HOLLYWOOD'S GLITTERATI CIRCLE THE WAGONS

By KIM MASTERS/LOS ANGELES

The names adorning the full-page letter in the International Herald Tribune guaranteed attention: Dustin Hoffman, Goldie Hawn, Larry King, Gore Vidal. Others, like Michael Marcus, Terry Semel, Sherry Lansing, Casey Silver and John Calley, may be less familiar, but in Hollywood they are just as famous and considerably more powerful as top executives at five of the major studios--MGM, Warner, Paramount, Universal and Sony Pictures Entertainment.

None are adherents of Scientology. Many are Jewish, provoking lots of buzz over why they endorsed a high-decibel comparison with the Holocaust. Marcus and others say they oppose any religious persecution. Several say they signed out of respect for the letter's author, entertainment attorney Bertram Fields, whose client list happens to include Scientology's most prominent celebrities, Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

Fields says he was aroused when some members of Germany's Christian Democratic Union Party called for a boycott of Cruise's Mission: Impossible. The boycott failed, but it prompted Fields to write and pay for the $56,700 ad. He insists he was not retained by any Scientology organization and never discussed the ad with anyone affiliated with Scientology. Both Cruise and Travolta, he says, have since thanked him for his initiative.

All the executives involved are in business with one or the other of the two stars. Sony is profiting from Cruise's Jerry Maguire. Universal has signed Travolta for Primary Colors. Paramount released Cruise's Mission: Impossible. MGM distributed the Travolta hit Get Shorty. Warner has a project with Cruise and his wife Nicole Kidman.

One studio boss acknowledges being "mindful" of a desire to do a film with Travolta when Fields' request crossed his desk. "When I get a letter from Bert Fields, right or wrong, I give it more credence," he says. "Should I have spent more time on it? Maybe. But if there is persecution in the world, isn't that a bad thing?" Several others maintain they signed to pose the same question. "If you asked me, do I know a great deal about Scientology, I do not," acknowledges former MCA president Sid Sheinberg. "But I don't think I have a burden to know." His concern is governmental persecution of any religious group, particularly in Germany. "The world should be cautious looking at anything that goes on there, given their rather blemished past," he says.

An executive who declined to participate is Joe Roth, chairman of the Disney studios, which did well with the Travolta film Phenomenon. "Bert made it less about [Scientology] and more about connecting to feelings about the Holocaust," says Roth. "Either that, or they're all whores for Tom Cruise and John Travolta, and they wanted to be on the right list."

--By Kim Masters/Los Angeles