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Netflix’s Hollywood
Musings from a Hollywood Studio Chief
Even though Ryan Murphy’s binge-worthy limited-series, Hollywood, was set before my time, I (*) saw the vestiges of those prejudices ( race and sexual preference) in my own tour of duty.
We had to recut a Richard Pryor comedy because an Atlanta preview audience tore up the seats because the black comic kissed a white woman, Margot Kidder.
I was politely asked by a Board Member at Disney, if I might take on a wife because my lifestyle was contrary to the Disney ethos. I wouldn’t and resigned soon after. I should have sued for discrimination, but I did not even though I would be wealthy beyond dreams.
In the middle of the night, I needed to remove $20,000 from a Paramount safe to pay-off a hotel owner to keep quiet about our male star being beaten up by a gay trick who tore up the hotel room as well as the star.
That hotel room at 4AM was where I first met Anthony Pellicano, the “Hollywood fixer” who recently was released from federal prison after a 15 year stint for illegal wire-tapping. And, yes, Pellicano, on Paramount’s dole, had his legendary baseball bat in the trunk of his Mercedes to remind the hotel owner what would happen if he ever whispered anything.
Thankfully, so much has changed over the years, largely due to the trailblazing of…
