Forgive, Forget, or Fire

May 12, 2007 — -- A businessman gets drunk, hits his girlfriend in a parking lot, and loses his job.

In most places that would be the end of the story. But Hollywood isn't most places and Chris Albrecht, the former CEO of HBO and the man often credited with reinventing cable television, isn't most businessmen.

Albrecht made headlines last week when police outside the MGM Grand in Las Vegas arrested him after reportedly seeing him fighting with his girlfriend in the parking lot.

Within days, the media had uncovered a 1991 case that HBO settled for $400,000, in which Albrecht allegedly choked another woman who was both a subordinate and former girlfriend.

Two days after the incident in Las Vegas, Albrecht resigned as the cable network's CEO.

The media loves a disgraced celebrity. Albrecht, though himself not a household name, was the man behind so many household names — "The Sopranos," "Sex and the City," "Six Feet Under" — and people jumped on the story of an executive whose wealth and power had seemingly led him to drink and act with abandon.

Yesterday, Ari Emanuel, a friend of Albrecht and the inspiration for the agent Ari Gold character on the HBO series "Entourage," published a piece on the liberal news site, Huffington Post, defending his friend. In it, Emanuel called out the Hollywood press for chastising Albrecht, a man whose trespasses — at least in Emanuel's opinion — were mild, compared to what passes for forgivable in Tinseltown.

"Chris Albrecht is my friend, and I'm appalled at the way he has been treated by the press. He is an alcoholic who fell off the wagon and made a terrible mistake. No one is arguing that," Emanuel wrote on the Web site.

"Ours has traditionally been a very forgiving culture. If Hollywood is going to give Mel Gibson a second chance, and sports fans are going to cheer on stars like Jason Kidd, Latrell Sprewell, and Stephen Jackson — who have made similar mistakes — why not Chris Albrecht?"

So, why not Chris Albrecht?

Contrition in Hollywood these days is as formulaic as some of the movies produced there. Apologize, make a show out of entering rehab, and maybe meet with representatives of whatever group you managed to offend.

That's what Gibson did after his July 2006 drunk-driving arrest in which he famously remarked to the arresting officer, "Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

Why should celebrities — actors and athletes, in particular — be forgiven for all manner of misbehavior while other public (and not so public) individuals just get one shot?

"Stars are constantly getting into trouble," said Robert Thompson, a professor of media and pop culture at Syracuse University. "We've grown to expect bad behavior from talent — we've certainly seen enough of it."

Thompson says there is a double standard — or at least a different standard — by which we judge celebrities and executives. But, he says, there is a good reason for that: being an actor or athlete is very different from being an executive.

"Executives have a different standard applied to them. Executives are expected to handle the misbehavior of stars — not generate it themselves. That's a double standard, but it's also two different professions."

A case in point, says Thompson, is the sex tape.

"If you get caught with a sex tape, and you're a senator, that is likely to end your career. If you're Paris Hilton, that is just the beginning of your career."

Hilton has perhaps never engendered so much good will as she did this week when she was sentenced for 45 days in jail for violating her parole for a previous DUI conviction.

"Forty-five days in jail will help Hilton's career. It would be very different if she were a political leader or executive," Thompson said.

There is a double standard for celebrities, agreed Howard Rubenstein, president of the public relations firm Rubenstein Associates.

We like celebrities and we expect very little from them. On the other hand, Rubenstein says, we expect something from executives, like Albrecht, or politicians — their trust.

"We have a celebrity-oriented society. We love them. People will say, 'as long as he's famous and he gets off the drugs, or stops beating his spouse or girlfriend, and is apologetic, we can forgive him.'

"Business people are sometimes lumped in the same category as celebrities," Rubenstein adds, "but in a crisis they are not treated like real celebrities. There is never as much forgiveness. Shareholders and the law hold executives to a higher standard."

Rubenstein's advice to Albrecht and anyone else in a similar situation is simple: be honest.

"If they're not arrogant, and some are really arrogant, they should seek good advice. Get a good lawyer, or PR person, or friend. Ask yourself what your reputation is worth? And then tell the truth. Does that require making change? Does it require making an apology? You have to be honest with yourself and the public."