Formerly Rich and Famous

Nobody ever accused the program “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” of being “60 Minutes,” nor host Robin Leach of being Mike Wallace.

Still, it’s hard to match the glowing hyperbole of the program’s two-part report that aired in late 1990 and early 1991 on Giancarlo Parretti.

The television show proclaimed Parretti “the new King of Hollywood” during the brief period he owned the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio before a French bank foreclosed on him. It told a rags-to-riches story of a man who went from being a waiter to “the lion of international negotiating tables” who needed a two-sided flow chart to keep tabs on his “incredible billion-dollar world.”

All of it is especially ironic considering what’s happened to the Italian financier since then. Last week, he was arrested at a Downtown Los Angeles law office while giving a deposition. Acting on a French criminal warrant alleging he defrauded the bank, agents led Parretti away in handcuffs. Denied bail by a federal judge, Parretti is celebrating his 54th birthday today in a Downtown Los Angeles jail.

Federal papers filed last week also show that his rags-to-riches story includes an extensive criminal history with fines and jail for numerous violations. Parretti’s attorney says he’s done nothing wrong and plans to fight extradition.

As for the “Lifestyles” story, a review of a tape of the program shows that it described Parretti as having “golden” credit” even though a number of his criminal convictions stem from writing bad checks. He’s also described as being “one of the few Westerners who consistently smoked out the Japanese by outbidding them.”

Ironically, Parretti addresses what might happen should his world fall apart. Speaking in broken English, the former waiter says: “I go work in a restaurant. For sure, I get a job. Don’t worry.”

Things Do Change

Wells Fargo & Co. doesn’t need to make an acquisition.

That may seem an ironic statement in the wake of the bank’s $10.9-billion hostile bid for First Interstate Bancorp, but it was the party line back in 1991 after BankAmerica Corp. announced it was buying rival Security Pacific Corp. to create a huge California bank.

Then-Wells Fargo Chief Executive Carl E. Reichardt and Paul Hazen, who succeeded Reichardt and is leading the fight to buy First Interstate, issued a staff memo arguing that the bank was under no pressure to make a deal to keep pace with B of A.

“We are in a market where there is plenty of room to grow, even if we never did another acquisition,” the memo stated.

For Your Really Hot List

Proving once again that there’s a World Wide Web site for virtually everything, a Virginia company has established one offering information on cremation.

According to the company, Elder Davis Inc., the site includes information from the Cremation Assn. of North America, discussions from “respected funeral industry writers,” environmental impact information and “historical facts and figures that will amaze and educate.”