Hyler's courage lauded with award

Manager-producer honored at Visionary Ball

By MICHAEL FLEMING

Joan Hyler accepted the Courage Award on Thursday at the Visionary Ball, which was presented by Bruce Vilanch.

Thirteen months after her near-fatal accident, manager-producer Joan Hyler accepted the Courage Award on Thursday at the Visionary Ball, an event that served as her coming-out party after months of recovery and grueling rehabilitation work.

"It felt like the right time," she said of the event at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

"I am back working full time in my office," Hyler told Daily Variety. "I walk to a certain extent, with a cane and use a wheelchair to ambulate to lunches. I can clock a full day of business, lunch and drinks. None of my major functions were lost, nor was my energy or ability to sell. I can out-think most people who can walk and dance."

The event benefited the UCLA Dept. of Neurosurgery, whose doctors saved her life after she was hit by a car and thrown 25 feet in the air as she tried to cross Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu on Aug. 15, 2008. She was airlifted to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center with a collapsed lung, crushed pelvis and broken shoulder in addition to leg injuries.

The Visionary kudo was presented to Hyler by her longtime friend Bruce Vilanch, who recalled the near-fatal evening: "We thought it was over when they brought her in." 

As the night wore on, the waiting room filled with Hyler's clients and friends. She was constantly surrounded by a core group of supporters who included Vilanch; WME senior agent Brian Swardstrom; her ex-husband, Larry Scissors; her sister Nancy Berlin; and longtime clients, including Diane Lane, Alfred Molina, Amber Tamblyn, Amber Heard and Karen Allen.

Hyler defied expectations when she rallied from a four-month coma. She had to learn to speak again and is now relearning to walk.

She said she never felt bitter about the accident, and that a steady outpouring of industry support helped her recovery.

"One day I'd wake up, and there's Bill Paxton and Alan Hergott, sitting at the foot of my bed," Hyler said. "The community rallied around me, and it sustained me."  

As her speech returned, Hyler began working the cell phone from her hospital bed. Most of her clients hung in and waited as she balanced work with rigorous rehab sessions. She's now down to two hours of a daily rehab routine. She can feel strength returning to her legs.

"Most of the injuries were localized to my legs, so I'm still pretty," she deadpanned.

Hyler will chronicle her recovery in a planned memoir that covers more than 30 years of dealmaking that began at ICM in New York, where she grew up alongside Sue Mengers and Sam Cohn, before Stan Kamen brought her to WMA. Hyler's early clients included Madonna, Andy Warhol and Meryl Streep.

"New York was the epicenter of the business then, run by Scorsese, De Niro, Pacino, Streep," Hyler recalled. "They are still around, and so am I."