Trouble Still Trails Producer Robert Evans

With the exception of Frank Sinatra, it is tough to imagine anyone who has been up and down and over and out more than producer Robert Evans. He was Hollywood’s golden boy in the 1970s, before drugs and a thorny murder case knocked him off his lofty perch. Now, just as he is supposed to be staging his comeback with the movie “Sliver,� trouble is trailing him again.

News of a lawsuit linking Evans to an alleged scheme to defraud private investors of as much as $200 million came just days after “Sliver� tumbled precipitously at the box office.

The Los Angeles Superior Court case names Evans’ Axiom Entertainment as one of more than a dozen companies that allegedly benefited from the operation, in which a “boiler room� staff reading from scripted presentations sold “unqualified, unregistered, non-exempt securities.�

Axiom received $6.4 million from the solicitations, and $1.2 million was diverted to Evans, according to the suit. The allegations against his associate, William MacDonald, are even harsher. MacDonald, best known as the fiance of “Sliver� star Sharon Stone, is accused of having “dissipated over $5 million raised from Axiom investors� in less than six months.

Evans and MacDonald deny any wrongdoing. Evans, for his part, says he has not seen the case. But “Sliver� and the suit are likely to only reinforce the star-crossed reputation of the producer who once said, in a line now laced with irony: “Success is my companion.�

Big success has eluded Evans since the mid-1970s, when he ended a nine-year stretch as worldwide production chief at Paramount Pictures. His film credits then included “The Godfather,� “Rosemary’s Baby� and “Chinatown.� He was also in the thick of the social swirl as the husband of Ali McGraw.

Misery became his companion thereafter. Evans was convicted of cocaine possession in 1980, then spent the remainder of the decade entangled in “The Cotton Club� mess. The 1984 movie, which was supposed to return Evans to prominence, bombed at the box office. Later an ex-girlfriend was convicted in the murder of Roy Radin, once Evans’ partner in the project.

Among the revelations from the lurid case, which drew intense press coverage, was that Radin’s killers set off a cherry bomb in his mouth in hopes of masking his identity. Evans was never implicated in the murder, but no one had to read Variety to know he was reeling.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Evans said he contemplated suicide in 1989. He described his lost years as “Kafkaesque� and spoke of sleeping in the fetal position. His salvation came two years ago, when an old friend, Paramount Communications President Stanley Jaffe, reinstated Evans on the Paramount lot and gave him the moral backing needed to jump-start his career.

“Sliver� was supposed to be the first step in that revival, though it now looks like another misstep. The Sharon Stone-William Baldwin thriller had grossed $23.5 million as of Memorial Day, but 69% of its take came in its first week. Despite ads that call the movie “a total turn-on,� the voyeuristic and critically drubbed “Sliver� could easily emerge as one of the most maligned movies of 1993.

Then there is the lawsuit, which paints a scenario in which retirees and other middle-class people were allegedly bilked out of their savings. David H. Bryant and David C. Knight are named as the principal defendants in the suit, which alleges that they, along with Evans and MacDonald, participated in the plan to fund Axiom through private placements.

According to the suit, the group raised the $6.4 million “by means of misrepresentations,� including pledges that Axiom and other Evans companies would have gross participation deals with major studios, thereby lowering investors’ financial risks.

There are no movie or TV credits for Axiom in production records. Evans, contacted through his spokesperson, refused to discuss the lawsuit or any specifics.

While the suit will not make it any easier for Evans to rehabilitate his reputation, the good news for the producer is that no one sees him being banished to the creative wilderness again, because of his close ties to Jaffe and Paramount Communications Chairman Martin Davis.

Evans also has two projects in active development that Paramount executives are said to be high on. One is a remake of “The Saint.� The other is “The Phantom,� based on the comic book superhero who devotes his life to the destruction of “piracy, greed and cruelty.�

“As far as I know he’s still preparing movies,� said one fellow Paramount producer who asked that his name not be used. “As long as he’s in good stead with Stanley and Martin, the disappointment of one picture and a lawsuit will not knock him out of the game.�

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Star Billing: Speaking of Paramount, don’t look for Gene Hackman’s name on posters for “The Firm,� the studio’s big summer release. Hackman has been intentionally omitted, even though he plays a prominent role, to avoid the appearance that “The Firm,� which also stars Tom Cruise, is a buddy movie.