Today's NY Post offers Hollywood a story sure to finally distract bored agents and studio executives from their fifteen active Scrabulous games and ongoing zombie/werewolf melees: according to the paper, wiretaps from an investigation into in illegal gambling ring reveal that Paramount VP of production Pam Abdy had "a personal dating relationship" with the alleged Jersey mobster recently charged with helping to run the operation. (Fortunately, the Post already burned the joke about Abdy's involvement in upcoming Reese Witherspoon project Gangsta Bitches, saving us from having to draw from that particular well.) During their surreptitiously recorded phone conversations, the topic of whether toiling in Hollywood or in the Mafia is a more life-endangering line of work inevitably came up:
Abdy - whose credits include "Garden State," "Babel," "World Trade Center" and "Freedom Writers" - was captured on wiretaps talking with her beau, reputed Luchese made man Joseph Perna, just minutes before she headed to a June movie screening, according to New Jersey authorities.
During their conversation, Abdy, who investigators said had a "personal dating relationship" with Perna, discusses their jobs, likening some film business execs to "made guys." [...]
During the taped conversations, Perna gave specific examples of the differences between his line of work and his girlfriend's, noting that in the movie biz, there's "no gun and there's no sword," and they "don't prick the finger" - both describing established traditions of a Mafia induction ceremony.
Abdy responded her business "is worse."
"Let me tell you," she said. "There's something called the press. And people kill you in the press."
We, of course, are inclined to side with Abdy in the dispute. In addition to having to contend with an unforgiving and bloodthirsty press, one must also stay in the good graces Hollywood's Velvet Mafia to continue to draw breath in the business. With nothing more than a meaningful nod from David Geffen towards one of his fixers, those who've landed on the don's hit list immediately discover they're unable to book a decent table at Mr. Chow or The Grill and that every once-friendly second assistant in town now keeps "accidentally" forgetting to leave word with her boss, a slow, painful death of career-sustaining access easily worse than anything that can be inflicted by a mere gun or sword.
- MOLL-YWOOD 'MOB TIE' [NY Post]
