The Angel in Bert Fields
Jan. 30 2008, Published 8:04 a.m. ET
Tom Cruise may be less than thrilled about his new biographer, but the actor’s pitbull attorney, Bert Fields, should be ecstatic about his. The much-feared litigator, known for faxing verbose legal threats to journalists and other adversaries the world over, is the subject of an upcoming bio from Regan Books that even the lawsuit-happy 77-year-old would be hard pressed to sue over.
The foamy tome should give Fields something positive to focus on now that his firm has retained defense attorney Brian Sun—who defended Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee against espionage charges—in the event he’s implicated in the wiretapping trial of his close friend and business associate, celebrity P.I. Anthony Pellicano.
Hollywood’s Hired Gun, penned by legal scribe William Domnarski and slated for release in mid-2006, will chronicle Field’s half-century career in the shadows of the entertainment-industrial complex. But don’t expect a warts-and-all portrait.
In fact, Domnarski admits he has no clue where the bodies are buried and doesn’t care to find out. “All I know is what I read in the papers,” he says, when asked about his subject’s own legal woes. “It's not something I've spent any time looking into. I’m not an investigative reporter, and I don’t see that as my role. I’m not a journalist in that sense at all. I write books.”
To that end, Domnarski has spent most of his time playing pattycake with some of Tinseltown’s biggest execs—like Paramount’s Brad Grey and Universal chieftan Ron Meyer—all of whom were “very gracious” in recalling the attorney’s greatest hits, he says.
“Everybody tells me Bert is the smartest guy in Hollywood,” he gushes, adding that he considers Fields to be “a renaissance man” and “a great, great lawyer.”
Why is Domnarski so smitten with the man many believe to be the most ruthless lawyer in Hollywood? Like countless writers before him, sounds like he's fallen for a classic Fields ploy.
“Every time I go over there for lunch he makes fajitas,” the author admits.
Man must make a damn good fajita.
Related: The Tom Cruise Lecture Series
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