Warts and All

Will Robert Evans’ tell-all autobiography for Warner Books--a deal “just concluding,” he told us--be the definitive Hollywood tome?

“I won’t be hiding anything,” the former Hollywood Wunderkind said of his life story, not yet written. “The book will cover four decades of a roller-coaster ride--a life that ain’t a Disney picture.”

Titled “The Kid Stays in the Picture,” the book will cover a show business career that began in 1949, when Evans was a disc jockey and actor in Havana, and reached its zenith when he oversaw the production of such films as “The Godfather” and “Chinatown.” It will encompass his days as a Hollywood actor, producer, studio chief “and those times, through the years, that I’ve been on the mat.” One source put the advance Evans received for the book at seven figures.

Evans said he’ll be “hurtfully honest” about the much-publicized murder-for-hire case surrounding the production of “The Cotton Club,” in which he’s been implicated in court testimony, though not charged. And he’ll address his battle with drugs--”I’ve been clean for two years now, and have never felt better in my life.”

He added that former wife Ali MacGraw, and their son, Joshua, 18, have encouraged him to tell all.

The book’s title comes from Evans’ rocky days as a young actor on the set of “The Sun Also Rises” (1957), when certain parties wanted him off the movie. Mogul Darryl F. Zanuck came to his defense, picking up a megaphone and telling Ernest Hemingway, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power and others on the set: “The kid stays in the picture. Anyone doesn’t like it can quit.”

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While tracking Evans: “The Two Jakes,” the sequel to “Chinatown” that he produced, will open in the spring.

He’s also developing “Jimmy the Rumor,” based on an original script by mystery novelist Ross Thomas, about a man born without an identity.