Hollywood, that chimerical land of sudden riches and happy endings, is being rocked by protests about sordid abuses in the real world. A number of stars, directors and independent producers, who had kept their mouths shut in the past for fear of jeopardizing their careers, are speaking out against the fast shuffles dealt them over the years by the studios.
The protests have been sparked by the continuing scandal involving David Begelman, 56, president of film and television operations for Columbia Pictures. Though Begelman admitted embezzling more than $60,000 from Columbia and signing at least three checks with fake signatures, including that of Actor Cliff Robertson, he was returned practically unpunished to his $400,000 post. His reinstatement, which was seen as a symbol of the arrogant power wielded by Hollywood's kingmakers, became too much to stomach even for many veterans of the cynical film community.
Begelman was calmly going about his business last week. Every morning he arrived at his Burbank studio by 9 to view rushes of the previous day's filming, and he was keeping sharp watch on his latest hit, Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Currently it is the nation's top-grossing film, having run up $62 million in receipts in six weeks. Wheeling as usual, Begelman set up a distribution deal for Robert Mitchum's new film, The Amsterdam Kill, and signed Robert Redford to star in Electric Horseman.
It was precisely because Begelman had rescued Columbia from the brink of bankruptcy and turned it into a moneymaker that its directors last December decided to reinstate him. A vocal dissenter had been Alan Hirschfield, president of Columbia's parent, Columbia Pictures Industries; the two men seemed formally reconciled last week, and Hirschfield spent the week in Hollywood talking with Begelman about future plans. But the Columbia directors were scheduled to meet again this week, and there was speculation that they might reconsider their decision, particularly since Columbia stock has fallen to 15% from 20% in December, before the affair burst into the open.
The bad publicity is continuing. Last week New West and New York magazines ran a seven-page expose on Begelman, charging that his recent rip-offs were not a "mental aberration," as he claimed, but fitted a long-term pattern, dating back to his days as Judy Garland's agent in the early 1960s. Drawing mainly on files and canceled checks supplied by Garland's former husband Sid Luft, the article asserted that Begelman and a partner, Freddie Fields, had fleeced the singer of large amounts. Meanwhile the Los Angeles County district attorney was investigating the latest Begelman case but was finding it difficult to prosecute because Columbia would not press charges.
The Begelman affair, however, has prompted many stars and agents to make their own verbal indictments of practices in the $3.2 billion-a-year film industry. Said Hollywood Lawyer Ronald Litz: "The custom in Hollywood is that you get away with as much as you can until you're caught." Litz won a $225,000 settlement from Columbia for Robert Redford and Director Sydney Pollack, who contended they had been denied their fair share of the profit from The Way We Were.