Ovitz Emerges Confident After 5 Days on Stand in Disney Case

Former Walt Disney Co. President Michael Ovitz left a Delaware courthouse Monday confident that his five days on a witness stand helped restore a reputation badly bruised by his firing eight years ago.

“I feel really good,” Ovitz said after the final day of his testimony in a shareholder lawsuit against former and current Disney directors. “I think it couldn’t have gone any better. I got the story out; I told the truth. I gave facts that had never been out there before.”

Under questioning by both sides, Ovitz insisted that as Disney’s No. 2, he was not an executive who was in over his head or out of control. Shareholders have accused him of performing so poorly and of squandering so much money that he should have been fired without a hefty severance package. Ultimately, Ovitz received $109 million after his ouster in 1996.

Ovitz testified to being repeatedly undermined by Chief Executive Michael Eisner and his inner circle during Ovitz’s ill-fated 15-month tenure at Disney.

“I’ve been waiting seven or eight years to get my side of the story out,” Ovitz said in a brief interview after leaving Chancery Court in Georgetown, Del. “What better place to do that than in a court of law where I’m under oath?”

Ovitz said he was hopeful that the judge in the nonjury trial would rule in his favor, allowing him to keep his payout, which shareholders want returned to Disney’s treasury. Such a decision, Ovitz said, would remove the taint on his career and help him “start a new life.”

Before joining Disney, Ovitz ran Creative Artists Agency, where he became one of the most innovative, powerful and sharp-elbowed executives in Hollywood.

At times, Ovitz’s appearance on the stand seemed more like theater than testimony. During five uninterrupted minutes last week, he said he was still struggling to understand how his 25-year relationship with Eisner had disintegrated. He accused Eisner of rebuffing his ideas and limiting his authority -- a contention Disney disputes.

Eisner is expected to testify this month.

Disney directors, who are accused in the suit of failing to properly oversee Ovitz’s hiring and firing, say they acted properly. They contend that they were contractually obligated to pay Ovitz because he had committed no acts of gross negligence or malfeasance.

On Monday, Ovitz was questioned once again about his spending of company money. Records show he purchased numerous gifts, including a $325 antique for actor Dustin Hoffman’s birthday and a $946 firearm for director Robert Zemeckis.

Ovitz said the gifts were necessary to stroke talent and nurture executives. He said he often gave theme park tickets, collectibles and Disney videotapes to influential people inside and outside the company to generate goodwill, attract talent and keep top-level executives happy. Among the beneficiaries was current Disney President Robert Iger, who received a watch worth $7,000.

Ovitz said he had received permission from Eisner for the Iger gift but said he did not believe he needed approval for “goodwill” presents to others because he felt it was his job to keep employees happy.

Also Monday, Ovitz testified that he took care to protect himself from early termination, which he called “standard operating procedure” in the entertainment industry.

He said he did so because the talent agency he had co-founded was “taking off like a rocket ship” at the time he left to join Disney.

“Protecting the downside,” he said, is “drummed in your head from the time you’re a young executive in the entertainment business.”

After Ovitz left the courtroom, former Disney director Irwin Russell was called to testify. He headed the board’s compensation committee when Ovitz’s contract was approved.