For What She’s Worth
Last Friday came the news that the latest victim of Southern California’s soft economy is luxury-loving celebrity Zsa Zsa Gabor, who sought U.S. Bankruptcy Court protection because of cash flow problems and legal judgments.
Now, here are a few of the details from the court papers that were being processed Friday:
* Gabor’s total assets are listed as $325,694, with total liabilities pegged at $3.3 million.
* Gabor’s assets include $20,000 in clothes, $20,000 in jewelry, $15,000 in furs, $50,000 in furniture, $119,402 in a Merrill Lynch cash management account and a $7,500 Chevrolet pickup.
* Her unsecured creditors include famed lawyer Melvin Belli for $150,000 in legal services, a claim Gabor disputes. Others include Bloomingdale’s for $2,800 and a limousine company for $300.
* Her Bel-Air mansion and a Camarillo area ranch are listed at unknown values, although Home Savings has a secured claim on the home for $1.5 million.
* Gabor’s monthly income is estimated to be $25,696. She gets $31,788 a year combined from Social Security and from pensions with the Screen Actors Guild and the Equity League.
* Her monthly expenses are $22,835, including $10,099 in mortgage payments, $3,500 for food and a $275 phone bill.
* Gabor claims she suffered $70,000 in earthquake damage to personal items.
To Be Continued Someday
The March issue of Spy magazine includes an expose on organized crime in Hollywood by writer John Connolly that ends curiously with the sentence: “This is Part I in a series of articles on Hollywood and the New Mob.”
The reference is puzzling since Spy is folding, with no new issues to come. So what becomes of Part II? “Your guess is as good as mine,” says Connolly, who said he may publish it as part of a book.
All Hype Being Equal
Maverick movie producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer--makers of such big-budget films as “Top Gun” and “Beverly Hills Cop”--seem to have an equal partnership right down to the hyperbole in publicity materials for their new comeback film, “The Ref.”
Simpson’s biography reads: “In the 1980s Don Simpson was responsible for some of entertainment’s most popular and enduring motion pictures. In the 1990s, this exceptional and unique producer will undoubtedly continue to bring to audiences worldwide, films that thrill excite and delight.”
Not to be outdone, Bruckheimer’s separate biography reads: “In the 1980s Jerry Bruckheimer was responsible for some of entertainment’s most popular and enduring motion pictures. In the 1990s, this exceptional and unique producer will undoubtedly continue to bring audiences worldwide, films that thrill, excite and delight.”
Briefly. . .
And the winners are . . . : The Los Angeles advertising firm Ellis + Ross, which designed tonight’s Academy Awards program, says it is giving out a few surplus copies to people “with the right connections.”
