Hollywood Group May Sell Bank Stake

A group of Hollywood insiders--including stars Richard Dreyfuss, Demi Moore and Jane Fonda--that invested some $6 million in a Century City bank struggling to become a major force in the entertainment business has registered its shares for possible future sale, Securities and Exchange Commission documents show.

The 548,945 shares--a stake of nearly 20%--in National Mercantile Bancorp, the parent of Mercantile National Bank, were originally bought in a private placement of stock last year. The purchase was made by two groups: a partnership affiliated with the powerful Creative Artists Agency and by associates of Hollywood’s Breslauer, Jacobson, Rutman & Sherman business management firm. The two groups each own nearly 10%.

The celebrity investors, who were with the Breslauer group, have not been identified previously by the bank. They include such music industry figures as musician Glenn Frey, singer Tina Turner and record executive Irving Azoff. Others include author Sidney Sheldon, director Tim Burton, singer Olivia Newton-John, actresses Susan St. James, Sally Field and Stockard Channing and actors Richard Chamberlain and Robert Duvall.

Fonda, Dreyfuss and Duvall are listed as owning 4,100 shares each. Sheldon and Azoff own 12,300 shares and 8,200 shares, respectively.

Registering privately placed stock for possible future sale is common. It does not mean that the shares will be sold soon but gives investors that option. A lawyer for the bank said the step was agreed to when investors bought the stock last February.

The investment in the bank was spearheaded by Gerald Breslauer, who heads what is generally regarded as Hollywood’s top business management firm. So far, the investment has not worked as well as planned, in part because Mercantile National found itself in a war for business with rival City National Bank in Beverly Hills, where most of Breslauer’s clients kept their accounts.