Indecent Exposure (59 page)
- The New York Times,
in an article on Ray Stark the following day, repeated the essence of the
Los Angeles Times
story, and the
Los Angeles Herald Examiner
then reprinted the
New York Times
story. - Ray Stark, through his attorney, demanded and got published clarifications from all three papers.
- Sunday, February 5, was one of the coldest and bleakest days of the winter in New York. Seven-eleven Fifth Avenue was uncomfortably chilly, even the windowless boardroom where a sullen group of Columbia officers and directors gathered at noon to confront David Begelman and Sy Weintraub. Hirschfield was flanked by Joe Fischer,
Victor Kaufman, Peter Gruenberge
r, and Leo Jaffe.* There to ensure that David
Begelman
got what they felt Columbia owed him were Herbert Allen, Irwin Kramer, and Dan Lufkin. - Though Hirschfield held to his view that Begelman should submit his resignation before negotiations began, the board members insisted that the two men meet privately to hear each other's positions before the larger group became involved. Alan and David went into Hirschfield's office, which was even colder than the boardroom.
- Alan implored David to "be reasonable. I'm conscious of your problems. I know this is a low ebb in your life. But for God's sake don't create more problems for yourself and the company by making demands that aren't reasonable. There are limits today. It's not December. This is a national story. This deal is going to be scrutinized, no matter what we do, and it's going to be the subject of lawsuits in my opinion. So if you truly want this thing to die down, to damp the fires and go away, you have to be reasonable. Now is a chance to at least begin to put this t
hing to rest. Don't do it for me
. Forget my position. I feel my days are numbered here, too. But serve yourself by being reasonable." - Begelman was even more haggard than he had been a few days earlier in Los Angeles, and Hirschfield found himself again deeply saddened just by the sight of him—so different from the dapper, enthusiastic, self-assured man he had grown fond of over the past four and a half years.
- "I hear what you're saying, Alan, but I just can't accept anything less than a full settlement of my contract plus an independent
- "Todd Lang was vacationing in the
Caribbean,
production deal that is competitive with my position and record in the industry. Look, Alan, I'm broke. The only thing standing between my sanity and putting a gun in my mouth is the prospect of a financial arrangement that will leave mc whole and give me security for the future. If I can't get it here, I have assurances that Warner's, Fox, and Paramount stand ready to make an appropriate deal with me. But if I can't even get a sufficient settlement of my contract here, there's no sense in resigning. I truly am at the end of my rope." - As he listened to
Begelman
, who was near tears, Hirschfield was touched and depressed. In contrast to his cynical reaction to David's plea for mercy at the board meeting in November ("That was quite an act, trembling hands and all"), Alan now felt compassion. To hear the proud and normally controlled David
Begelman
say that he was "broke" and that he might "put a gun in my mouth" was wrenching for Hirschfield. Yet it was confusing as well, and even disorienting. Could this be just another act? Another skilled performance? Alan's emotions told him it wasn't, but how could he be sure? As he had at other moments since Detective Silvey's call in September, Hirschfield thought of Herman Melville's story of il
lusion and reality, "Benito Cere
no," in which the main character comes to accept a particular version of events, only to find that it is entirely false.
Shivering from the cold, their differences unresolved, Hirschfield and
Begelman
returned to the boardroom.
"I've basically come here to resign,"
Begelman
told the group, "and I need to know what Columbia has in mind for me following my resignation. It seems to mc there are three possibilities: 1 don't resign, and Columbia stands foursquare behind me, and we fight this through. I resign, my contract is settled, and I make an independent production arrangement with Columbia. Or, I resign, my contract is settled, and I go elsewhere." - "The only realistic option,"
Hirschfield
said, "is a reasonable settlement that includes a reasonable production deal at Columbia." - Dan Lufkin, who had had little to say since joining the Columbia board two months earlier, suddenly turned on Hirschfield. "Alan, you're at a crossroads here. It is my opinion that if you threw your full support behind David, together with the board's support, we could fight the present situation through, even including an indictment. Your failure to support David has helped create the present set of circumstances. If you're not prepared to support David, then we should do one of two things: give him a fair settlement and let him go elsewhere, or keep him at Columbia by giving him a fair settlement of his contract and an independent production deal that is competitive in the industry. . . ."
- Hirschfield interrupted: "I think it's outrageous that you choose to blame me for this public outcry, to say that this has become a national story because of my failure to support Begelman! The real problem was the failure of the board to support me! You haven't been around long and maybe you don't know all the facts, but it's outrageous for you to be rewriting history like this. I will be happy to spend the rest of the day with you, updating you on the fact that I warned the board and every right-thinking person who would listen that all of this would happen. What this board has done—the way this board has behaved—has never happened before in the history of American business!"
- "Either you support him or you don't," Lufkin asserted. "If you don't have the guts to support him, at least have the guts to make the right kind of deal with him. Either get rid of him with the proper settlement, or make a fair deal to keep him."
- Herbert Allen endorsed the notion of making Begelman a producer at Columbia. It was suggested that Hirschfield, Jaffe, and Fischer,
on behalf of Columbia, and Sy We
intraub, on behalf of Begelman, begin negotiating. The talks lasted far into the eveni
ng and were very acrimonious. We
intraub occasionally left the boardroom to confer with
Begelman
. Herbert Allen and Irwin Kramer stayed to monitor the negotiations. Slowly, point by point, the Columbia negotiators agreed to give David Begelman much of what he wanted—a deal from which he stood an excellent chance of making more money than he had made as president of the studio.
Although
Hirschfield
knew that his authority had been eroded still further, this latest acquiescence to Herbert Allen's wishes did not depress him as much as the events of December had. The second compromise always is easier than the first. Furthermore, David
Begelman
at least was out of the company. To that extent, Hirschfield had won a minor victory. And he had bought still more time for his secret efforts to overthrow Herbert.
A public-relations consultant was brought in to draft a press release. After a long, loud argument over phrasing, the release was completed and prepared for dissemination Monday morning. - The weary negotiators shuffled out onto Fifth Avenue late in the evening, just as the snow was beginning to fall.
- FORTY-FIVE
- The phone rang in Rona Barren's Beverly Hills home at 10:30 that evening, California time. It was Begelman. "I have just left the boardroom of Columbia Pictures Industries," he told her. "I wanted you t
o know before anyone else that I
have resigned." "I'm sorry," Barrett said. - "I will become an independent producer doing motion pictures and television for Columbia,"
Begelman
added, choking back tears. - They talked for about twenty minutes, after which Barrett decided that the story was big en
ough to justify rewriting and re
taping her Monday morning broadcast. Normally, she taped her reports in the evening at the Los Angeles ABC studios for use the following morning on
Good Morning America.
Earlier that evening she had taped a story saying that David
Begelman
was expected to resign within forty-eight hours—a story that
Begelman
's phone call had made obsolete. At 11
P
.M., Barrett aroused her entire television crew and asked them to meet her back at the studios. At 3 A.M. she fed a new report to New York: - Good morning, David, and good morning, America.
- From New York City, David Begelman has confirmed to me that late last night he resigned from the presidency of Columbia Pictures, and that a public announcement from Columbia is expected momentarily.
Begelman
's resignation thereby ends a personal ordeal that began last October when he admitted to financial misdeeds and temporarily removed himself from his executive post before being reinstated to the presidency two months later. His resignation today has been speculated about these last few days, despite adamant denials of any such impending intention by Begel
man himself, and assurance from
Columbia's board of directors that he enjoyed their total support. David Begelman also confirmed that he will now become an independent producer associated with Columbia, the position many thought he should have assumed immediately after admitting to his financial misconduct. Begelman, sounding emotionally drained, said his decision to resign stemmed from his inability to stand by and watch innocent men and women, many of them friends, be torn apart by headline-grabbing accusations and innuendos. What effect
Begelman
's resignation will have on the community remains to be seen, since what might be termed a civil war has been in effect between pro-
Begelman
supporters and anti-
Begelman
agitants. Whether that emotional split can now be healed and goodwill restored will be a formidable task for industry leaders to face. Adding to the chaos is the massive media attention now focused on the industry, a direct result of the Pandora's box the Begelman affair opened. . . . - It snowed in New York from late Sunday until Tuesday afternoon— eighteen inches officially by the time it stopped, blown into high drifts by strong north winds. The storm was the most severe for several years, but it did not prevent the Columbia principals from conducting business. Many of those who did not live in Manhattan stayed in the city overnight.
- A dour Herbert Allen dispatched a blunt, perfunctory note on Monday to Hirschfield, Fischer, and Jaffe.
- "I am asking all the people I know to come up with recommendations [of candidates to head the studio]. These are some of the names I've heard so far today.
I
don't know if they're available or qualified, but it's a beginning." He listed Dan Melnick; Bob Evans, (he producer and former head of production at Paramount; David Picker, a producer who had presided over both Paramou
nt and United Artists; Stan Kame
n, the William Morris
agent; Freddie Fields; Sue Menge
rs; David Geffen; Marty Ransohoff; Ned Tanen, the president of Universal Pictures; and several other people.
In contrast to Herbert's feeling of urgency, Hirschfield preferred to conduct the search more deliberately and perhaps use it as an opportunity for reorganizing the studio to solve some of th
e management lapses he and Adle
r had discussed months earlier. Moving slowly would also give him more time to search for a buyer for the corporation at large. - By special messenger on Monday, Hirschfield received a package of documents and pamphlets on Philip Morris assembled by its acquisitions man, Robert Critchell. The package was marked "Personal and Confidential—Eyes Only," and bore no return address or other Philip Morris marking. The contact between the two companies was espe
cially sensitive for Bob Critche
ll. He had been a fraternity brother of Herbert Allen's at Williams College. - The Begelman resignation story appeared on virtually every network television and radio news program and in just about every newspaper in the country. And though
Time
and
Newsweek
had gone to press before Begelman's resignation became known, both magazines appeared Monday with major "Hollywoodgate" articles.
Newsweek
did a splashily illustrated seven-page cover story (
Inside
hollywood: high stakes! fast bucks! shady deals!).
Time
published a more modest piece which concluded: "The Begelman affair reawakens old suspicions about Hollywood—that it is dominated by a handful of imperious men who can benefit from a double scale of justice and a one-sided set of books." Liz Smith concluded her Monday column with an ominous little item: "The further story on this sordid matter, now being prepared by
The New York Times,
will pop Hollywood open because it will go all the way back to the days of Meyer Lansky, and the names involved will not find it funny when they read about themselves." Though Smith was not spec
ific, she was referring to the e
xposd being written by Lucian Truscott, IV, for the
Times
magazine under the supervision of editor Lynda Obst.
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