ABOUT THE BOOK Hit and Run: How Jon Peters and Peter Guber Took Sony for a Ride in Hollywood FROM THE PUBLISHER "Hit and Run" tells the improbable and often hilarious story of how two film packagers well known for spending other people's money and ripping off credit for other people's work went on a deliberate campaign to reinvent themselves as studio executives. With the exception of "Batman," Jon Peters and Peter Guber were barely involved with the most successful films they 'produced.' Steven Spielberg wouldn't allow them on the set of "The Color Purple," and they were on the set of "Rain Man" only once, briefly. With the help of one of Michael Milken's top lieutenants, they succeeded. It was the most audacious sales job of their careers: This unlikely team got Sony to give them the richest deal in Hollywood history. Veteran reporters Nancy Griffin and Kim Masters chronicle the rise of Jon Peters, a semiliterate former hairdresser, seventh-grade dropout, and juvenile delinquent, and his soulless soul mate, Peter Guber-including all the sex, drugs, and fistfights along the way. They describe the incredible carelessness with which Sony walked into a breach-of-contract suit by Warner Bros., its decision to stay the course even after that suit was filed, and the ultimate triumph of legendary Time Warner chairman Steve Ross, who exacted a settlement worth as much as $800 million from Sony. Griffin and Masters explain the history of Sony, the forces that drove it to seek salvation in Hollywood, and some of the cultural traits that left the Japanese uninoculated against the Hollywood hustle. FROM THE CRITICS Publishers Weekly This is basically the story of two boys who never grew up, but ended up running Sony-owned Columbia Pictures into the ground. Peters, whom the Los Angeles Times described as a "seventh-grade dropout and reform school graduate who began his show-business career as Barbra Steisand's hairdresser-boyfriend-manager," was a master at self-promotion; only semi-literate but able to count well enough to make it big in Hollywood. Bostonian Guber earned several academic degrees before "going Hollywood," somehow managing to indifferently run several studios and make high profits and only a few good films. This book will leave film fans drooling at charges that Peters hired Heidi Fleiss's prostitutes as gifts and that he either bedded or assaulted his numerous conquests (Jacqueline Bisset and Lesley Ann Warren, among others). Guber, the quintessential New Age yuppie, is seen heading off his divorce because it would cost him too much, and participating in hand-holding group-therapy sessions with business-partner Peters. The business side of this book is also intriguing, recounting internecine financial twists and turns that finally have a top Sony executive exclaiming: "Huh! You bankrupt Sony!" Griffin, the West Coast editor of Premiere magazine, and Masters, a reporter for the Washington Post, present a shocking read that will have readers gasping at the obscene overindulgence of Hollywood. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour. (June) Library Journal This unauthorized account of Tinseltown madness features the disastrous duo of corporate executives from Columbia Pictures and their alleged bilking of Sony. With the skill of a slick salesman, narrator Ron McLarty partially succeeds in palming off the hearsay testimony about Sony's ill-advised Hollywood venture. McLarty's off-the-cuff manner enhances the tantalizing, juicy gossip served up by authors Griffin and Masters. The convincing descriptions of the grotesque displays of wealth by the chairmen pitted against the staggering $3 million loss that Sony swallows will undoubtedly titillate some.

However, the shock value this program packs can't make up for the lack of good journalism. Most libraries can pass on this one.Mark P. Tierney, The World Bank, Washington, D.C. Salon For those of us who watch while talented filmmakers get taken advantage of and good (or even great) films get tossed aside, there's nothing as satisfying as confirmation of how clueless the... Listed at twenty four dollars.

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