WARNER TO PAY COPPOLA; JURY GIVES DIRECTOR $60 MILLION AWARD.

Byline: Alex Roth and Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writers

Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola won a $60 million jury award for punitive damages Thursday in his dispute with Warner Bros. - proving again that battling a celebrity in court is a big gamble.

Some Hollywood attorneys and industry analysts expressed surprise that media giant Time Warner Inc. would risk going before a jury against Coppola, a brand name for many moviegoers.

``There's a rule of thumb at the Los Angeles Courthouse,'' said entertainment attorney Pierce O'Donnell. ``Celebrities always win.''

The punitive award comes less than a week after the same Los Angeles Superior Court jury awarded Coppola $20 million in compensatory damages.

``Warner Bros. has traditionally not treated its creative people well,'' Coppola said. ``Hopefully, this will teach them to treat creative people as an asset, not as serfs.''

The Oscar-winning director of ``Apocalypse Now'' and ``The Godfather'' trilogy argued that Warner quashed his dream of making a film version of ``Pinocchio'' with another studio.

Warner claimed Coppola reneged on a deal to make the film with it. Warner officials called Thursday's verdict ``simply ludicrous,'' and a spokesman said the media giant would appeal.

Coppola vs. corporate

Attorneys and Hollywood industry insiders disagreed Thursday on whether the enormous verdict will change the culture of making movie deals with handshakes and oral agreements rather than written contracts.

But most agreed that the case serves as yet another reminder that celebrities hold enormous sway in the courthouses of America. For this jury, the choice was between the corporate face of Warner and the bearded, warm presence of Coppola, one of Hollywood's most revered directors.

``It is well known that when you take on a celebrity in court - watch out,'' said entertainment lawyer Adam D. Miller. ``American society is star struck, and it's no different in downtown Los Angeles than anywhere else in this country.''

Last year, Miller represented The Private Movie Co. Inc. in a breach-of-contract lawsuit against ``Baywatch'' actress Pamela Anderson Lee. At the trial, the former Playboy centerfold came to court in miniskirts and high heels.

``The judge took one look at her and her little dresses and it was all over,'' Miller said.

She was absolved of any liability.

Porter Bibb, a media analyst with New York's Ladenberg Thalmann, called Warner Bros.' legal strategy ``a big shock.''

``I would never bet against Francis Ford Coppola on a jury trial,'' he said. ``I think the poor oppressed artist will always win out over the cold-blooded corporation.''

Enormous verdict

Others, though, said they found the size of Thursday's verdict shocking if not outrageous. Some legal analysts said they thought the studio had a legitimate case against the famous director.

``Coppola is no virgin,'' said entertainment lawyer Schuyler Moore. ``He's not your typical sympathetic unemployed postal worker. He's a big boy who knows how the game is played. So I am surprised.''

The case began in 1991 when Warner Bros. bought a treatment of Coppola's screenplay from his collaborator and threatened to take any other studio to court if it tried to produce it. At the same time, Warner refused to pay Coppola to develop the film.

Coppola began negotiations with Columbia over his version of ``Pinocchio,'' which would have included computer-generated and stop-motion animation.

Columbia was warm to Coppola's proposal but dropped it in 1994, a move the director said came as a result of Warner Bros.' threats.

J. Larson Jaenicke, a Warner Bros.' attorney, said the movie had an estimated $100 million budget, and that no studio was willing to gamble that much on the film.

Changing the industry

Some Hollywood insiders predicted that Thursday's verdict would change some basic business practices in the industry. Among the possible effects: Studios might think twice before aggressively asserting its rights over a project when it doesn't have a signed contract.

``One potential positive effect will be that this common practice in Hollywood of sending threatening lawyer letters will cause people to pause and think of the Coppola case,'' O'Donnell said.

Others predicted that studios will make more of an effort to get everything in writing at the beginning of a project. Still, in a world where creative types strike deals over martinis at Westside watering holes like the Polo Lounge, drawing up a detailed contract isn't always the most practical thing to do.

``You have creative people who really don't care that much about the legal end,'' Miller said. ``That's even true from the studio side, although they're getting better about it.''

Baldwins in court

To be sure, not every celebrity who winds up in court emerges victorious. In one of Hollywood's more notorious civil disputes, a jury in 1993 ordered actress Kim Basinger to pay $8.9 million for backing out of a starring role in the movie ``Boxing Helena.'' An appeals court later overturned the verdict.

Basinger's husband, Alec Baldwin, is expected to testify next week in a civil trial in Van Nuys Superior Court. Tabloid photographer Alan Zanger is suing the star of ``The Hunt for Red October'' and ``The Edge'' for an assault that he claims occurred in a scuffle outside Baldwin's Woodland Hills home.

In opening statements Thursday, Zanger's lawyer seemed to acknowledge that his client faced an uphill battle.

``This case is not about who is better looking, Mr. Zanger or Mr. Baldwin,'' attorney Leonard Steiner told the jury. ``I think one look will tell you Mr. Baldwin is better looking.''

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Photo: ``Hopefully, this will teach (Warner Bros.) to treat creative people as an asset, not as serfs.''

- Francis Ford Coppola

Oscar-winning director