Ex-MCA Chief Rejected Offer to Help at MGM, Sources Say

Anticipating a potential purchase of PolyGram Filmed Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer owner Kirk Kerkorian recently approached former MCA Inc. President Sid Sheinberg about the possibility of coming aboard to help run the combined assets of MGM/PolyGram, according to sources familiar with the exploratory talks.

Sources said Sheinberg told Kerkorian that he isn’t interested in taking on an operational role at any corporation, after having done so for more than 35 years at MCA, but that he would meet with the financier and MGM Chairman Frank Mancuso. Sheinberg has maintained longtime relationships with both men.

The three met at Kerkorian’s Beverly Hills offices about a week and a half ago, but Sheinberg couldn’t be persuaded to consider the job and the matter apparently went no further, according to sources.

Sources said Sheinberg, 63, indicated that he might agree to serve in a broader advisory role--perhaps sitting on the board--but his main interest was in securing an overall deal with a studio where he can make a small number of films each year through the Bubble Factory, the production company he runs with his two sons. Sheinberg declined to comment.

Even if the well-respected Sheinberg had been interested in helping Kerkorian sort out his sticky affairs at MGM and PolyGram, it may have been moot.

Sources are now indicating that Kerkorian is less likely to buy PolyGram as the deadline for final bids approaches this Friday. The Las Vegas billionaire was once thought to be the front-runner for the movie company, which is being sold by Seagram Co. to help pay for its $10.4-billion acquisition of the PolyGram music empire.

Kerkorian is now expected to make an offer considerably lower than once anticipated by Seagram and the investment bankers the company hired to handle the PolyGram sale.

Even Kerkorian, whose net worth is estimated at nearly $5 billion, has his financial limits, sources say.

There’s no question that the financier, who covets film libraries, would love to add PolyGram’s 1,500 titles to MGM’s already hefty catalog of about 4,000 movies. The combined library would be the world’s biggest and include such offerings as “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Fargo,” as well as such classics as “The Graduate” and “When Harry Met Sally.”

By comparison, Warner Bros., which currently boasts the largest library, has 4,464 titles; Universal Pictures has 3,080, Sony Pictures has 2,338, 20th Century Fox has 2,066, Paramount has 902 and Disney has 348.

Many industry analysts believe Kerkorian is looking to fatten up MGM’s library for a future sale to a major media or cable company that could exploit the films over a variety of global distribution outlets.

In addition to its movie titles, the MGM library has 8,000 hours of TV programming that includes such past series as “Sea Hunt,” “Flipper,” “Highway Patrol,” “The Patty Duke Show,” “Cagney & Lacey” and “Gentle Ben.” PolyGram also has a sizable inventory of TV product, largely through its acquisition of the ITC library.

Despite the lure of its library, sources said, Kerkorian and his MGM camp have become increasingly skittish about paying a hefty price for PolyGram.

Kerkorian and other potential bidders are said to be rethinking their valuations of the company based on the amount of capital needed to maintain PolyGram’s current business beyond funding the actual purchase.

Other potential bidders for PolyGram include French TV giant Canal Plus and music giant EMI, whose board is meeting this week in London to decide whether to make a bid and possibly recruit former PolyGram chief Alain Levy to run the combined operations.

Judge Grants MGM Motion

MGM won another small victory of sorts last week in its suit against Sony Corp. over its coveted $3-billion James Bond franchise.

Last week, a judge granted MGM the right to depose Sony’s Tokyo-based president, Noboyuki Idei, in the case, which is set to go to trial Dec. 15.

Sony’s corporate boss is to appear for a one-day deposition in Japan. MGM had sought a multiple-day deposition to take place in the United States, with no interpreter present, but the judge ruled otherwise.

Sources said the management of Sony Pictures had hoped to protect the corporation’s senior Japanese executives entirely from having to get involved in the legal battle.

But U.S. District Judge James McMahon determined that MGM was justified in deposing Idei because he had “direct personal knowledge” of Sony’s plans to make a Bond film, having heard a presentation from studio chief John Calley.

Calley, who previously headed MGM’s United Artists movie unit and was responsible for reviving the Bond series at that studio, has already been deposed and may face additional questioning.

MGM won a preliminary injunction in July barring Sony from creating its own Bond franchise. Last year, Sony announced that based on rights it had purchased from Kevin McClory, who collaborated with Bond creator Ian Fleming on the script of “Thunderball,” the studio planned to create its own series of Bond films.

The judge ordered Sony to halt the “preparation, production, distribution, advertising or other exploitation of a James Bond motion picture”--a major setback for the studio, which had already approached filmmakers Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the creative team behind “Godzilla” and “Independence Day,” about working on a Bond movie.

Sony has appealed the injunction.