Tasty Tidbits From Hollywood's Frenzied Fall

For three years, Fields has been an official “subject” of the feds’ investigation in the Pellicano wiretap case. (Being a “subject” meant he was a person whose conduct was within the scope of the grand jury’s investigation.) Fields and Pellicano were pals professionally and personally — Fields was one of the very few in show biz who helped raise money for Pellicano’s kids when the P.I. was first jailed.

Back in June, Pellicano himself told the Los Angeles Times:  “Of all the people in the world to suspect it of: Bert Fields? Mr. Clean Jeans? Mr. Straight Arrow? My God, I don’t think I’ve even heard him curse in the entire time I’ve known him — let alone say, ‘Hey, Pellicano, I want you to go out and do this or do that.’ I mean, come on .?.?. There is no way in the world that any lawyer who has got any brains is going to hire somebody to do something illegal. Why throw away your law license?”

Already, federal prosecutors said they did not expect to bring charges against Fields’ law firm. Nevertheless, just having the feds breathing down the neck of Greenberg Glusker lost the practice some senior partners, led by Howard Weitzman and Dale Kinsella, last April 17. (Ironically, it was Weitzman who first brought Pellicano to Los Angeles.) Fields does have some civil cases arising out of the Pellicano probe to deal with. But “Bert has already put this behind him, and is totally focused on his cases. I’ve never seen him so busy,” a source close to him told me.

Next month, he goes into L.A. County Superior Court for a two-month jury trial representing best-selling author Clive Cussler against Denver billionaire Phil Anschutz’s Beverly Hills movie company Crusader Entertainment over Cussler’s right of script approval on the film Sahara.

Honestly?

So the first thing I asked Sherry Lansing was, “Are you going to tell the truth?” Because she’s signed to write a memoir with Crown’s Harmony Books in a deal negotiated by her agent, Lynn Nesbit. When I reached her by phone in Munich, where her husband, Billy Friedkin, is directing an opera, Lansing pledged, “I am going to be scrupulously honest. Because there’s no point doing it otherwise.”

The money she’ll receive from the book will go to cancer research, and it’s a tidy sum since the word is she’s receiving a cool $1 mil to put pen to paper. Lansing said the deal is contingent on her finding a writer, because it will be an “as told to” book covering her entire life. Still, I’m skeptical that Lansing, who for so many years was the very model of diplomacy in this very rude town, can really tell all about the rat bastards at Fox and Paramount whom she’s worked for and with. Too many Hollywood players, like Dawn Steel and Mike Medavoy, have written books that don’t dish the real dirt. ?