Film Follies

Begelman behind bars?

When David Begelman, defrocked president of Columbia Pictures, returned to Hollywood from a skiing vacation in Colorado last week, he appeared to have ridden out a monstrous scandal. He had admitted padding expense accounts and forging names on checks that he cashed, but Columbia had treated him with more than compassion. He repaid the money with interest, and though he resigned in February, he was about to begin work under a contract as an independent producer of films that Columbia would distribute. That contract might pay him at least $1.5 million over the next three years, more than he would have earned if he had remained Columbia's $400,000-a-year president.

But on Begelman's return, Los Angeles District Attorney John Van de Kamp issued a four-count felony complaint, charging the executive with grand theft of $40,000 and with forging the names of Director Martin Ritt, Publicist Pierre Groleau and Actor Cliff Robertson on checks. So Begelman is set to surrender this week to Burbank police, and will shortly afterward be arraigned. If convicted, he could be sentenced to one to ten years in state prison on the grand-theft charge and one to 14 years on each of the three forgery counts. One serious problem for D.A. Van de Kamp: at a trial, he would have to persuade witnesses to testify against Begelman--no easy matter in the tightly knit film community which respects and fears powerful producers.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.