Hollywood Studios on ‘Terror Alert’

BBC News Online-September 21--The celluloid world of Hollywood hassuddenly faced real fear after the FBI reportedly warned of terrorthreats to film studios including Universal.

Cheryl Mimura, a spokeswoman for the FBI told Variety, the tradenewspaper: "The FBI provided a threat advisory to the movie studios inLos Angeles. The uncorroborated threat states that a film studio inCalifornia could be the target of a terrorist attack in retaliation forany possible bombing attacks by the United States in Afghanistan. Itseems to be a credible threat.”

Hollywood studios have vowed to increase their security as wordspread of an unspecified terrorist threat against them. Daily Varietysaid it obtained memos from sources at five studios, all detailing newsecurity measures.

The studios were Fox Entertainment Group Inc's 20th Century Fox,Sony Corp's Sony Pictures Entertainment, Walt Disney Co, VivendiUniversal's Universal Pictures and AOL Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros,it said. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc planned to notify employees of newsecurity measures on Friday, the paper said.

Television networks and talent agencies throughout Hollywood havereceived similar messages.

Tours halted

Reaction was swift across Hollywood. On Thursday studio entranceswere shut down, barricades were ordered and set in place and manystudio tours were abruptly halted. Under the new security orders, moststudios will have only one point of entry with increased securityguards. Most film studios and other businesses in Hollywood were openas normal on Friday although CBS was briefly closed "for securitypurposes".

Despite the scares, an FBI spokesman in Washington said the studiosmay have overreacted. He said the agency did meet with studiorepresentatives but did not discuss anything "specific" in terms ofthreats. Attacks "There wasn't anything that came from this pressoffice or the FBI that said, 'Hey, you guys better be prepared forsomething.' It's more of a 'be aware' notification. [But] people mighthave taken it for something more than that." The film community inHollywood was sent reeling, like the rest of the US after lastTuesday's attacks. And there is a sense that Hollywood will never bethe same again.