'DisneyWar' Publisher Wants Text Back from Disney (Reuters)

2005-01-30T09:01:00.000-08:00

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Publisher Simon & Schuster on Friday said it had demanded that Walt Disney Co. return a manuscript of a forthcoming book about Michael Eisner's 20-year reign as Disney chief executive and the shareholder revolt against him.
"It is definitely under wraps," said Victoria Meyer, a spokeswoman for Simon & Schuster. The publisher's lawyers had told Disney it believed the entertainment conglomerate possessed a copy of the highly anticipated book that should be returned, she said. Meyer said it was not known how Disney obtained a copy of the book.
Disney declined to comment on whether it possessed a copy of the book, but a spokesman said, "The company engaged in a lengthy and thorough discussion on fact-checking with the author."
The book by Pulitzer Prize winning author James Stewart has already caused a stir due to an excerpt printed in the New Yorker magazine, which gave detailed accounts of Chief Executive Michael Eisner's hiring and dismissal of Michael Ovitz in the late 1990s.
Ovitz's $140 million severance is the subject of a shareholder suit.
The book will be published on March 7 with an initial run of 200,000 copies, a large run on par with the initial run for Bob Dylan's best-selling memoir "Chronicles." The company has not sent out advance copies to reviewers, aiming to use the mystery to create a bigger launch.
"It is a subject that people are keenly interested in, and it has some news value," Meyer said. Simon & Schuster is owned by Viacom Inc.

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'DisneyWar' Publisher Wants Text Back from Disney (Reuters)