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  • The back lot

    Daily Variety
    September 20, 2004, Monday

    THE BACK LOT

    by PETER BART

    Captain Kirk shows he's still got game: At 87, Kerkorian closes
    mega-deal. But could he come back yet again?

    Whenever I hear the expression, "I'll be back," I think of Kirk
    Kerkorian.

    I realize many associate those words with the Great Gubernator, but
    it's Kirk who's really put teeth into them --- witness the many times
    he has sold MGM only to buy it back again.

    Now that Kirk has done the deal one more time --- the sixth or
    seventh by my count --- is there a chance history may repeat itself?

    I know some will laugh at the prospect, but consider the following:
    If you were 87, sharp as a tack, in excellent health and with several
    billion dollars to burn, wouldn't you want one more reprise? It's
    sort of like Sinatra giving "New York, New York" a final encore.

    There's another factor, too. Kirk is probably the only remaining
    studio CEO who actually likes movies. He doesn't choose to walk the
    red carpet or attend official events, but I've often seen him
    standing in line waiting to buy a ticket. He's that sort of
    individual.

    Given these propensities, why did he sell his studio? Probably
    because no one thought he could do it. Industry insiders were
    counting him out. They said he'd painted himself into a corner.

    Kirk's "corner" turns out to be worth about $ 5 billion. I know a lot
    of corporate players who would covet a corner like that.

    Under what scenario could Kirk buy it back one more time? Sony could
    get into a quarrel with its financial partners; or Comcast could
    exercise its right to pull out, or perhaps to make a bigger play with
    Kirk as its deep-pockets partner.

    The unique element to Kerkorian's dealings is that he can move faster
    than a Swift Boat. The decisions are his own; so is the money.

    If all this suggests a certain admiration for Kirk, I plead guilty. I
    don't pretend to be a Kirk intimate (there are very few) but I've had
    meals with him, had long talks with him, even worked for him (though
    during my three years at MGM I almost never saw him).

    Contrary to the usual descriptions in the press, he is not reclusive.
    I always found him rather garrulous, if intensely private. He is
    brilliant when discussing business, but it's even more fun to get him
    talking about more arcane topics --- aviation in the '40s, Las Vegas
    in the '50s or the really senior tennis circuit where geezers, rich
    and poor, sit on the hard asphalt eagerly awaiting their chance to
    pound away.

    It was always a source of frustration to Kirk that, while he always
    found ways to buy and sell his great studio, he never could figure
    out how to run it.

    His choice of corporate leaders was consistently disastrous, starting
    with Jim Aubrey, through David Begelman and Frank Yablans. He was so
    angry with some of his MGM hires that he even weighed the possibility
    of bringing criminal charges against at least one.

    In all his years, Danny Melnick was his only effective production
    chief and Alex Yemenidjian and Chris McGurk, the outgoing chairman
    and president, his only solidly effective business strategists.

    Still, MGM in its newest iteration as a standalone entity could not
    compete effectively with the giant multinationals --- Kirk understood
    that and knew he had to do something about it.

    And he had long since memorized the scenario.

    When MGM was in financial trouble in the early '70s, he sold the back
    lot, plus many of its old props and even used movie scripts. When he
    bought United Artists in 1981, he dreamed of creating a powerful
    studio (he'd earlier lost out in bids for Columbia and Twentieth
    Century Fox).

    But after a bad run of pictures, he tried to sell his stalled empire
    to Ted Turner in 1986. Michael Milliken couldn't sell enough junk
    bonds to fuel the deal, so Kirk re-invented it several times,
    yielding Turner ultimate control over about 3,000 film titles.

    In subsequent years, Kirk wheeled and dealed with everyone from
    Giancarlo Parretti, an Italian waiter, to Christopher Skase, a
    shadowy Australian financier, to Peter Guber and Jon Peters. Some
    deals flew and others simply flew away, but Kirk was always dealing.

    To some who remembered the glory days of Louis B. Mayer, Kirk had
    turned a great studio into a swap meet. Others simply marveled at the
    financial machinations --- how a one-time Armenian farm boy could
    outplay Wall Street bankers at their own game.

    And he may still be in the game. He's got the money, he's got the
    energy and he still has that unique quality that sets him apart: He
    loves movies.

    He'll be back.
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