HAVE WE SEEN THE LAST OF HIM? JohnLennono: The HTG Hollywood Enigma Returns (By JL)

Many things have been said in HTG Hollywood about JohnLennono. Allegedly a Knight of the British Realm, though the paperwork has never been uncovered, JohnLennono is a man of many other faces as well: Barrister. Financier. Adventurer. His biggest sideline was leasing planes to celebrities, who called him "Chopper John." But most recently, he attempted to make his mark in the world of entertainment; apparently he felt the best way to do so was to hit the scene like an atomic bomb.

Much accustomed to getting his way, JohnLennono quickly started a buzz around Hollywood with actions that some perceived to be arrogant and others dismissed as the pure poppycock of an inexperienced amateur. Says one unnamed source, "He was widely regarded as an [expletive deleted], trying to buck system trends to suit his agenda. He had this idea for a TV series. And you know what, it wasn't half-bad. But he makes the pitch, and then tries to fob off the writing on someone else! It's simply not done that way here! He has to prove himself as a producer."

J.L. (to his friends) himself could only say at the time that this was not his world. His world was banking and finance. He was an independent customer with a taste for the old razzle-dazzle, or so he claimed. Indeed, he sure didn't look the showbiz type, a baby-face guy with pretty little features, blond curls, and little round glasses, who wore sloppy linen blazers like a Harvard lawyer.

His next antics bore out the theory that he knew nothing of how things are run in this town, as he attempted to jump-start his career by trying to take over the assets of defunct studios and television networks around town. As another reliable source put it, "He's a banker, he's used to acquisition. It's how many beanies the other kid has over everyone else, so he thought buying up a library of proven pictures couldn't go wrong, perhaps even hoping to turn a few sentimental favorites that were commercial flops into hits via re-branding, re-editing, new advertising, re-release, etc. It's not like it's something nobody around here has thought of before."

But at the end of the day, this, too, proved futile. "Buying syndication rights to a dead TV sitcom produced by a dead network, or putting up money for rights to a defunct studio's film properties, is apparently going to hurt somebody even if they don't work in this town anymore," JohnLennono allegedly groused at the time. Others say J.L. might have been able to push this acquisition idea further if he'd thought it out better and actually had projects under his belt. A former employee of JohnLennono also claimed his intent was not necessarily in the best interests of the films, but rooted in name brand recognition. "As he outlined it," says the employee, "his idea was to take over the assets of a dead studio, preferably one with major hits that everyone still remembered, and begin running it as his own entity, to the extent of sticking the studio's name on his own product to potentially open doors that would not otherwise be opened were it not for the closed studio's good name." J.L. declined comment.

Finally, a production deal was arranged with Lucian Carter's Ship of Fooles. J.L. reportedly found Lucian to be a kindred spirit on many levels. When asked for comment, Lucian had this to say: "The film business was apparently just a sideline for this guy. He would tell these stories about flying to Libya with a load of automatic weapons. Or landing in a field in Spain with no one around and just emptying the plane -- dropping the goods in the middle of a field in some old prop plane and taking off. They were entertaining adventure stories, and I hadn't a clue if they were true, but they sure were enough to pique my interest. He was clearly a very shrewd guy." As another source at SoF put it, "You could tell he was a smart guy, but once he came on board strange things started to happen."

A slate of two J.L.-run projects was announced: Jesus Christ Superstar, based on the world-famous Andrew Lloyd Webber musical extravaganza, and Vampire Killers, a cinematic adaptation of the hit German rock opera Tanz der Vampire. That was last year. In the meantime, both projects were acquired, announced, canceled, rescheduled, repurposed as a live event in one case, and dropped from the slate again. As his former secretary put it, "The moment Chopper John entered the picture, everything seemingly went to hell. And it all happened overnight."

Says Lucian, "With John in the picture, everything was done on a grand scale. Big plans made on glass coffee tables. He was giddy. He was just like a high school kid – you have all the answers, and whatever you say is funny, and whatever you do is cool. John tried to get as much money in advances as he could. For live events, films. That live event, a concert of Superstar, he proposed the idea and got me to put up a million and a half to make it. It never got produced. Much of that money is off the radar. He got advances for the vampire film, and some of that money disappeared." The secretary adds, "He acquired a townhouse for use as a personal office under an assumed name, I presume that's where some of Lucian's money went. If John ever used his own money, he'd have been spreading himself a bit too thin. He was continually thinking up these wild projects."

The big fancy townhouse, by all reports, was furnished in the most lavish style imaginable, described as "palatial" and "incredibly furnished," with Louis XIV desks, antique mirrors, a huge gold lobby with a soda fountain and a jukebox like a drugstore from the Thirties, everything paneled, a pink room called "the Party Room" with everything in it a very pale pink (including a pink grand piano), a "Serene Room," and a hired chef who prepared elaborate meals. When asked for comment at the time, friends say that he simply said now that he was a movie producer, he had to have an office worthy of his new status, and to think of the townhouse as a big production office. JohnLennono also reportedly picked up a new look to match his reported success, a slicker Italian schmooze sort of thing. If this ever existed, it's all off the books; no real estate developer in HTG Hollywood has ever recalled selling to J.L. or anyone fitting the description, and not even the best short order cooks in town will admit to working for him. J.L. claims he never changed his style, but would not answer questions about the alleged townhouse.

Carter's observation of events at J.L.'s Khazer Media International office on his lot proved more disturbing. "I don't know if it was incontinence or what, but it looked to me like John could never sit at his desk longer than ten minutes without going to the bathroom. He would get up in the middle of meetings and disappear for days. I could never figure it out." Another source alluded to having seen in J.L.'s office "a shoe box wrapped in tinfoil that looked like a present on which the wrapping had been ripped open" which, when opened, revealed "it was full of hundred-dollar bills. Wrapped like in the movies, with a little seal around them. It was in ten-thousand-dollar bundles and the shoe box was stacked full." This source also added that J.L. had made vague statements about using an offshore company to "beat the taxman" and that from time to time he would send guys "down there" with cash. "With all the stories he told, I scarcely knew what to make of this one."

JohnLennono gradually disappeared from sight while asking important but not necessarily urgent technical questions about the projects. Nobody in town knew where he was or had heard from him in some time. That was where the story ended until the middle of last month. The man who had come to be regarded as a rebellious young aristocrat (if his Knighthood story could be believed) playing a game he didn't understand suddenly appeared on Lucian Carter's doorstep in mid-March, begging to be let in immediately. While Lucian would not elaborate as to his explanation of his whereabouts, a new production deal was worked out on a new piece: Hair, an adaptation of the Sixties musical of the same name. A release is promised on that project within the week, say SoF staff.

The one question on everyone's lips in HTG Hollywood: Have we seen the last of JohnLennono? Or, as others grouse, "Will we ever?"