The Good Life · Scrubs · Polanski
Plus: Behind the Dead End scenes
the true crime that's worth your time
Why does my brain keep what happened with The Good Life but loses if I’m out of coffee beans?* When Sarah Bet-Crapped Tony Sirico yesterday…
She mentioned his appearance in The Good Life, a 1997 crime comedy that wasn’t based on a true story (so, not a Bet-Crap point generator), but that was stymied by a lawsuit…thus making its non-release fodder for our purposes. What she didn’t know (and I didn’t tell her because I missed my feedback edit window yesterday due to a ridiculous lost key/carpet cleaning/cross-country FaceTime disaster I won’t bore you with) is that one of my zillions of weird obsessions is the The Good Life, which in real life is a two Stallone courtroom drama that involved death threats, allegations of extortion, and claims in excess of $50 million.
The movie, itself, stars Frank Stallone (that’s Sylvester’s brother) and counts arguable luminaries like Dennis Hopper, Beverly D’Angelo, and David Carradine in its cast. Andrew Dice Clay is there too; remember, this was 1997. As a favor to his brother, who was also a co-producer on the film, Sylvester briefly appeared in the movie, too. That’s where the story evolves from the standard “troubled production” yarn (director swaps, sudden location shifts, etc) to a crime one.
As CNN reported in the fall of 1997, the creators and backers of the project were Alan and Diane Mehrez, a brother and sister team responsible for a slew of 90s-era B-level action movies, many sequels in which the originating star does not appear. The duo hired Frank, they said in court filings, “because he said he could get his older, more famous brother, Sylvester, to appear for a minimal fee.”
According to the LA Times’ coverage of the suit, The Mehrezs claimed that “Sylvester Stallone reluctantly agreed to appear in the film because his mother, Jackie, asked him to help his brother … He appeared only for one day of shooting, rewrote his own scenes and refused to leave his trailer most of the time.”
A promo reel created to shop the film for distribution “suggested that instead of a cameo appearance, Sylvester Stallone was the star.” That’s not necessarily a problem for an actor, if compensated properly (I direct you again to the LAT’s great dive into Randall Emmett’s film empire), but remember, Sly just took a nominal fee. So, when the trailer got out there, he sued the Mehrezes for $20 million as part of a breach of contract suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, his typical asking price at that point in his career.
So the Mehrezes sued him back, to the tune of $50 million in U.S. District Court. "The Stallone brothers have teamed up to destroy me, to destroy my sister, to destroy our company," told CNN. "I have the evidence, OK," a member of the Mehrezes' legal team said (incidentally, future OJ co-prosecutor Chris Darden was on the Mehrezes’ legal team, but I’ve never been able to find any quotes from him on the case). "This case is not going to go away quietly."
The suit quoted conversations between actor (not emperor) Marcus Aurelius and Frank in which he allegedly said:
“They ain’t gonna do it to Stallones. . . .
“My brother and I, we’re going to own that company. . . .
“You (bleep)ed with my family. You (bleep)ed with me. . . .
“You know, they terminated my contract. I don’t think so. I’ll terminate their company. . . .”
It accused them of violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (yup, RICO), death threats, and more. Then, guess what? The case went away quietly, as the opposing sides settled out of court.
The suit capped off a lot of dumb production bullshit that is total Evenip (to Single White Female Sarah’s trademark “Buntnip”) but isn’t really relevant to our purposes here. If you are interested, though, smarty-pants film mag Little White Lies took a dive into the full mess in 2017, and it’s delicious. Here’s a snip from Christopher McKittrick’s longread:
Amiel is particularly proud of how quickly he got The Good Life back underway. “The biggest challenge was being able to move everybody from Miami to Mexico and start shooting within a week. It was a super mess to change countries and to be up and running in one week with all the obstacles we faced.” Much of the Miami crew did not make the move to Mexico, however, including Dudek, who instead went to work as a production assistant on Wild Things. Director Barry Samson was also dismissed. Mehrez officially directed the Mexico shoot, but Amiel credits First Assistant Director Eddie Ziv for shooting a good portion of the footage. Several actors even recall being directed, at times, by Frank Stallone himself.
But the new location brought its own challenges. Much of the Mexico’s filmmaking resources were being used up by James Cameron’s Titanic. One actor refused to fly south of the border, which led to a great deal of coordination of trains, buses and private cars to bring him in from California. Cast and crew feared kidnappers and one lead actor was briefly fired by Amiel for refusing to report to the set (the issues were resolved and the actor was promptly rehired). To top it all, the ponds on the golf course in Ixtapa were infested with crocodiles, and the cast and crew were instructed to avoid going too close to the water.
Thank you for indulging me in my barely relevant trip down The Good Life lane; it’s so rare that anyone brings this movie up that I just couldn’t help myself. I appreciate your kind patience. — EB
*That’s a rhetorical question, though it’s true, when in The Old Man the Jeff Bridges character took a memory enhancement supplement, I paused the stream and ordered it immediately.
There’s a little bit more out there for fans of Dead End. The New Jersey domestic homicide/political corruption podcast from WNYC was a hit with a lot of you folks, and writing for Best Evidence, Dan Cassino notes its success as a vehicle to reopen the case.
That arguable advocacy is the topic of a recent episode of On The Media, WNYC’s show/podcast about, you guessed it, the media. The ep is entitled “Why Reporter Nancy Solomon Chose True Crime” and discusses just that, with Solomon explaining how she (as Cassino suspected) used a murder case to get folks engaged in issues of political coercion and graft. It’s a fun, inside-baseball listen for anyone who enjoyed the podcast, or who just want to think more about why journalists cover what they cover. — EB
I’m going to end this week with another roundup of real-life news that we’ve either been following or are part of true-crime narratives we’re interested in. If you have cases you’d like to discuss, please drop them in the comments, you know how it works…
‘Scrubs’ Co-EP Eric Weinberg Arrested for Alleged Sexual Assault [Hollywood Reporter]
Weinberg, a five-time Emmy nominee who also worked on Veronica’s Closet, Californication and Anger Management, would allegedly target “women in their 20s and 30s ‘in grocery stores, coffee shops and other public places’ and would try to convince them to participate in a photo shoot. If the women agreed to have their picture taken by Weinberg, his modus operandi was to rape them during the secluded session at his home,” Deadline reports. According to CBS, “While he was booked for the alleged sexual assaults from 2012 to 2019, detectives believe Weinberg's crimes date back to the early 1990s.” Weinberg, who is credited as the writer of 92 episodes of Scrubs (per the LA Times), was arrested Thursday and is currently being held on $3,225,000 bail; the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office is expected to follow up with a full list of charges shortly.
Elizabeth Holmes: Theranos founder’s sentencing delayed [East Bay Times]
The Theranos founder’s sentencing has been moved from September 26 to October 17, a clerk’s notice from the U.S. District Court in San Jose announced this week. Holmes was convicted of felony fraud on January 3, and has remained free since then on $500,000 bond. No reason for the delay has been provided.
California court orders unsealing of documents in Roman Polanski case [NBC]
In a press release issued Wednesday Los Angeles DA George Gascon announced that an appellate court “ordered that the conditional deposition transcript of Roger Gunson, the original prosecutor in the case, be released.” This decision is the result of a longstanding campaign by Polanski’s victim, who in 2017 asked the court “to consider taking action to finally bring this matter to a close as an act of mercy to myself and my family,” and to either dismiss the case against her rapist or sentence Polanski to the six weeks he served prior to fleeing the country after his conviction.
WWE’s Vince McMahon Agreed to Pay $12 Million in Hush Money to Four Women [Wall Street Journal]
Per the report, “The previously unreported settlements include a $7.5 million pact with a former wrestler who alleged that Mr. McMahon coerced her into giving him oral sex and then demoted her and, ultimately, declined to renew her contract in 2005 after she resisted further sexual encounters … WWE describes Mr. McMahon as critical to the success of the company, which runs the world’s most famous wrestling business and reported record revenue of $1.1 billion last year. WWE said in regulatory filings that losing Mr. McMahon would put its entire business at risk.” Just saying, if your business is predicated on a leader who has to spend millions and millions to avoid sexual harassment and coercion allegations, maybe it’s not a very solid business after all.
Next week on Best Evidence: Dr. Death, Helltown, and another listicle to mock.
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