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quad: CLONE pic to bleed. illo x & y skewed. APRs IN 10/17/07 Text Revise ___________ Hold x-axis scale less than y-axis. please match layout below Art Director ___________ Color Revise __________ S H O W B U S I N E S S ROYAL RUMBLE From left: Sumner Redstone, Brad Grey, Philippe Dauman, Shari Redstone, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg, and David Geffen. SHOWDOWN AT FORT SUMNER Two years after Paramount purchased DreamWorks, Hollywood is transfixed by one of the nastiest breakups ever. As Sumner Redstone and David Geffen went to war (over Steven Spielberg?), the author got it from both sides BY BRYAN BURROUGH here was a time, not long after new home in a gated community above Bever- and the Palm, the gossip about Redstone is Sumner Redstone came to South- ly Hills, where he spent his days tending tropi- withering: among the agents and producers in ern California four years ago, when cal ! sh, taking phone calls, and shaving nude Hollywood’s chattering class, he is increasingly the world must have seemed rosy in his hot tub. Sylvester Stallone lived next viewed as an isolated, mean-spirited old man and new and full of hope. At 82, door. He ate out every night. Life was good. who cares nothing for the film community’s an age when peers were dead Not anymore. By late summer Redstone traditions. All summer the ill will bubbled up or lying in retirement homes, Redstone had had begun squabbling again with his daughter, into a series of unflattering media portray- everything a mogul could want: between his Shari, 53, who runs National Amusements, the als—much of which Redstone now blames on two main companies, Viacom and CBS, he family’s movie-theater chain, and reportedly the man he has come to believe is behind not Towned a television network, cable channels by fighting with his wife, Paula. At the same time, only the bad press but almost all of his “image the score, and not one Hollywood movie stu- relations between Redstone and the influential problems’’ in the broader Hollywood commu- dio but two—Paramount, with its sprawling Geffen-Spielberg-Katzenberg troika—incensed nity: David Geffen. lot, seized in a takeover ! ght 10 years before, by a stream of perceived slights—had deterio- In a series of talks with Vanity Fair begin- and his newest acquisition, DreamWorks rated into a nasty cold war, to the point where ning in August, Redstone’s men have blamed SKG, home to Steven Spielberg, Je" rey Katz- it is widely believed Spielberg and Geffen will Geffen, the mischievous music turned film enberg, and David Ge" en. On top of all that, resign the moment Spielberg’s employment magnate, for practically every bad press notice Redstone had a sparkling young wife and a contract expires, next fall. Down at the Ivy they have received, even the reports of trouble 1 9 0 V A N I T Y F A I R www.vanityfair.com D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 7 1190.indd90.indd 1 110/29/070/29/07 22:37:00:37:00 PPMM 1207VF CL-138 APRs IN 10/17/07 Text Revise ___________ NOTES: Art Director ___________ Color Revise __________ S H O W B U S I N E S S in Redstone’s marriage. “This is all Geffen,” chief, Paramount’s Brad Grey, a veteran tal- Ovitz—who after leaving his all-powerful po- an executive close to Redstone told me. “We ent manager and producer but a newcomer sition atop the Creative Artists Agency found know what’s going on. He’s doing all of this. as studio executive, still unsure of his foot- himself vulnerable to press attacks—and He’s relentless. He and Sumner, when they’re ing, yet eager to assert his leadership over Redstone, a multi-billionaire who doesn’t in a fight like this, it’s war. It’s war.” the proud DreamWorks team. Spielberg, cut deals with studios. He owns studios. When I first relayed these sentiments to the legend, comfortable in his routines, “You’re right, you can’t take down Sumner Geffen, he exploded. “Whoever said these suspicious of change, ever respectful of Redstone,” the adviser admits. “But in a things, they must be out of their minds,” he Hollywood tradition. And Geffen, hyper- Sumner Redstone situation, you can expose said, his voice rising with each syllable. “I am protective of Spielberg, easy to o! end, only him. He’s already damaged.” not responsible for the public discourse about fully engaged, it seems, when consumed by Mr. Redstone at all. He is. To imply I have some epic life-or-death struggle. hy on earth did Ge! en launch a anything to do with his image problems is Whether or not you believe Ge! en was crusade against Redstone? For a just shameful. The lawsuits with his children behind the spate of anti-Redstone articles W time, the conventional wisdom was and the statements he has made on the rec ord this past summer, there’s no denying his un- that he was trying to drive Redstone to the speak for themselves.” happiness triggered all this. bargaining table to get something he wanted: But Ge! en, who to his credit ENDLESS SUMNER In fact, the sheer vehemence a better deal for Spielberg at Paramount, or had no problem speaking on the Brad Grey and of Geffen’s anti-Redstone the sale of DreamWorks Animation—now an rec ord, was only warming up. Sumner Redstone. fervor reminds more than independent company run by Katzenberg— “I don’t care for Sumner’s be- Redstone reportedly one observer—including this to Viacom. Inside the Redstone camp, the havior,” he went on, “and I have regaled dinner-party feeling was that Ge! en had his eye on an exit that in common with a great guests with Grey’s strategy for when Spielberg’s contract with many people in the entertain- stories about Geffen’s Paramount expires, next fall. Either this was unpopularity. ment business. I don’t like the a ploy to coax more money out of Redstone way he treats people. Most of or—and this was the guess you heard most all, nobody is going to treat me or my often—it was Ge! en’s strange way of placing partner [Spielberg] in that manner and a FOR SALE sign on DreamWorks. stay in business with us. Nobody.” On the rec ord, Redstone’s men refused It was this level of behind-the- to parry with Geffen for this article. “We scenes vitriol that spawned the first will not engage in tit for tat,” says a Viacom serious broadside in the developing spokesman. “Steven is a great talent whom Redstone-DreamWorks " ght, in mid- we all treasure. We are taking the high road.” September, when Viacom’s C.E.O., Speaking for background, however, they are Philippe Dauman, told an audience of more than willing to talk trash. “We know New York investors and analysts that why he’s doing it—it’s obvious,” says the Red- Paramount could survive the depar- stone adviser. “Because next year Paramount ture of Spielberg and Ge! en. In one will have the hot hand. DreamWorks won’t. of the more memorable smackdowns Look at the slate [of planned movies]. Every- in recent Hollywood history, Dauman thing good is coming from Paramount. The characterized the potential loss of DreamWorks " lms don’t look anywhere near Spielberg as “completely immaterial.” as good. So if you’re Ge! en and you want to Katzenberg immediately " red back, negotiate, you want to do it now. He’s look- defending Spielberg in remarks that ing for any leverage he can " nd on Sumner.” ran beneath one of Variety’s tradition- ally clever headlines: KATZ SHOWS CLAWS. Still, Redstone’s team was happy with the exchange, feeling they had put the Dream- “I WILL NOT BE BULLIED. Works trio, especially Geffen, in their I AM ABSOLUTELY UNAFRAID OF places. “They don’t scare us,” a Redstone executive told me not long after. “What are SUMNER REDSTONE,” SAYS GEFFEN. we supposed to do? Bend over some more? Uh-uh. No more. This is it.” one—of the decade-long campaign he waged Ge! en hotly denies this. “Absolutely not Tough, tough talk for a tough, tough town. against Michael Ovitz, the onetime Holly- true,” he says. “I want nothing from these But how much of it was real? How much of wood superagent who, in a 2002 Vanity Fair people. Nothing. This is not about money. it was simply Hollywood-style posturing? pro" le, memorably blamed his downfall on It is my job to look out for Steven Spielberg Did the Redstone-Ge! en " ght involve gen- Ge! en and a cabal of allies he termed “the and Je! rey Katzenberg and our employees uine bad blood or was this all just silliness Gay Mafia.” While Geffen always denied and the people we are in business with. We and drama in an industry that makes its leading an anti-Ovitz jihad, there was no have a responsibility here. I chose to sell this money selling silliness and drama? doubt that he regularly launched into anti- company to Paramount. It has turned out to Ovitz tirades for the benefit of reporters, be a poor choice. To me, it’s about protecting II and was an important source of anti-Ovitz these people. That is my goal and my raison ou could see this coming for months.

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