Take a Letter, <i> Please</i>

How many studio executives does it take to screw in a light bulb? Well, OK, we don’t know the answer to that one. But we do know that no fewer than 21 execs, agents, publicists and other assorted retainers were advised the other day when a couple of “Rain Man” publicity photos of Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise were mailed to media types.

See, we came across this one-paragraph United Artists letter, concerning some b&w; shots of the two stars. At the bottom were 21 names of folks who were sent copies. . . . The list was longer than the text of the letter itself!

Are you ready?

Andrea Jaffe, the film’s publicist and Cruise’s personal publicist); Barry Levinson, director; Mark Johnson, producer; Peggy Siegal, Levinson’s publicist; Marion Billings, Jaffe associate; Hoffman; Cruise.

Others (still with us?): Bert Fields, Hoffman’s attorney; Peter Guber, co-producer; the Guber-Peters-Barris company; Greg Morrison, prez, MGM worldwide marketing; Barry Lorie, senior veep, MGM worldwide marketing; Gordon Weaver, prez, the Weaver Co., which worked on the marketing campaign; Brenda Farrier, a Weaver assistant; Allan Freeman, UA marketing prez; Judy Schwam, UA senior veep, worldwide publicity & promotion; Barbara George, UA director of creative advertising.

Whew!

Also: Mike Ovitz, Creative Artists Agency chief, who packaged the pic; and CAA’s Paula Wagner, Sandy Climan and Jay Moloney.

Give the cost of postage stamps, there’s no wonder that UA recently folded its film-making operations amid financial woes!