WHEN the Enron scandal broke, “Crazy Eddy” Antar had just about finished his autobiography and was ready to start shopping it around. But I hear he’s now looking at adding a chapter devoted to the exploits of Kenneth Lay and Co.
You can’t blame Eddy for wondering why these guys are walking around free after an $80 billion company collapse, while he landed on the FBI’s most wanted list and did eight years in a federal prison for merely overinflating the value of his electronics business.
Still, this new climate of corporate corruption may help Eddy regain some of the fame he enjoyed as the madman of TV advertising in the ’80s. As well as the book, he is planning a career on the speaking circuit, and it would seem the time couldn’t be more right.
Eddy is now living on the Upper East Side with his second wife, Debbie, and their school-age son. The boy suffers autism but is making good progress. (Eddy is working with several groups seeking a cure for the affliction.)
He’s also back in the electronics business, selling all kinds of gizmos over the Internet. But it’s the book that’s really got him excited – and he has quite a tale to tell.
It began when he was a 17-year-old in Brooklyn and discovered he could pretty well sell anything to anybody. A few years later, his name was all over TV, as unavoidable as an outbreak of chicken pox in a preschool.
Then came the stock fraud charges and Eddy went on the lam for two years. He was eventually tracked down in Israel and brought home to serve his time. (No Marc Rich-type pardons for this man.)
It’s a good yarn, and I hope he does well with it. I don’t know what he’s going to call the book, but something like “This Just Fell Off the Back of a Truck” might suit.
Stand-up guy
If CBS has to find a replacement for David Letterman, the network should cast an eye over that old genius Mort Sahl, who emceed Saturday night’s Writers Guild of America East awards at the Pierre. Mort slayed a room filled with people who make their living writing funny lines. Sahl is a lifelong friend of guild president Herb Sargent (they both toiled on the “Tonight” show back in the ’60s) and is a renowned script doctor. Quite a few of the people in the room have had their work touched up by Sahl. Among the award winners were Julian Fellowes (“Gosford Park”), Akiva Goldman (“A Beautiful Mind”), and Robin Green and Mitchell Burgess, for an episode of “The Sopranos.” Perhaps the biggest hand was for HBO’s president of original movies Colin Callender, who was presented by Mike Nichols with an award for executive integrity in the industry. The writers all love the freedom Colin and his cohorts at HBO give them.
Keeping afloat
BRONZED George Hamilton has been recuperating nicely from the fall he took on stage during Broadway’s “Chicago” last month. George ended up having knee surgery and flew down to the Caribbean to recover on the yacht of his friends, Bren and Melvin Simon. (Their 165-foot “Te Manu” is one of the most luxurious craft afloat.) When he’s fully recovered, Hamilton will be heading to London to appear in the West End production of “Chicago.”
She’s made it
AFTER two Oscars and countless other awards, Maggie Smith knows about success. But the fame side of it didn’t come home to her until she saw herself in an advertisement on the side of a London bus. That’s when “I really thought I’d made it,” she tells the April issue of Premiere magazine. She’s up for Best Supporting Actress Oscar this month for “Gosford Park,” and will probably wear something flirty to the big night. She complains that people think she’s really ancient because she’s played so many “old bats.” Being made a Dame by the Queen of England didn’t help, either. The honor made her think: “Holy s- – -! It’s because one is so old.” (For the record, she’s 67.)
Fleeting fortune
MAYBE Mick Fleetwood can arrange to do some paying gigs with his great admirer, saxophone-tooting Bill Clinton. The old Fleetwood Mac drummer got only a rim shot out of the online auction business he set up a couple of years ago. The site just went bust and has been closed down. Mick’s biggest sale was more than $2 million for the Steinway on which John Lennon composed “Imagine,” but the pickings have been lean ever since.
Good sports
THE cable deals haven’t all been signed and sealed yet, but we can get a look at the faces on the new YES (Yankees Entertainment & Sports) Network tomorrow evening at the Museum of Television and Radio when George Steinbrenner’s cable team of Fred Hickman, Michael Kay, Bobby Murcer and Suzyn Waldman take part in a seminar on the good old days of sports broadcasting.
Furry snowy in Gstaad
THERE hasn’t been enough snow locally to keep a furrier in business, so Dennis Basso the other day headed off to Gstaad to show his new line of sables and such. It snowed like crazy from the moment he arrived, so everyone was happy at the birthday dinner Basso hosted for Prince Victor Emmanuel de Savoia, pretender to the Italian throne. (They say Victor may be able to set foot in his homeland sometime this year.) Ivana Trump was at the party, along with another merry divorcée, Luisa Moore, who can afford to buy her own fur coats with the $15 million she got from her James Bond ex, Roger, for giving him his freedom.