Pitching the Merchandise
Is Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo the next big name in fashion?
A sign outside the Matsuzakaya department store in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles suggests he may be.
Store windows in Little Tokyo these days are stuffed full of shirts, pictures and other memorabilia of the Japan native, whose success this year--despite losing the last three of his four decisions--has sparked “Nomomania” in baseball.
The sign lists the names of top designer labels in fashion and accessories that the store sells, including Donna Karan’s DKNY, Calvin Klein’s CK, Guess? and Coach leather goods.
The last name on the sign: “Nomo.”
Still a Magic Kingdom Secret
Hollywood can’t wait to see the pay package that Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael D. Eisner offered talent agent Michael S. Ovitz to lure him to Disney as president.
As a public company, Disney will eventually have to disclose the specifics. The thought has tantalized some Hollywood executives and entertainment journalists because Ovitz, as chairman of the privately held Creative Artists Agency, ferociously guarded his own finances and his agency’s books.
As it turns out, the wait could be as long as 16 months. Disney spokesman John Dreyer confirms that company lawyers have concluded that Securities and Exchange Commission rules allow Disney to wait until it issues its proxy statement for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 1996. That won’t happen until January, 1997.
The reason? Ovitz doesn’t officially report for work at Disney until Wednesday, Oct. 1, the day after Disney’s 1995 fiscal year concludes. Disney’s proxy statement issued this coming January will only need to cover the compensation of corporate officers who worked for the company in that fiscal year.
That exempts Ovitz for more than a year from being listed in the proxy.
Reserving Their Days in Court
Two well-known Southern California locales have entered a new chapter--Chapter 11.
Filing to reorganize under Bankruptcy Court protection is the 16-story Westwood Marquis Hotel and Gardens, a posh all-suites hotel near UCLA. The action was taken to stop foreclosure proceedings started by Equitable Life Assurance Society, holder of $50 million in secured debt, said bankruptcy lawyer Richard L. Wynne of Wynne Spiegel Itkin, which represents the hotel.
U.S. West Financial Services is also a secured lender, of $5 million. Wynne said the hotel’s parent, Raleigh Enterprises, hopes to reach agreement with Equitable and U.S. West. He added that Raleigh, which recently spent $5 million on hotel renovations, plans to invest another $7 million.
Separately, Sunset Loma Co., a Santa Barbara-based partnership that owns the former Playboy building in West Hollywood, filed for protection after failing to negotiate a restructuring of a $6.2-million note on the building held by tenant Western International Media.
The building, once one of the best-known on the Sunset Strip, is where Playboy had its West Coast offices until 1992.
