Sidney Korshak

"But, deluded by his own self-image of grandeur, Yablans simply couldn’t take this hit to his reputation… and he quit. Cold. Just like that. I didn’t hear it from him. His lawyer called. Sidney Korshak. In his deep, intimidating voice, Korshak said, “This isn’t working. He’s out, and we have to settle it.” I replied, “There isn’t anything to settle. I’m perfectly happy for him to stay if he wants. If he quits, which is what you’re telling me, then there’s no settlement, he just goes home.” Korshak said, in that low and menacing voice, “You seem like a nice kid, but you’re a little naive. I’ll deal with your boss,” and he hung up. Sidney went to Charlie, and fearless though Charlie usually was, he was a little scared of Korshak. Charlie then called to tell me, “Sidney thinks you’re being a hard-ass and we have to pay him something or things will deteriorate. *Unpredictably.*” Charlie hadn’t liked hearing that word, “unpredictably.” He’d told Sidney that I would be reasonable and to go back and work it out. But he said to me, “Don’t be *too* reasonable.”"

"I thought, *How odd is this? Here was this major studio, and we weren’t on the storied studio lot, but in a fancy little boutique building in the heart of the tiny commercial district of Beverly Hills—a block away from the Bistro. This was the high-toned restaurant of the moment serving the movie business.* Sidney Korshak, the mob lawyer who was soon to figure so distressingly in my life, had a permanent table there, with a phone as its only decoration."