Business Notes: Hollywood

The curtain has been rung down on the long-running farce starring would-be film mogul Giancarlo Parretti. Last week a Delaware judge confirmed Parretti's removal from the board of MGM-Pathe studios. A onetime waiter who bought the studio in 1990 for $1.3 billion, Parretti accumulated huge debts during his half-year tenure as CEO, forcing the company into involuntary bankruptcy. The studio's chief lender, the French bank Credit Lyonnais, pumped in $145 million to restore solvency but demanded his ouster. The Delaware judge agreed, condemning Parretti's mismanagement of the firm. The downward slide continued on Dec. 27, when Parretti was arrested and jailed in Sicily on tax-evasion charges.