Basinger Ordered to Pay $8.9 Million for Jilting Film : Hollywood: Jury says actress reneged on oral contract to star in movie. Verdict could have wide ramifications.

In a verdict with far-reaching ramifications for Hollywood, where handshakes often cement major movie deals, a Los Angeles jury Wednesday ordered actress Kim Basinger to pay $8.9 million in damages to a small independent production company for reneging on an oral agreement to appear in the film “Boxing Helena.”

The jury ruled that Basinger--an international box-office star who has appeared in such movies as “Batman” and “9 1/2 Weeks”--acted with fraud and malice when she abruptly withdrew from the film in 1991, forcing the producers to scramble to find another actress.

In a 9-3 vote, jurors ordered Basinger to pay Main Line Pictures $7,421,694 in damages for breaching the oral contract to star in “Boxing Helena.” Jurors ruled unanimously that she must pay another $1.5 million for bad faith denial of the contract. Jurors may still penalize Basinger further by awarding punitive damages.

It was a stunning defeat for Basinger, who seemed ill at ease during her testimony recently and avoided looking at jurors. The actress left the courtroom Wednesday by a rear door followed by her boyfriend, actor Alec Baldwin. She avoided a crush of reporters and cameramen waiting in a hallway outside Department 34 of Superior Court.

At the same time, a wave of emotion swept the other side of the courtroom, where Main Line Pictures executives and their supporters exchanged hugs, kisses and wiped tears from their eyes as they tried to comprehend the magnitude of their victory.

Carl Mazzocone, the burly, 34-year-old president of Main Line, was staggered by the size of the damages and said he felt “vindicated beyond my wildest imaginations.”

“I think it will alert actors and actresses that when they commit, they commit,” he said. “If you are going to read the script, meet the director, and say ‘I’m doing your movie,’ then you have to show up for work when that movie’s ready to shoot.

“Hundreds of people lost their jobs because Kim Basinger breached her agreement,” hesaid.

Basinger had no comment on the verdict. But attorney Howard Weitzman, who represented her, maintained that the jury “took a disliking to Kim.”

“I think it was the star versus the little guy and the jury didn’t like the star,” Weitzman said. “She makes too much. She’s too pretty. Her boyfriend is too handsome.”

Basinger, who is not insured against such judgments, will appeal, Weitzman said.

The verdict drew mixed reaction in Hollywood, where deals are often based on handshake agreements, casual conversations or even signed on cocktail napkins.

Some saw it as a vindication of Hollywood’s way of doing business.

“As before, oral agreements for services in the motion picture industry are binding agreements,” said entertainment attorney David Colden. “Business will be as usual.”

Attorney Pierce O’Donnell, who represented columnist Art Buchwald in his high-profile case against Paramount Pictures over authorship of “Coming to America,” said the decision sends a message “to the Hollywood business Establishment that you’d better not fall into accidental contracts.”

Veteran producer Gene Kirkwood said he saw the ruling as positive.

“The amount of money surprised me more than the verdict,” he said. “That’s more than the picture would have made. If I were Kim, I would be kind of nervous now.”

The “Boxing Helena” case lasted nearly a month, with jurors hearing testimony not only from Basinger but also talent agents, lawyers and others associated with the deal.

Basinger, who often had trouble recalling specific incidents, testified that she initially loved the quirky plot of “Boxing Helena,” the story of a woman rescued from a car accident by a doctor who then amputates her injured legs and unhurt arms and keeps her as a hostage in a box, hoping she will fall in love with him.

Sherilyn Fenn, from TV’s “Twin Peaks,” eventually took the Helena role for director Jennifer Lynch, the daughter of “Twin Peaks” director David Lynch.

The key issue at the trial was whether discussions between the actress and filmmakers and various drafts of a deal memo drawn up by the actress’ business attorney constituted a binding contract.

“Nobody says Miss Basinger has to make this film,” Main Line’s attorney, Patricia Glaser, told the jurors in her final remarks on Monday, “(but) when she commits to do the project . . . she’s got to pay the piper.”

But Weitzman countered that Basinger never committed to doing the project and that the filmmakers “jumped the gun” and tried to interest investors by saying she was attached to it.

Glaser noted that throughout Basinger’s testimony, the actress often could not recall important conversations she had with Lynch or whether she had read certain documents from Main Line about the pending film. Basinger said her attention was directed at the other movies she was involved with--the animated-live action film “Cool World” and the thriller “Final Analysis” with Richard Gere.

Basinger testified that although she liked the script, she got a different reaction when she showed it around town. Her new agent, Guy McElwaine, a high-powered agent at International Creative Management, hated the script so much that he threw it against the wall.

That is when the “big conspiracy” was hatched to get Basinger out of doing “Boxing Helena,” Glaser argued.

The attorney said the evidence was overwhelming that Basinger had consented to be in the movie. Not only did she discuss script changes and nude scenes with the director, she tried to line up work on the film for her costume designer, composed lyrics for a song that was to be used and never complained when the Hollywood trade papers published stories saying she was attached to the project.

Main Line contended that the prospects of getting Basinger to appear in the film along with some nudity generated $7.6 million in foreign pre-sales along with $3 million in domestic distribution.

By making the movie with a lesser-known actress, Main Line argued, it was able to generate only $2.7 million in pre-sales to foreign distributors. No one has picked up “Boxing Helena” for distribution in North America.

Times staff writer David Fox contributed to this story.