‘Cut!’ Takes On New Meaning in Hollywood

Lynn Davids, 53, has worked at Warner Bros. for 10 1/2 years, nine of which she has spent running the cashier’s booth on the famed movie studio lot. She enjoys the daily contact with anywhere from 50 to 100 employees, to whom she not only doles out payroll checks and petty cash vouchers but also lends an ear when they often confide their personal problems in her.

As of Thursday, Davids will no longer report to work in the 4-by-6-foot bulletproof glass booth in building 19. Her job is being eliminated.

Like a number of her co-workers on the lot, many of whom are being laid off from longtime jobs, Davids is a victim of a sweeping reexamination of costs, corporate downsizing, re-engineering, outsourcing--all modern-day buzzwords for an industrywide move to cut fiscal fat and make companies run more efficiently.

To the management of parent Time Warner Inc. and the many other entertainment concerns in Hollywood undertaking similar actions, dissolving corporate fat and slashing debt is undeniably a crucial way to increase profitability and potentially boost the stock price, which naturally drives up the value of holdings by such lucky owners as Ted Turner.

But, to Davids, it has a whole different meaning.

“We’re people,’ she said. “Our lives are being ruined by these cuts. My little $31,000 a year is not enough to pay for appetizers at one of their parties. They save $5 million a year so they can pay Mel Gibson $20 million instead of $15 million? It’s pure, unadulterated greed. Have you any idea about the waste in this industry?”

Davids said she’s devastated about losing her job and is scurrying to get herself computer-trained by the studio in hopes of landing another position there.

“I can go into the floating pool and be retrained, but that does not guarantee you a penny’s worth of work,” said Davids, who, as a member of the office employees guild, will receive nine weeks’ severance pay, which amounts to just under $5,500, and an additional $1,200 in unused vacation time pay.

For Davids, a divorcee with two grown daughters who pays a $750 monthly mortgage on her townhouse in Burbank, being laid off goes way beyond financial concerns she may have.

“Financially, I’m not as worried. I’m not going to starve. It’s a moral, emotional issue,” said Davids, who also fears that her 50-plus age may have been a factor in her losing the job.

Born in Brooklyn and a resident of Burbank since she was 8, Davids said: “It was always a dream come true to work here. . . . I’d always see movie stars wave to the guards as they drove on the lot, and then one day I was waving to the guards as I drove on the lot. Now, I’m out of a job.”

She joined Warner in January 1987, the first 18 months of which she spent floating between departments before landing “the job I really love” as the studio’s cashier.

Her responsibilities will be divided up among employees in five other departments, said Davids, who is considered a fixture of sorts on the Warner lot. When people come to cash their paychecks or pick up petty cash vouchers, Davids said they’ll often confide in her what’s going on in their personal lives.

“They’ll tell me if they broke up with a boyfriend or they’re having a hard time with their boss, or about moving, or about their pets . . . it’s the human touch,” she said, recalling what a peer said to her when she learned of her termination: “They may as well tear down the water tower,” a reference to the historical landmark on the Burbank lot that can be seen for miles bearing the Warner Bros. logo.

“Everyone on the lot knows her as Lynn,” said friend and colleague Mary Farah, who has worked in Warner’s payroll tax department for more than a decade and has known Davids for years. “No one can believe it. She’ll really be missed. People come and tell her their life stories like you would a psychiatrist or a hairdresser.”

Davids definitely goes for the personal touch. Every year, she decorates executive and employee paychecks with candies and holiday season-themed stickers.

“Lynn is someone you look forward to going to on the lot,” said another pal there, Paul Castellaneta, who works as a librarian in Warner’s story department. “She brings a great attitude to her work. She’s very caring, really sweet, smart, professional and you always get a direct answer.” Castellaneta, who has worked at the studio for more than nine years, said, “To me, they’re [management] just worried about cutting numbers and they’re not worried about how it affects people on the lot.”

Another studio insider said he resents that “there’s this pretense of the Warner family, and then they throw someone like Lynn out, when I’ve seen other people get these huge golden parachutes. They just don’t care. People are expendable.”

After 14 years, Farah is also losing her job at Warner because the tax department is being outsourced to the prominent accounting firm of Ernst & Young next year. Farah is one of about 10 employees in the 18-person department who have been offered jobs by Ernst & Young, which she has accepted, though she’s saddened that as of next year she’ll no longer be a Warner employee.

Sources at Warner say the studio plans to outsource a number of other departments in coming months, possibly including the mail room, security, the fire department and maintenance/janitorial, which would mean the potential loss of hundreds of jobs.

A few weeks ago, Warner shuttered its 18-month-old in-house digital effects division, which employed 150 people, after determining it would be more economical to farm out the work.

“It’s the sign of a well-managed company to always reexamine our efficiencies with the goal of increasing our profitability,” said Barbara Brogliatti, senior vice president of corporate communications at Warner Bros., which staffs about 5,000 full-time employees, not including several thousand additional seasonal production personnel who are hired on an as-needed basis.

At the studio, such reevaluation can and does result in personnel loss.

At the corporate level at Time Warner, a memo about a cost-management program went out in February from Chairman Gerald Levin calling for a 3% to 5% reduction of operating costs, focused primarily on “non-personnel” expenses.

Since its acquisition of Turner Broadcasting System last year, all divisions have been under scrutiny for cost cuts at the entertainment giant, which has long been known for its lavish perks enjoyed by top executives and the talent they covet.

A number of jobs were lost at TBS as a result of redundancies created by the merger, including that of Ted Turner’s own son, Robert E. “Teddy” Turner. As reported by the Wall Street Journal last summer, when the home-video promotions manager asked father Ted whether he had any reason to be concerned about pending layoffs, he was told, “You’re toast.” So much for that warm, fuzzy family feeling.