It was Starstruck and Hutch.
The smile on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s face stretched from ear to ear as he and Ben Stiller traded compliments at a Manhattan bill-signing Thursday, where the movie star thanked the governor for the state’s film tax breaks.
“The governor stood by the film and television industry over the last eight years, supporting tax breaks and creating a lot of jobs — hundreds of thousands of jobs — for people in the film industry,” Stiller said, while seated next to Cuomo.
Stiller, who starred in the 2004 film version of the “Starsky & Hutch” TV series, later added: “He’s always been there for the film industry in that way and I really appreciated that.”
The comedian-turned-director recently filmed a cable miniseries about the infamous 2015 jailbreak at the Dannemora prison, which features Michael Imperioli playing Cuomo, a turn of events that Cuomo has frequently joked about in recent weeks.
“He really goes very far to make sure that productions come to New York, going as far as staging a prison break to inspire the series and have Michael Imperioli play you, after Brad Pitt turned the role down,” Stiller joked.
The Showtime drama was filmed on location upstate, which means the tax credit program Stiller lauded will reimburse the producers for 40 percent of the production’s costs. Shoots inside New York City have 30 percent of their costs covered.
The Empire State Development agency and governor’s office were not immediately able to provide details on how much money Stiller’s production might get back.
New York spends $420 million a year on subsidizing film and television productions in the state, a program that critics blast as a waste since New York television staples like “Saturday Night Live” benefit from the program, too.
Cuomo and Stiller made the joint appearance at a ceremony where Cuomo signed legislation that overhauls and reforms the state’s voting laws, which were some of the strictest in the nation.
The new package of reforms implements early voting, consolidates the state’s primary elections onto one day and lays the groundwork for constitutional amendments to greatly expand access to absentee balloting.
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