A new bio of legendary movie studio titan Lew Wasserman charges that he was hooked on barbiturates, that his wife cheated on him and that he kept a mob thug on his payroll. So it’s no wonder that Wasserman has been trying to put the kibosh on an unauthorized biography by Dennis McDougal, “The Last Mogul: Lew Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden History of Hollywood.
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Even before Crown Books went to press, the former head of MCA/Universal sicced high-powered attorney Bert Fields who has run interference against bios of Calvin Klein and David Geffen on the publisher.
Perhaps smelling an injunction, Crown has rushed the book out ahead of its Nov. 15 publication date, sources say.
It’s not hard to see what Wasserman, 85, might be upset about. McDougal describes the confidant of Presidents as “benevolent” but also “frightening,” “devious” and “treacherous.
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Among the book’s charges:
Federal prosecutors once investigated a tip that Wasserman had someone murdered.
In 1986, the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force was at a loss to explain why MCA was stonewalling an investigation into a Gambino soldier named Sal Pisello, who allegedly bilked the company out of hundreds of thousands of dollars while working there as a record exec.
During the probe, they received an anonymous letter that read in part: “Wasserman wanted his daughter’s boyfriend murdered. Sal Pisello committed the murder. Wasserman is now indebted to Sal Pisello.
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Prosecutors figured that the note referred to someone that Wasserman’s daughter, Lynne, had dated. But they could never substantiate the allegation. Pisello was convicted of tax evasion.
Wasserman’s wife, Edie, may have had an affair with “Rebel Without a Cause” director Nicholas Ray. “She almost left Lew for Ray,” Lynne Wasserman’s former husband, Jack Myers, says in the book. It also repeats Hollywood whispers that Edie was more than friends with Errol Flynn (who nicknamed her “Legs”), Harry Belafonte and Frank Sinatra.
Edie once “snubbed Princess Grace of Monaco by pointing out that the Wasserman kingdom was more vast, and far more powerful, than Ranier’s Mediterranean principality.
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Wasserman regularly used drugs. McDougal quotes Myers as claiming that Lynne fell out with her father because he refused to give up using barbiturates. Wasserman did eventually quit Seconal, according to McDougal, but continued to feud with Lynne over her choice in men.
Wasserman declined to comment.
Bessette to the barricades
Carolyn Bessette Kennedy comes off as bashful when she’s at galas on the arm of husband John Kennedy Jr. But the Prada-loving Camelot princess raised her voice at a recent Community Board 1 meeting. Taking a cue from her activist hubby, who last year helped derail a multiplex theater in the couple’s Tribeca neighborhood, Carolyn spoke out against the installation of a cooling tower near their apartment. She and John are among those who think it’ll be an ear-sore.
Richard Holbrooke, human shredder
You never know what you’ll find in your in-flight magazine pouch. It may be some hush-hush diplomatic briefings from Kosovo.
President Clinton’s top peacemaker Richard Holbrooke was relaxing on a recent flight from Rome to New York when he pulled out a file marked “top secret” from a triple-locked briefcase, the Times of London reports.
Holbrooke took the precaution of ripping up the papers, but when he stuffed them into the seat compartment in front of him, a fellow passenger asked: “Aren’t you worried they will fall into the wrong hands?
” Holbrooke quipped, “Nobody ever looks in these things.
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Ted Turner, defuse-nik
Ted Turner didn’t flash his money clip at this year’s UN Association Dinner. But the Time Warner honcho who announced a $1 billion donation at last year’s UN bash may still have something to contribute. Turner appeared to be interested in the organization’s program to make minefields safe. Keeping the peace at the Waldorf-Astoria on Tuesday night were Michael Douglas, Jane Fonda, Robert Rubin and George Soros.
Attorney-at-larcency?
Last year, little-known attorney Dominick Crispino vowed to challenge Robert Morgenthau for Manhattan district attorney in the next election. Crispino didn’t make good on his promise, but he’ll still be going up against his old nemesis in court on criminal charges.
Morgenthau has indicted the Manhattan attorney in the theft of more than $143,000 from three clients from September 1996 to December 1997, The News’ Barbara Ross tells us.
Crispino, 35, was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and criminal possession of a forged instrument. He faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison if convicted of second-degree grand larceny. He faces up to seven years in prison if convicted of the criminal-possession charges.
Crispino couldn’t be reached for comment.
Geldof lowers the boomtown
No love lost between Bob Geldof and Bob Guccione Jr. When the ex-Boomtown Rat rocker found out that his British TV show, “The Big Breakfast,” booked Guccione as a guest, Geldof went ballistic and canceled the segment.
Geldof must still be seething since Guccione’s Gear magazine said he “once went four years without a bath” this in a profile of Geldof ex-girlfriend Paula Yates, no less. Maybe Geldof also hasn’t forgotten the controversial Spin mag piece Guccione published. It charged that the rocker’s Live Aid event to end hunger raised very little money for famine relief.
Surveillance
WE HATE to break it to those raunchy guys who create “South Park,” but director Steven Spielberg is a fan. Or at least his kids are. Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw picked up some “South Park” novelties at the Serendipity 3 gift shop.
