Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, the Republican who signed into law the second-most restrictive forced-birth legislation of the year, is having some regrets, apparently. With major Hollywood figures announcing they are pulling their film and TV projects out of the state—which is behind just New York and California in the extent of TV and movie production there—and more of them saying they won't work there again because of the law, Kemp has some explaining to do.

So he toured movie facilities on Wednesday to demonstrate that he loves the movies and all the Hollywood people with their liberal Hollywood values. It might not have gone well. One executive, Kris Bagwell, says his EUE Screen Gems Studios in Atlanta lost a Netflix movie and with it 300 jobs. "The passage of this law threatens to destroy a significant portion of 11 years of goodwill between Georgia and the national film and television production industry. […] Isn't the first rule of job creation 'Don't shoot the jobs you already created?'"

After his effort at diplomacy, Kemp's office released a statement lauding the industry that "generates economic opportunity in every corner of our great state." That is probably not enough to erase what he said just a few days ago about the industry. "We are the party of freedom and opportunity," Kemp said at the Georgia GOP convention last weekend. "We value and protect innocent life—even though that makes C-list celebrities squawk."

Those C-list celebrities apparently have him thinking twice about that now.

Published with permission from Daily Kos.