Entertainment World

Bert Fields Remembered as a Loyal and Fearsome Protector of Hollywood Stars

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Hollywood gathered Sunday to pay tribute to Bert Fields, the legendary lawyer who was in the midst of excessive profile battles spanning a number of a long time. Fields died in August on the age of 93.

Amongst these paying their respects had been Jeffrey Katzenberg, Dustin Hoffman and Michael Ovitz, who every recalled him as a loyal pal. Elaine Could and Tom Cruise additionally recorded video tributes that had been performed for the viewers on the Broad Stage in Santa Monica.

Cruise, a longtime consumer of Fields, remembered him as “an individual who I knew I may all the time depend on.”

“I believe everyone knows how priceless that’s on this world — when somebody says they’re going to do one thing and so they really do it,” Cruise mentioned. “I’m simply very grateful to him.”

With a courtly method and a roster of high-powered purchasers, Fields developed a fame as probably the most fearsome lawyer in Hollywood. His widow, Barbara Guggenheim, mentioned that after his loss of life a pal had associated that he now felt “unprotected.”

“That’s how all of us really feel,” she mentioned. “Whether or not you had been Bert’s consumer or whether or not you had been a pal you all the time knew Bert was in your again pocket. And that any time of the day or evening you may pull him out and provides him a name and he would enable you to anyway he may. All of us miss that.”

One other consumer, Susan Estrich, advised the viewers that Fields “cherished standing up for every one in all you.”

“Bert scared individuals with good cause,” she mentioned. “With Bert on my facet, I all the time felt secure.”

Katzenberg employed Fields to characterize him in his authorized battle with Disney, after he was fired in 1994. The authorized battle ended with a reported $250 million settlement in Katzenberg’s favor.

Each time they ate collectively after that, Katzenberg would all the time prepare forward of time to select up the examine.

“In any case, he did make me wealthy,” Katzenberg recalled.

Fields grew to become irritated by this and in the end managed to pay the examine by telling the restaurant it was Katzenberg’s birthday.

“On the finish I used to be shocked and considerably embarrassed and tried to protest because the waiters serenaded me with ‘Completely satisfied Birthday,’ together with cake full with candles and sparklers,” Katzenberg mentioned. “This was in June. My birthday is in December.”

In her recorded tribute, Could advised the story of how Fields had helped her throughout her authorized battle with Paramount over “Mikey and Nicky,” her 1976 gangster movie. Fields maximized her leverage within the authorized battle by contriving to cover a reduce of the movie from the studio — with out Could understanding he had achieved so. She mentioned that the studio threatened to have her criminally prosecuted for stealing the movie.

At one level, she mentioned that Fields had delivered a withering line to the studio: “You wouldn’t do that to a person.”

Hoffman, a Fields consumer because the Seventies, grew to become choked up throughout his speech. He recalled a time when Fields had ready him for a deposition, telling him to reply tersely and to reply solely the query that was requested. As soon as within the deposition, Hoffman ignored his recommendation and instantly started to ramble. Fields requested for a break after which remonstrated him: “What the fuck had been you doing?”

Hoffman recalled that they shared lots in frequent as properly.

“He cherished an viewers,” Hoffman recalled. “He typically talked to me about how the courtroom was a type of theater. He knew his viewers. He knew the way to relate to them, and he knew how to connect with them emotionally and intellectually…. What I revered most was his loyalty — he was a pal, a real pal. I miss him.”

Ovitz recalled assembly Fields within the mid-Seventies, when he launched CAA. He mentioned he had been advised that Fields had the ability to place him out of enterprise and so he went to introduce himself and attempt to win him over. On the finish of a 15-minute assembly, he wrote Fields a examine for $5, with with the phrase “retainer” within the memo line.

“You’re now the lawyer for CAA,” Ovitz advised him. “You may by no means sue us since you’re conflicted.”

Later, he noticed that Fields had framed the examine and hung it behind his desk. They went on to collectively characterize most of the largest stars of the Seventies and ’80s.

“He took his apply very severely,” Ovitz mentioned. “He cherished Davids. He hated Goliaths… He by no means seemed burdened. He by no means seemed like he was bothered by going right into a court docket case. In the entire lots of of conferences that I sat in with him, regardless of how tense they had been, Bert had a smile on his face. Possibly as a result of he knew he was going to win. “



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