Smith

Exclusive: Equity president Harry Landis and general secretary Christine Payne have been forced to make a public apology to Bill Kenwright over comments made by Landis about the West End producer at the union’s recent Annual Representative Conference.

The criticisms, in which Landis claimed Kenwright was the “worst payer in the West End” were revealed exclusively in The Stage, after Landis made them during his President’s Speech at the ARC. He later repeated them to other media.

In an apology issued by Equity via a full page advert in The Stage this week, Landis and Payne both “unreservedly apologise to BKL [Bill Kenwright Limited] and Bill Kenwright personally for the distress caused by these comments”, which they both also “now acknowledge as being unfounded”.

According to the statement, the apology has been accepted by Kenwright and “the matter is now closed.”

• For a full text of the apology, see p19 of this week’s print edition of The Stage (issue dated June 26, 2008).