Buchwald Referee: Private Files Not Needed

The William Morris Agency will not have to name its clients or turn over its confidential profit-participation files to Paramount Pictures Corp., if the recommendation of a referee judge, acting in the Art Buchwald and Alain Bernheim suit against Paramount, is accepted on Friday.

Retired State Court of Appeals Judge Richard Amerian issued a report Tuesday that also recommends the court rely primarily on a formula suggested by writer Buchwald and producer Bernheim to determine how much money Paramount owes them for their non-credited contributions to the 1988 Paramount film, “Coming to America,” which starred Eddie Murphy and grossed $139 million in the United States.

“We’re ecstatic with the vindication of our position and repudiation of Paramount’s harassment of William Morris,” said Pierce O’Donnell, attorney for Buchwald and Bernheim. O’Donnell said the studio had focused on the agency “because William Morris has supported us throughout this case. They could have gotten the same information from other studios and talent agencies,” he said.

Presiding Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Harvey Schneider is scheduled to rule on the report Friday and set a trial date to determine payment due Buchwald and Bernheim. The court ruled earlier that the pair should be credited for the movie’s conception.

Paramount had sought access to the agency’s confidential contracts and the names of its clients--which include Bernheim--to determine the going rate for industry payments to producers.

Amerian said that “what is important is the raw statistical data about films and their net profit. What should matter little is the name of the talent and the name of the film,” he said.

Amerian also recommended that Schneider use the years 1980-88 to determine comparable salaries, as suggested by Paramount; Buchwald and Bernheim had urged the years 1975-88.

Paramount spokesman Harry Anderson said the studio was happy with some of the recommendations because “Amerian has narrowed the universe of comparability using a time frame of the 1980s.”