Philadelphia Daily News from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 59

Wednesday, -Oct. 8. 1986 PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS Page 59 A PEOPLE THE HOTSHOT I isn't just a titillating book "II about sex, drugs, orgies and rock 'n' roll," Freddie Gershon said earnestly. "It's about the 20th century. I don't want to be too heavy, but there was a revolution." So we'd heard.

Still, listening to KOs stories from Gershon, hotshot rock roll lawyer-turned-hotshot novelist, was more entertaining than, say, lis- Southampton house, they had to pay $4,000 a month just to store the furniture. "I have no regrets for the money I pissed away during my high living." Gershon rode the crest of the rock wave for IS years, from the Beatles through the protest years "1968 was devastating for me. It was the year the dream went sour" and into the late 70s, when rock and movies merged. In 1976 he became Robert Stigwood's partner in RSO Records, and thus was part of the team that produced "Saturday Night Fever" and "Gallipoli." After "Gallipoli," it stopped being fun, and Fast Freddie became Frenzied Freddie. "I was out of control.

We had the beach house with a staff of six, the helicopter, the limo. I'd become a rock star." The epiphany came one day when he was having 30 or so to lunch. "I said to my wife, I don't know who these people are having lunch with us. Then I noticed the staff putting a '66 Haut Brion into the sangria I mean two magnums of Haut Brion and I thought, I'm an asshole." So in 1981, Fast Freddie retired. Freddie the Lawyer became Freddie the Author.

Sure, his social life is less impressive than it used to be, but "I prefer the reclusive life." And now, irony of ironies, it looks like the author might be doing it all again, at least until "Sweetie" makes it into mini-series land. Freddie is ready. Yes, he's thought about casting. "Elton might play 'Brandon Levy' the impresario who had the Palace guard fling "I'd love to have Sting play 'Thane Crawley'" the bad guy. And you know who I'd like to direct?" Gershon leaned forward, eyes glinting.

"Barbra Streisand." He rubbed his hands together. Gershon loves music. "Favorite songs? "Walk Away Renee' by the Left Bank, because it's built on the pentatonic scale, and Procul Harum's 'Whiter Shade of And he loves musicians. "As a virtuoso, Eric Clapton is the best. As an all-around musicianentertainer.

Van Morrison." But he will never represent musicians again; he's had enough of their antics for a lifetime. "They're idiot savants. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. I've discovered that most major talents are defective in proportion to their talent." Naturally, Gershon won't name names, unless he has something nice to say. He adores Bette Midler.

just the warmest dearest person I know about a project she's working on If she does it, she'll get the Academy Award." Suddenly, describing a project, Gershon was all business. "It's the story of an obnoxious performer who becomes a caring friend to a friend who's dying of cancer she turns her home into a hospice. This is 'Terms of Endearment Goes Show It's it's to die. Th is is it. Bette can sing, she can show, but she can grow If Gershon could get this fired up about a pm(t'ct he has nothing to do with, how can he stand not being in the busings anymore? He smm wise, 46-year-old smile.

"I mean. I done the Plaza Athenee suite, tht- I've done it all." And now it seems as if it was all just research. Gershon is planning a sequel to "Sweetie," because he has so much dirt left over. tening to Walter Cron-kite's album of '60s social history. For one thing, Gershon's patter was delivered through the most incredibly pearly set of teeth we had seen in a while.

BY SUSAN STEWART For another, Gershon was the best-dressed social historian we had ever met. "This is a Tommy Nutter shirt. He's the best tailor on Savile Row. He used to make Mick and Bianca's matching outfits." Even without the book Baby Cookie Honey," Arbor House, $17.95, already practically a mini-series) Gershon can afford Savile Row clothes. Did he get rich when he represented "fifth Beatle" Peter Best in his suit against the Beatles? "No, 1 got rich because I was the only entertainment lawyer around." And he was around representing clients from Van Morrison to Eric Clapton at the right time.

"I got my law degree at Columbia in '64. That was three months after the Kennedy assassination. America had lost her virginity." And so, it would appear from "Sweetie," had everybody else. While this thinly fictionalized expose does not have more sex scenes per chapter than, say, the novels of Gershon's literary exemplar, Jacqueline Su-sann, the sex scenes in it are more memorable. Gershon said the most shocking scene for most people is the one where "Hedy Harlowe, lusty but lonely superstar, orders a pizza in her hotel suite, then lets it get cold while she enjoys the delivery man.

Gershon: "That's based on an incident with Mama Cass." Our favorite sex scene, however, involves a gay British rock impresario, several Buckingham Palace guards, and a dark and roomy limo. Gershon: "That's absolutely true. It's a very famous man." Who? Gershon smiled gleefully. "It's part of the gay mafia in the music business. In the book, there are secret codes everywhere, that only insiders will understand." Being coy about his thinly veiled characters is not only smart from a legal standpoint, it fun.

Being a hotshot, big-deal lawyer was fun, too, although Gershon is quick to say he was in the rock business, but not oi it. no wnips in my closet." As Freddie the Lawyer, conservative but ambitious, he did manage to eke out a sustenance. When he and his wife sold their Iftt 11 It5ll l-lf A waM i ill il IIIM Falrcloth Sta Photography by.