October 13, 1994

In a seismic shift within Hollywood's traditional studio system, Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg announced plans today for a new motion picture, animation, television and entertainment company whose creation could involve buying Universal Pictures from its Japanese owner. The union of three of the most powerful brokers in Hollywood to own and run their own studio marks the biggest merger of talent since Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and D. W. Griffith founded the United Artists movie empire in 1919. It also underscores the financial and creative turmoil rocking Hollywood studios, including Sony Pictures, which also has Japanese owners that have lavished hundreds of millions of dollars on salaries, buildings, buyouts and, in many cases, failed movies.

The rancorous strike against the Harvard Club that rattled Manhattan's Clubhouse Row for six months quietly ended in an agreement that seemed to fall well short of triumph for the club. Article, page B3.

As President Saddam Hussein pulled back most of his troops from the border with Kuwait, the United States sought allied support today for a plan that would require Iraq to permanently withdraw its better-equipped Republican Guards but would allow 50,000 regular Army troops to remain in the area. The proposal was less sweeping than an idea suggested on Monday by Defense Secretary William J. Perry: a huge demilitarized zone that would have excluded all tanks and heavy artillery and left Mr. Hussein with virtually no military control over the southern part of his country.

Prudential Securities will be compelled to acknowledge wrongdoing at the firm to avoid indictment on criminal fraud charges stemming from its sale of more than $8 billion worth of limited partnerships in the 1980's, people involved in the case said yesterday. The acknowledgment will be contained in a document called a deferred prosecution agreement, under which Federal prosecutors will agree not to indict the firm on criminal charges for a period expected to be a year or more, these people said. During that time, Prudential would be operating under terms akin to voluntary probation. If it violated the law in a material way before the period ended, prosecutors could then elect to bring an indictment.

Although some Republicans have tried to make a campaign issue of the homosexuality of the Democratic candidate for New York State Attorney General, Karen S. Burstein, others were quick to condemn the idea and suggested it could hurt the party, in a recent poll, most voters said a candidate's homosexuality would not change their vote. Article, page B8