November 8, 1999

Bernie Brillstein: Pulling No Punches in the Dream Factory

By BERNARD WEINRAUB

OLLYWOOD -- In his 45 years as an agent and manager, stretching from the era of Catskill comedy to "Saturday Night Live," Bernie Brillstein has never been accused of mincing words.

	Edward Carreon for The New York Times
	Bernie Brillstein, Hollywood manager.

His newly published autobiography will do nothing to challenge his image. The book, in its second printing, is titled "Where Did I Go Right?" It is subtitled "You're No One in Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead."

Included are vintage Brillstein observations on Michael Ovitz ("He should have spent less time acting like a gangster and more time watching gangster films"), Garry Shandling ("gives me the creeps"), the highly respected mogul Steven J. Ross ("Steve Ross had lied to me") and his former client Richard Dreyfuss ("Now when I see Richard it's like seeing an old girlfriend -- I bear no grudge, I say hello, but inside I wonder 'How did I ever sleep with her?"').

Brillstein, 68, first as a talent agent and now as a manager, helped oversee the careers of John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Jim Henson, Dan Aykroyd, Lorne Michaels, Martin Short and numerous others.

One of the charms of the book, published by Little, Brown & Co. and written with David Rensin, is that it is almost as frank about Brillstein's personal life as it is about several men (alive and dead) whom he loathes.

"This is really not a gossip book, a tales-out-of-school book, and I'm not going to tell bad stories about people I loved like Jim Henson or friends like Lorne Michaels," insisted Brillstein. "But then there are some people ..."

Brillstein, who looks and sounds like a raucous Santa Claus, is, in many ways, a throwback to a show-business world that no longer exists. In contrast to today's managers and talent agents, who attended business school and law school, and who work out each morning, keep slim, wear Prada and are often as cold as ice, Brillstein is, by his own admission, a bit out of control.

He has been married four times and has five children. He was trained in the 1950s at the Copacabana and Toots Shor schools of show business with their focus on drinking, gambling and carousing.

Shrewdly, he glided from representing Borscht Belt comedians -- his icons were stars like Shecky Greene and Buddy Hackett -- to the wave of hip comics from troupes like Second City and the Groundlings.

As he walked around his big Wilshire Boulevard office recently, his eyes welled with tears as he spoke about two of the newer crop, Ms. Radner and Belushi.

There were no tears about others he has worked with. "The betrayals could have killed me, but they didn't," said Brillstein, whose partner, Brad Grey, now runs the Brillstein-Grey Entertainment agency, perhaps the top management company in town. "I've survived. I must be tougher than I think. Or I believed in myself more. Or I was luckier. Take any of the three."

Brillstein said he wrote the book after Roddy McDowall, the actor and photographer, said innocently to him at a dinner party four years ago, "Tell me about what you do."

For two hours Brillstein told the silent McDowall about growing up at the El Dorado in New York, where his family lived with a wealthy uncle, the comedian Jack Pearl, who lampooned the Baron Munchausen character on radio.

He told McDowall about being taken to Broadway clubs by his uncle and then, after the Army, getting an entry-level job in the mail room of the William Morris agency in 1956. ("I took Elvis to his first stage show -- it was Saturday night and nobody else wanted to work.")

Brillstein later became a talent manager, was hired by the then-unknown Henson, creator of the Muppets, to represent him, and began handling many of the comedians on "Saturday Night Live."

By 1986 he had moved into the executive ranks in a top job at Lorimar Film Entertainment (which was later absorbed by Warner Communications). Two years later he helped create Brillstein-Grey, whose clients now include Adam Sandler, Brad Pitt, Nicolas Cage and Short.

Three years ago Brillstein sold his shares of the company to Grey, partly because he felt it was time to yield to the younger man, partly to settle the financial end of a divorce. Brillstein said that "the reality of no longer being king hit me all at once, and my world came crashing down."

But Brillstein and Grey, who is 27 years younger, remain like father and son, and the older manager retains a big office, a lucrative employment contract and a role as consultant to the management company.

Brillstein recalled that McDowall, after listening to the unexpurgated version of the manager's life, told him, "Bernie, it would be a shame if you don't write a book and talk about those five decades of show business." Brillstein replied, "OK, I'm going to do it." (McDowall, who died of cancer last year, was to have taken photos for the book.)

If there is any criticism heard in Hollywood of the book -- and its author -- it is that Brillstein may have skewed history a bit in terms of his accomplishments, especially in the details of the creation of "Saturday Night Live."

Moreover, Brillstein's track record for the one time he ran a movie company was not especially noteworthy and quashed his prospects of joining the longstanding ranks of Hollywood royalty, the handful of people who have the power to green-light a film.

Characteristically, Brillstein candidly summarized his less than two years at Lorimar in the late 1980s. "I put about 20 films in development at Lorimar and ended up making six lousy movies, two good movies and one great movie," he wrote. The great movie, he said, was "Dangerous Liaisons," directed by Stephen Frears, which won three Academy Awards. (Brillstein credits one of the film's stars, Glenn Close, with creating the final scene.)

Certainly the most emotional portions of the book are Brillstein's comments on the death of Belushi in 1982 from an overdose of heroin and cocaine. Another client, Chris Farley, died in December 1997 from an overdose of cocaine and morphine.

"Chris was destined to die at 33 like John did," Brillstein said. "They couldn't control their vices. They thought they were indestructible. And they were excessive people -- excessive eaters, excessive drinkers, excessive. They were so similar. Belushi kept saying, 'I have the heart of a high school senior.' And I said: 'John, you're nearly getting uninsurable in the movies. Let's talk about professional help."'

Brillstein said he objected to the Bob Woodward book "Wired," which, using diaries, accountants' records, phone bills, interviews, and travel and medical documents, showed how Hollywood executives and friends turned a blind eye to Belushi's drug problems.

Brillstein said the comedian's life had spun out of control and it was impossible to help him. "No one was feeding him drugs," Brillstein said. "But people wanted him to work, because he made them money. So obviously they were turning their backs when it was convenient. But John would have done the same thing anyway."

On a professional level, Brillstein said the fact that Ms. Radner never turned into a movie star was especially disappointing. "She was really a television being, but her movie career was not great, and that was a real disappointment," he said.

Brillstein said that he still missed Ms. Radner. "There's a hole, an emptiness," he added. "Everyone thinks, with clients like these, that you're sitting there counting the money. Well, Gilda never made a lot of money. She did fine, but she never made a lot. And you loved her. She'd stay at the Beverly Hills Hotel and walk across the street in her bathrobe to my house on Crescent Drive to do her laundry. We gave her a party and she was the first one there and the last one to leave. She was great. She was Gilda."

At the opposite end of the spectrum, Brillstein was one of the few executives (with David Geffen) to publicly attack Ovitz, the talent manager and former agent. The book continues the drumbeat, calling Ovitz a scorpion. (In the mid-1980s the business relationship between both men was lucrative.)

Among other issues, Brillstein said that, as a manager, he had placed numerous top comedy clients with Ovitz and his former agency, Creative Artists. But Ovitz never returned the favor. "He was good at the give-and-take only as long as you gave and he took," Brillstein wrote.

After some disagreements, Brillstein wrote that Ovitz threatened him by saying "I'll kill you," and went so far as to publicly humiliate his daughter, Leigh Brillstein, a former agent at Creative Artists. Ms. Brillstein quit to join International Creative Management. "I'll never forgive him," Brillstein said. "Ovitz involved my daughter in our fight. I'll never forgive him."

Ovitz said over the phone that he had not read the book and would not comment.

Brillstein is only a bit less caustic toward others, including Dreyfuss. Brillstein said that at a low point in Dreyfuss' career he helped revive it with a series of comedies at the Walt Disney studios. Then Dreyfuss fired him. As recounted in the book, the actor said: "I get these scripts myself now. I really don't need a manager anymore. It's a lot of money."

Brillstein wrote: "Of all the people who have left me, Dreyfuss surprised me the most. I'd just really been there for him. I thought we were friends."

A spokesman for Dreyfuss said the actor was unavailable for comment.

Brillstein's biography, like him, is ribald and funny. He recalled that in his early days as an agent at William Morris, a fellow agent came to see him to say that Molly Picon was leaving the Broadway musical "Milk and Honey," and that they should come up with a replacement. The only other Yiddish-speaking actress Brillstein said he knew was Jenny Goldstein.

The show's producers said they would give her $500 a week. Brillstein responded that Ms. Goldstein was a star and deserved $750 a week. The producers agreed.

"Then we called Jenny Goldstein with the great news and discovered she'd been dead for four years," he said. "Now that's classic agenting. We got a dead person a $250-a-week raise. I knew I was in the right business."