| | Book claims Reagan 'rescued' by Hollywood studios
 A new book claims Hollywood movie studios paid off former President Ronald Reagan before his run for California governor with a sweetheart land deal that netted the former Screen Actors' Guild president nearly $2 million, the New York Post reports.
According to the Page Six item, the book, "Hollywood Confidential," documents how Reagan spent $85,000 in 1951 for hundreds of acres of less-than-prime land in Malibu.
Years later, when Reagan was preparing to run for governor of California in 1966, the studio arranged a sweetheart deal in response to a request from Nancy Reagan, who was "pleading poverty," the book reports, according to Page Six. Executives at MCA, the movie and music studio, arranged for 20th Century Fox to purchase the land at a considerable premium -- $1.93 million, which was "laundered through a seemingly legitimate real estate transaction."
To hide the pay-off, MCA and Fox announced Fox was moving its studios to the property, although "there was never an interest in moving the studio," writes author Ted Schwarz, according to Page Six. The studio purchased the land for $8,178 per acre, whereas a fair sale price would have been closer to $550 per acre.
Reagan and MCA had a history of helping each other out dating back to his time as president of the Screen Actors' Guild. In one example from 1952, Reagan and the SAG board, at the request of then-MCA head Lew Wasserman, changed the union's rule so MCA could act as a movie producer and talent agency, essentially acting as "employer and agent to actors," according to a Salon article on Wasserman.
"Hollywood Confidential," which is being released this month, traces the history of mob influence in Hollywood from the 1920s to the 1980s, according to its publisher.
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