Sony’s Guber Takes a Bit Part in Thick of Action

Hollywood said that it wanted to play a big role in this inauguration, but it was willing to accept some bit parts as well.

Peter Guber, the powerful chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment, asked for a role that would put him in the thick of the event. The organizers obliged, and Guber was given one of the humblest jobs in politics--press advance man. His job was to help the traveling press with logistics of their jobs.

Just before dawn Sunday, as 15 buses prepared to embark from Charlottesville, Va., on President-elect Bill Clinton’s tour from Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia home to Washington, Guber appeared before the sleepy scribes in one coach and introduced himself simply by saying: “My name is Peter Guber.”

The group did not make the Sony connection at first but got a hint when Guber began passing out a compact disk recording that Sony Music and Warner Music did for the inaugural.

Before long Guber, whose conglomerate controls the Columbia and Tri-Star movie studios, was ticking off mundane instructions to reporters about schedules and where to go to find telephones. “Go to the right for bathrooms,” he said helpfully at one point.

A Clinton supporter for almost two years, Guber said he wanted to show his commitment to the new Administration’s efforts.

Corporations need to do more than talk about helping the country, he said. “Their tongues and their feet have to be going in the same direction,” he said.

Guber had called the lead advance man for the trip, movie producer Morton Engelberg, and asked for work in the heart of the operation. “I asked where I could best serve, and this is where I ended up,” he said.

Guber even tried out a bit of Democratic humor on the group. “Knock, knock. Who’s there? George. George who? Well, that’s politics.”

As the journey ended, Guber pronounced himself more than satisfied with the experience.

“I’ve done a lot of outrageous things in my life, but this is the most outrageous,” he declared.