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notations on the April 24, 1996, letter, signed it, and faxed it
back to petitioner’s counsel. The terms contained in the
April 24, 1996, letter included a provision whereby UTA would pay
petitioner a total of $6 million in several installments, and
petitioner would also be entitled to the back-end payments.
Before he signed the April 24, 1996, letter, Mr. Berkus
spoke with Mr. Bauer, Mr. Benedek, Mr. Cosay, Mr. Stevens, and
Mr. Zimmer. The decision to settle was a group decision by UTA’s
management--all knew about the agreement and agreed with the
obligation UTA was assuming. Mr. Berkus sensed that petitioner
was extremely close to filing the complaint when he signed the
April 24 letter. Mr. Berkus took very seriously petitioner’s
threats to file the complaint.
On Wednesday, April 24, 1996, UTA issued the following press
release, as was required by the agreement reached on April 24,
1996:
Upon further investigation, we have determined that
there were insufficient grounds to terminate Gavin
Polone’s employment for cause. We regret any
misconception created as a result of the reporting of
these events in the media. We have reached an amicable
settlement with Gavin Polone and wish him well in his
future endeavors.
The entire press release was reported in the Hollywood
Reporter in its Thursday, April 25, 1996, edition under the
headline “UTA apologizes, pays off Polone”. The first two
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