MOVIES : Off-Centerpiece : Hollywood Is Such a Funny Place Sometimes : . . . And Now for Simpson’s Naked Truth

The “Good Cop, Bad Cop,” segment of the much-ballyhooed BBC series “Naked Hollywood” paired the “Fisher King” producing team of Lynda Obst and Debra Hill with that of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer on the set of “Days of Thunder.”

But after nine months in which its every move was recorded by the film crew, the “King” contingent was informed that the program wasn’t going to air in the United States.

According to conventional wisdom, promulgated by series producer Nicholas Kent and supported by Paramount, Simpson and Bruckheimer asked the studio not to license the “Thunder” film clips for use in North America. Though the show was shown in its entirety in Britain, a half-hour version--featuring only Hill and Obst--aired here this summer on the Arts & Entertainment cable network.

“We don’t want to get into a pissing war with Don and Jerry,” says Obst. “Sure, we wanted the show to air, but not as much, apparently, as they didn’t want it. Still, it’s annoying that we have to take a back seat to the fact that Don and Jerry didn’t like the way they looked.”

Until now, Simpson and Bruckheimer have been cast as the heavies in the “Naked Hollywood” flap, and accused of everything from excessive ego to censorship.

But now Simpson has come out with his own version of the tale. He says that it was then-Paramount CEO Frank Mancuso’s decision that prevented the airing in full. Far from interfering with the program, Simpson maintains, their lawyer wrote a letter to Mancuso asking him to cooperate. And Simpson has the letter to prove it.

“Frank felt that it wasn’t worthwhile waiving the corporate license fee policy for ‘Days of Thunder’--which we did this show to promote--since the movie would no longer have been in the marketplace,” he says. “He made a prudent business decision and Kent was unable to come up with the money. In neglecting to obtain worldwide clearances upfront, Kent made a production error for which he paid the price.”

Simpson, who says he never saw the segment, says his perception of the show was based solely on comments from colleagues interviewed by Kent, including screenwriters Robert Towne (“Chinatown”) and Larry Ferguson (“The Hunt for Red October”). They told him Kent’s questions had little to do with moviemaking and that he seemed more interested in dirt.

“None of their interviews were ever used,” says Simpson, “basically because they told the truth: that we are hard-working guys interested in making good movies--not the ‘Bad Cops’ Kent was interested in portraying in his hatchet job.”