DOCUMENT: Crime

Director's "Cut" Was $100,000

Lawsuit: Bogdanovich reneged on deal to mentor businessman's son

View Document

Director's "Cut" Was $100,000

MARCH 16--A Canadian businessman claims that he paid Peter Bogdanovich $100,000 to secure a job for his son, but that the position never materialized and the movie director has pocketed the money.

Iaroslav Jivov alleges that Bogdanovich, 67, and his business manager, William Peiffer, agreed in 2005 to give Jivov's son Matt a job as Bogdanovich's assistant on the director's next film. According to a lawsuit filed by the Jivovs, in exchange for the $100,000, Bogdanovich was to "serve as mentor to Matt and train him for the assistant position and for future movie-making."

The complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in New York, alleges that the employment deal was struck during a January 2005 meeting with Peiffer and Bogdanovich, who has directed films like "The Last Picture Show" and "Paper Moon," and has appeared recently as a psychiatrist on "The Sopranos."

As first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, the lawsuit charges that "as soon as the sum of $100,000 was wired to an account identified by Peiffer, the mentoring program between Bogdanovich and Matt would commence." However, the complaint contends, the assistant's job never materialized, with Peiffer claiming that script changes and financing problems were delaying production.

Before Matt Jivov set off on a career in cinema (he has directed a short film set at the end of World War II), he played as a goaltender on an Ontario hockey team owned by his father. The junior league squad's coach and general manager were sacked in 1999 after choosing to start another goalie ahead of the younger Jivov, according to Canadian press reports. The elder Jivov claimed that the firings had nothing to do with his son's demotion to backup netminder. (9 pages)