Zifkin helps holocaust victims win case

GOOD MORNING: About $450 million will begin to be distributed immediately to Austrian slave-labor victims of the Nazi holocaust, thanks to the efforts of William Morris Agency's chief exec officer Walter Zifkin. Another $400 million, for stolen property, is still to be distributed. Zifkin was appointed special master to argue the settlement in the court of U.S. District Judge Shirley Wohl Kram. (She is, coincidentally, the mother of Steve Kram, chief operating officer, West Coast, of the Morris office. And Zifkin's mother-in-law was a holocaust survivor.) Judge Kram handed down her ruling last week. "The feeling and joy I've had in this experience, and this accomplishment," said Zifkin, "is incomparable." But the 38-year veteran of WMA says he's benefited "from the experience I've had (in the biz) dealing with different situations and people firm in their conviction and beliefs, and trying to come to a common ground." His "audience" in the court included representatives of the Austrian government in charge of the holocaust reparations, Austrian companies, Viennese attorneys for the Austrian Jewish Community and reps of the U.S. government. One 77-year-old survivor of a slave-labor camp testified as well. Whattan audience, what emotions ... Zifkin, who is also an attorney, performed these duties pro bono, as did members of the N.Y. office of Loeb & Loeb. Judge Kram noted at the hearing's finale, "I especially want to thank Special Master Walter Zifkin, who took time out of an extraordinarily busy business life to perform his duties ... Now, many attorneys have come before this court and emphasized the humanitarian aspect of these cases and their commitments to these clients, but Special Master Zifkin truly served the victims of the Nazi-era crimes ... You have performed really a higher standard of your profession, and you are to be congratulated."

AFTER 12 WEEKS PRODUCTION in the remotest areas of Brazil, six months of editing and a year-and-a-half of development of the screenplay, Arthur Cohn's "Behind the Sun," directed by Walter Salles is now being edited in Paris--to bow at the Venice Film Festival and to preem for AFI in L.A. next month. (AFI also preemed Cohn's "Central Station," "One Day in September," "Black and White in Color" and "The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.") The Cohn-Salles "Central Station" won the Golden Globe well as Oscar nominations for film and for Fernanda Montenegro, you recall. Its cinematographer, Walter Carvalho and composer Antonio Pinto reteam in "Behind the Sun," which Cohn says is "more complex and even more mature than 'Central Station.' " Cohn's pride in Salles is evident in his recent signing for the remake of Akira Kurosawa's "High and Low" (to be produced by Martin Scorsese and Barbara De Fina) and "The Assumption of the Virgin" (to star Benicio Del Toro, Juliette Binoche and Geoffrey Rush, with screenplay by Anthony Minghella and Leigh Jackson) ... It's official: the Hollywood & Highland building's Grand Ballroom debuts with the Fulfillment Fund's "Stars 2001" honoring Jeffrey Katzenberg, Nov. 8. Wolfgang Puck is the resident caterer and Bulgari and InStyle mag underwrite the event. Dinner chairs are Megan & Peter Chernin, David Geffen, Kate Capshaw & Steven Spielberg and Elizabeth and Jim Wiatt.

JACK VALENTI CANCELED tomorrow's trip to L.A. as he bedsides wife Mary Margaret, who underwent successful back surgery at Georgetown hospital Monday. She'll require a month of rest after her hospital departure at week's end. Jack's book of 15 years ago, "Speak Up With Confidence, How to Prepare, Learn and Deliver Effective Speeches" (William Morrow) is now being re-published by Hyperion. It's a revised edition, Jack assures, with new material that he's now in the last stages of preparing for spring publication. He's added a chapter, "Grading Presidential Speaking Style," in which he will put a grade (A thru F) on the speaking ability of presidents from FDR to George W. Bush. Guess who flunks. P.S. He says he has "nice" quotes from readers of the original -- these include George Bush, pere ... Lucie and brother Desi Arnaz took in the "I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Tour" on its stop at Costa Mesa over the weekend. The duo also participated, just like tourists, in the tour's interactive game, posing in the re-created classic scenes: Vita-Meata-Vegamen commercial, the grape-stomping and the chocolate factory scenes. Mart Erlichman taped 'em for possible use in the CBS special being readied by Gary Smith and Fred Rappoport. The live show's moved on to Sacramento ... Irv Kupcinet celebrates his 89th birthday today, while still recovering from the death of his wife of 62 years, Essee; he's still writing three columns a week for the Chicago Sun-Times. He'd asked that in lieu of flowers contributions to the Chicago Academy for the Performing Arts, a school she created. Bob and Dolores Hope donated $10,000 ... .Playwright-screenwriter James Prideaux is at Cedars-Sinai recuping from double knee-replacement surgery. While there, casting (excuse it!) is going on for his play, "The Last of Mrs. Lincoln," to bow Sept. 11 at the El Portal Center for the Performing Arts ... Tane McClure (daughter of Doug), who plays Reese Witherspoon's mother in "Legally Blonde," married Gary Arendtz July 17 in Cambria, Calif. They have a 3-year-old daughter, Kayla, who no doubt is already thinking about going to Harvard.