Beefed-Up Security Has Workers Waiting in Lines at Studio Gates

Hollywood’s major studios were gridlocked in the morning rush hour Friday as thousands of employees were greeted with heightened security measures--from ID checks to car trunk inspections--at gate entrances.

The studios had scrambled overnight to beef up security on their lots after an FBI warning that they could face a potential terrorist attack.

Studios posted extra uniformed guards at entrances and sound stages, installed additional barricades and metal detectors and blocked some parking lot entrances. Studio officials said they also were tightening delivery policies so that all packages would be dropped off at central spots.

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard Parks said Friday that even though no specific threats against any studios had been made, his department has nonetheless stepped up patrols around the facilities. Parks said the city’s 18 police divisions were instructed to pay extra attention to studios, as well as to sports arenas, government buildings and other large public venues.

The first day of tight security caused gridlock in the streets around Warner Bros.’ Burbank studio, as some entrances were barricaded and long lines of vehicles formed at the few that were open.

On the north side of the studio, a large construction crane lowered massive concrete barriers to block an entrance, where cars had zipped in and out the previous day.

Some employees described hour-long waits to make the quarter-mile drive from the Ventura Freeway to one of the studio gates. One said he was caught in a half-mile-long backup on Forest Lawn Drive as trucks waited to be searched at a company parking lot on the south side of the studio.

Watching the scene from across the street, Bill Ryan, 36, said he could not recall such rigorous security checks in his 12 years at Warner Bros., even during the Gulf War. But like many, he said he supported the moves.

“It’s inconvenient, sure,” Ryan said. “But we’ll get used to it.”

At Disney’s studio lot in Burbank, security was also in full force. “Our security people were much more visible at all the entrances, which is reassuring to everyone coming to work,” said Dick Cook, chairman of Disney’s Motion Picture Group.

Walt Disney Chairman Michael Eisner drove around the outside of the lot Friday morning to make sure cars were not parked illegally on the streets next to the studio. Disney President Robert Iger walked the lot to make sure security measures were being enforced.

A Sony spokesman said people on business were still being allowed access to the lot, but family members and friends of executives, who often visit the back lot and shop at its electronics store, are no longer to be invited.

“We are not hosting the world here now,” said a studio official, who, like most interviewed about security issues Friday, asked not to be identified.

Increased security at Paramount Pictures caused a major traffic jam at the studio’s two main entrances on Melrose Avenue. “There were long lines this morning and there are never long lines,” said a spokesman. One security officer used a large hand-held mirror to check the undersides of cars for bombs.

News Corp.’s 20th Century Fox studio lot in West Los Angeles installed additional photo machines to accommodate employees without picture IDs.

Jeffrey Godsick, the studio’s head of publicity and promotions, who had lost his photo ID, said one of the guards he has known for years warned him that if he didn’t have a new ID card by Monday, “I can’t let you in.”

Security could become even tighter in coming weeks as the studios grapple with how to handle such high-profile events as movie premieres and press junkets.

Studios called an immediate halt to their public on-lot tours--which at Sony, for instance, can average 50 visitors a day at this time of year. They also are planning to move screenings to off-site theaters.

“We’re looking at all high-exposure events,” said Fox’s Godsick. For example, the studio canceled its planned New York premiere and media junket for the upcoming thriller “Don’t Say a Word,” which opens Sunday. Star Michael Douglas will instead conduct two days of interviews via satellite beginning Monday.

Paramount moved its media junket for the upcoming release “Zoolander” from New York to Los Angeles and canceled its planned splashy New York premiere in favor of a screening for the cast and filmmakers in L.A.

Likewise, Disney switched its early October premiere of “Corky Romano” from New York to Los Angeles.

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Times staff writers Jeff Leeds, Meg James, Jim Bates and Nicholas Riccardi contributed to this report.