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TIME: Almanac 1995
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TIME Almanac 1995.iso
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1995-02-26
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<text id=94TT1204>
<title>
Sep. 05, 1994: Books:Bio Noir
</title>
<history>
TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1994
Sep. 05, 1994 Ready to Talk Now?:Castro
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
ARTS & MEDIA/BOOKS, Page 72
Bio Noir
</hdr>
<body>
<p> A notorious Hollywood producer tells all (almost)
</p>
<p>By Jeffrey Ressner
</p>
<p> The movies, an agent once said during the 1970s, are "a business
run by 10 idiots and Bob Evans." Back then Evans headed Paramount,
and he could do no wrong: he was responsible for Love Story
and The Godfather, among other hits, and later made Chinatown
under his own production deal with the studio. During the '70s,
Evans was married to Ali MacGraw, his third wife, and that's
the decade he became friends with Jack Nicholson and hung out
with Henry Kissinger. But the '80s weren't nearly as much fun.
Evans was busted for possession of cocaine, and a vicious murder
was tied to the production of his ambitious box-office flop
The Cotton Club. After contemplating suicide and escaping from
a mental hospital, and while producing last year's insipid sex
thriller Sliver, Evans did what any well-traveled mogul looking
for a comeback would do: he wrote his memoirs.
</p>
<p> The Kid Stays in the Picture (Hyperion; 412 pages; $24.95) is
an NC-17 tale of mob lawyers, studio reptiles, coke dealers,
starlets, domineering directors and the fast-talking operator
at the center of it all. Aside from taking a few swipes at Ryan
O'Neal, Francis Ford Coppola and Sharon Stone, Evans mostly
tells stories on himself, charting his rise, fall and struggle
to rebound with a keen staccato style usually found in hard-boiled
mysteries.
</p>
<p> Despite his candor, Evans leaves out some intriguing material.
There's no mention of his friend Heidi Fleiss, for example,
and he makes just a throwaway reference to his role in a stock
scheme that allegedly scammed millions from investors. Even
the Cotton Club murder gets short shrift; it's dispensed with
in 14 pages. Still, Evans demonstrates that despite his years
in Hollywood, he has the right values: he devotes a mere four
pages to his tennis game.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>