New Millennium Ent. votes no on Calif. recall

California's Barnum & Bailey-esque recall campaign might seem like perfect fodder for Michael Viner, who rose to prominence as a publisher in the 1980s with a series of torn-from-the-tabloids books on local media sensations Heidi Fleiss, O.J. Simpson and the Menendez brothers.

Viner says he's already received three offers for books on the recall. But he's not interested.

New Millennium Entertainment, the Beverly Hills-based book and audiobook publishing house that Viner runs with his wife, actress Deborah Raffin, has published its fall catalog, and the focus is on high-minded commercial fiction and nonfiction, a series of reprints of classic books about Hollywood and a thriving audio line with books on tape by Patricia Cornwell, Ian McEwan and Charles Dickens.

"There are no exploitive books on the list," Viner said.

That may come as a surprise to New York publishers who know Viner chiefly as a Hollywood player plugged into the world of celebrity scandal, with a tendency to fight high-profile legal battles to protect his publishing interests.

Just last month, a federal judge lifted an injunction on a New Millennium book, "The Scorpion and the Frog," about organized crime and Wall Street. The book will be published in September.

"He's in court as often as some New York publishers are seen dining at Michael's," one top New York publishing exec said.

Viner was back in court this week in a case that pits him against Otto Penzler, renowned editor and owner of New York's Mysterious Book Shop. The dispute centers on a series of anthologies of murder mysteries about sports that Penzler planned to edit for Viner. The series was abandoned after the first volume landed in court in a separate lawsuit. David Boies' law firm is representing Penzler in his case against Viner.

Viner downplays his pugnaciousness as a litigant. "We've signed 5,000 contracts, and we have three lawsuits," he said. "That's better odds than AOL."

But Viner's contentious relationship with certain New York publishers is just one ingredient of a maverick operation that's shaken up L.A.'s small but feisty publishing scene.

Working outside the New York publishing mainstream has certain benefits, of course. For starters, Viner has access to material the New York publishers overlook. "There are some gold mines here that nobody knows about," he said.

Viner's discoveries include books by showbiz characters like screenwriter Joe Eszterhas and producer David Brown. Viner introduced Eszterhas to his agent, Ed Victor, who secured the screenwriter a multibook deal at Knopf. Next month, New Millennium will re-issue Brown's memoir, "Let Me Entertain You," as part of its Hollywood Classics line, which also includes a paperback reprint of Robert Evans' "The Kid Stays in the Picture" and biographies of Irving Thalberg, David Selznick and Harry Cohn.

Viner gave prolific KISS front man Gene Simmons his own imprint at New Millennium, Simmons Books. Viner, who complains that publishers don't invest enough in big promotional campaigns, says many of his hardcovers get six-figure marketing budgets, and a Hollywood-style push. In one day last month, for instance, while promoting the first Simmons book, "Sex Money Kiss," the rock impresario appeared on the CBS Early Show, made a mid-day bookstore appearance, and held a midnight signing at Score's Gentleman's Club in New York.

Viner publishes books by Bill Maher, Richard Hack and Larry King -- he also has breakfast with King every morning at 8:45 at Nate 'n' Al's deli on Beverly Drive, and lives in a sprawling white house with a tennis court just North of Robert Evans' Beverly Hills estate.

Viner has long been a prime mover in the audio books business. With Raffin, he founded the books-on-tape publishing company Dove Audio with $8,000 in seed money that Viner won from author Sidney Sheldon in a backgammon match. Dove rode the crest of an expanding audio book business and went public in 1995. In 1997, it was acquired by NewStar Media, a transaction that resulted in a long court battle, and Viner was enjoined for a time from publishing audio books.

But New Millennium now has a line of some 500 audio titles, despite the fact that Viner says overall sales in the audio books sector are down by 10%.

Viner also has a hand in a number of films in development at the studios, including "The Company" and "I Dream of Jeannie" at Sony.

Viner, now in his 50's, came late to publishing.

After working in the mail room at Fox, he was hired as an advance man for Robert Kennedy. Following Kennedy's assassination, Viner worked for producer Aaron Rosenberg at Fox, then became a record exec at MGM, where he produced Sammy Davis Jr.'s Grammy-Award winning "Candy Man" album. Viner also worked for Andy Warhol, writing for the fledgling Interview magazine.

It might seem like a good moment for Viner to dabble again in tell-all books. Mainstream magazines are growing steadily more tabloid-like, and tabloids are struggling to become more mainstream. New York publishers are tripping over each other in an effort to sign up books about media sensations like Laci Peterson and Jessica Lynch. The National Enquirer just announced it's launching a book line.

But Viner has other plans. "That's not what we want to be," he said. "We did two books that were exploitive. They were hits. It's probably our biggest mistake."