Monday, Sep. 01, 1997

HOLLYWOOD

By Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles

What provokes more conspiracy theories than a Mel Gibson summer movie? Last week's announcement that publication of Disney chairman MICHAEL EISNER's autobiography is being postponed "indefinitely" by Random House. The book's planned October release just happens to be a month before the trial date set for former Disney movie chief JEFFREY KATZENBERG's lawsuit against Disney. Katzenberg's attorney won a discovery motion to get all transcripts, notes and computer disks used for Eisner's book that pertain to his client, but so far those materials have not turned up. A Disney spokesperson denies any link between the delay and the suit, adding that despite word the manuscript has been completed, Eisner's book is "still a work in progress."

--By Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles