{"id":10091,"date":"2016-03-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-03-27T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ftllp.net\/?p=10091"},"modified":"2024-11-03T12:53:03","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T20:53:03","slug":"inside-the-raging-legal-battle-over-sumner-redstones-final-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.creativespikedigital.com\/lftc\/news\/entertainment\/inside-the-raging-legal-battle-over-sumner-redstones-final-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the Raging Legal Battle over Sumner Redstone\u2019s Final Days"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With lawsuits, accusations, and sordid revelations flying, even the C.E.O.s of Redstone\u2019s Viacom and CBS have been dragged into the mess. William D. Cohan, whose June 2015 V.F.<\/em> article<\/a> fueled the fire, reports on the famously cranky and willful billionaire\u2019s last chapter.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Had everything gone according to a plan formulated last June, when the billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone finally passes to the great beyond, not only were his two longtime female companions, Sydney Holland, 44, and Manuela Herzer, 51, to be the principal beneficiaries of his personal estate\u2014grossing them around $75 million each, according to an inside source\u2014but they were also to be solely responsible for his funeral arrangements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redstone, ever meticulous, had detailed instructions for the two women about how he wanted the funeral to go. In fact, it was a pretty comprehensive list for a man who had always insisted he would live forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redstone wanted the funeral service to be private. He wanted his close friend Tony Bennett to sing. He wanted Frank Sinatra\u2019s \u201cMy Way\u201d to be played. He wanted to be buried in a \u201csimple pine box,\u201d without any personal items inside it. He wanted to be interred next to his parents, Michael and Belle (who died within three months of each other in 1987), in a traditional Jewish graveside service in the \u201cGalilee\u201d section of the Sharon Memorial Park, in Sharon, Massachusetts. He wanted his interment to be \u201can earth burial, not a mausoleum.\u201d He wanted there to be flowers and pictures of him at the graveside. He wanted his body to be washed and \u201cpurified\u201d by a chevra kadisha,<\/em> the traditional Jewish group that cleanses a corpse prior to burial, and \u201cthereafter, [to be] dressed in a suit.\u201d He added, \u201cI want no makeup, cologne, or jewelry, and no hair styling,\u201d a strange final request from a man who for years dyed his hair a shade that can best be described as a Trumpian carrot color<\/a> and whose barber, Joe, trimmed his hair every day at his mansion in the Beverly Park section of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also specified his six pallbearers: Brandon and Tyler Korff, his two grandsons; a nephew, Steven Sweetwood, who had been his longtime broker at Bear Stearns, before its 2008 demise (he is now at Stifel); Herzer\u2019s son Bryan Chamchoum; and, finally, the two corporate C.E.O.\u2019s who served at Redstone\u2019s pleasure\u2014Les Moonves, the C.E.O. of CBS, and Philippe Dauman, the C.E.O. of Viacom, the mass-media and cable giant. Redstone\u2019s roughly 80 percent stake in the voting shares of both CBS and Viacom is the major source of his vast wealth, estimated to be around $5 billion these days. According to a 2014 document included in a recent court filing, the beneficiaries of his stakes in both companies are his first wife, Phyllis (during her lifetime), and his five grandchildren\u2014the aforementioned Brandon, 32, and Tyler, 30, plus their sister, Kimberlee, 33, and first cousins, Keryn Redstone, 33, and Lauren Redstone, 30\u2014through a series of carefully constructed trusts, an arrangement that is separate from his personal wealth, which was to go to Holland and Herzer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was more: Redstone wanted Moonves and Dauman both to deliver eulogies. He wanted Herzer\u2019s two younger children, Christina Chamchoum, 25, and Kathrine Herzer, 19, along with his three granddaughters, to read poems or prayers. He wanted Holland and Herzer to set the guest list, but directed that it be limited to \u201cfamily and close friends only.\u201d He did not want his two offspring, Shari and Brent, involved in any of the decision-making about the funeral arrangements, evidently the legacy of the often tempestuous relationship he has had with them. \u201cI previously directed that certain family members not be allowed to attend,\u201d he wrote in a June 2015 directive, likely referring to his estranged son, Brent. \u201cThat decision should be made by Sydney and Manuela, at their discretion. I have no objection to my family members attending so long as they do not interfere with any aspect of these instructions.\u201d The two women were also put in charge of the reception after the funeral. Redstone wanted it to be \u201cfestive, not solemn.\u201d If anyone in the family \u201cwas unwilling to participate with other people\u201d he had named, they were to be \u201cexcused\u201d from the ceremonies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He seemed particularly concerned that his only daughter, Shari, 61, would, after his death, contest his decision to give the bulk of his personal fortune to Holland and Herzer. He has long had a complicated and rocky relationship with Shari. During some periods over the years, they have been estranged. For years, Sumner had tried to get her to sell him her 20 percent stake in National Amusements, Inc., the family\u2019s privately held movie-theater business, which also serves as the de facto holding company for the ownership of CBS and Viacom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He wanted her gone from the business. \u201cSumner and Shari are not getting along,\u201d according to an informational \u201cTerm Sheet\u201d about a proposed buyout deal, drafted in late 2014. \u201cShari wants to continue to expand the foreign theatre business, while Sumner has no interest in doing so.\u201d A possible deal was negotiated: in exchange for her 20 percent stake in N.A.I., Shari would get the company\u2019s foreign movie-theater operations, plus the two movie theaters near Boston that she \u201chelped develop.\u201d The deal for her 20 percent stake was estimated to be worth $1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the conditions outlined in the Term Sheet, Sumner also wanted Shari to agree not to question the gifts that Holland and Herzer had already received from him\u2014which, according to people close to Redstone, may have amounted to about $70 million each. In 2014, Redstone had sold around $300 million in Viacom and CBS stock options and made \u201csubstantial gifts\u201d to the two women \u201cto ensure that we would be cared for during the rest of our lives,\u201d according to Herzer. \u201cHe did not want us to ever have to worry about our financial security, especially after his demise.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redstone knew that Shari had hired a private detective, Jim Elroy, to investigate the two women. (Reached by phone, Elroy declined to comment about his work for Shari Redstone.) \u201cIt\u2019s upsetting that this is happening,\u201d wrote Leah Bishop, Redstone\u2019s personal estate lawyer at Loeb & Loeb, in a November 2014 e-mail to Holland and Herzer, \u201cbut Sumner cannot stop Shari from doing this.\u201d So the deal to buy Shari\u2019s stake in N.A.I. tried to address this concern as well. Contractually, there was to be no litigation between Shari and Sydney and Manuela. Holland and Herzer would get to \u201ckeep all of the gifts they have received\u201d\u2014whose value would not be disclosed to Shari\u2014and Shari had to agree \u201cnot to bring any action for repayment.\u201d Furthermore, N.A.I. would cover the huge tax bill\u2014estimated at around $100 million\u2014for Sumner\u2019s lavish gifts, as well as the taxes on whatever he would leave Holland and Herzer upon his death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redstone also acknowledged his ongoing worries about his wishes for Herzer and Holland in a January 2015 e-mail to Shari\u2019s three children. \u201cI love Manuela and Sydney very much,\u201d he wrote (or more likely dictated). \u201cI consider them and their children family. My sincere wish is that there is no litigation\u2014between anyone. I ask you to honor this wish.\u201d He signed off, \u201cLove, Grumpy,\u201d his tongue-in-cheek nickname for himself with them. His concerns were reinforced in the June 2015 funeral instructions, in which Redstone specified that if Shari disputed his estate plan the 16 cemetery plots in his name at the Sharon Memorial Park would no longer be hers, as he had instructed in his July 2014 will, but instead would go to Holland and Herzer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This last request must have been particularly galling to Shari, since it would have meant that her father\u2019s two girlfriends and their families could be next to him for eternity, rather than his own flesh and blood. \u201cSumner wanted to make sure that the world knew that [Shari] was not in his life, by his choice, and that he wanted [Holland and Herzer] to have everything if she wasn\u2019t going to comply with his wishes,\u201d says a onetime close friend of Redstone\u2019s. \u201cThat\u2019s how adamant he was about protecting [the two women]. I mean, if that\u2019s not black-and-white, I don\u2019t know what is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But\u2014surprise!\u2014things will not go according to this plan, not even close. Shari rejected the buyout deal\u2014\u201cbecause she\u2019s so greedy, right?\u201d\u2014said the former friend. (Shari\u2019s spokesperson, Nancy Sterling, wrote in a statement, \u201cShari initiated discussions to sell her interest in National Amusements Inc. back to the company. By the end of 2014, no deal had been reached and Shari terminated the discussions.\u201d) And both Holland and Herzer are gone, not only from Redstone\u2019s side but also from his personal will. They are no longer its beneficiaries, and whether they will get to keep the estimated $70 million worth of cash and gifts Sumner already bestowed on each of them remains to be seen. They are no longer in charge of his funeral arrangements or named in his advance health-care directive, which gave them power of attorney for making his medical decisions in the event he was no longer able to decide for himself. They will no longer run his charitable foundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through a combination of their own mistakes and the machinations of others, the entire calculus of Redstone\u2019s endgame has been upended and thrown into turmoil. A legal battle is raging, churning up personal recriminations, power plays involving billions of dollars, and a slew of extraordinary and embarrassing revelations that, by all rights, should never have been made public. Even Dauman and Moonves have been dragged into the mess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shari and her family are back at her father\u2019s side. (His house in Los Angeles is a quick hop by private jet from her $10 million apartment at the Pierre hotel, in New York City, or her house in the Boston suburb of Westwood.) She said in a recent affidavit that she has \u201cpatched up\u201d her long-running disagreements with her father and that \u201cfamily has always been the most important thing to me.\u201d Since mid-November, she wrote, \u201cI have traveled from the east coast to Los Angeles to visit with my father in his home on 39 days. When I cannot be with my father in his home, my father and I \u2018face-time\u2019 by telephone, sometimes more than once a day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shari seems firmly in control of Redstone\u2019s day-to-day care\u2014as of this writing he seems to be hanging on by a thread\u2014and seems likely to have the necessary votes and authority to take control of the trusts that will decide the fates of Viacom and CBS when he dies. The money in his personal estate that was once earmarked for Holland and Herzer is to be donated to charities, thus saving Shari and her family millions in taxes that N.A.I. would have paid. \u201cIt\u2019s a coup,\u201d says the onetime friend of Redstone\u2019s. \u201cIt\u2019s a fucking coup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Girls of Sumner<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also an extraordinary turn of events for Redstone, a virtually self-made man who once upon a time, in a 1979 Boston hotel fire, clung to the window ledge of the burning building for dear life while flames lapped his body and melted his hand into a claw, until he could be rescued by a fireman on a ladder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than a year ago Herzer and Holland were so confident of being Redstone\u2019s principal gatekeepers and beneficiaries that they decided to reveal their roles, in the June 2015 issue of Vanity Fair<\/em> (in \u201cEndless Sumner,\u201d by William D. Cohan<\/a>). They posed for pictures, looking seductive in evening dresses, Holland in Pasadena and Herzer at Bemelmans Bar, in New York\u2019s Carlyle hotel, downstairs from the multi-million-dollar apartment Redstone had bought for her. They were proud to share how important they were to Redstone. In the course of reporting the story, I heard again and again how closely they kept track of who saw him and who didn\u2019t, including his daughter and his grandchildren, as well as both Dauman and Moonves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shari Redstone felt shut out, and she wasn\u2019t happy about it. \u201cIt seemed to me,\u201d she wrote in a February 2016 affidavit, \u201cthat my family was effectively prevented from having meaningful access to my father\u201d by Herzer and Holland, who \u201cmade it clear that we were not welcome in my father\u2019s home. On those occasions when visits occurred, Ms. Herzer and\/or Ms. Holland appeared to try to monitor communications with my father, with one of them usually sitting close as we tried to have private, family conversations with my father, and insisting on remaining in the room with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a court filing, Herzer says this was not true. She claims that neither she nor Holland prevented Shari or her family from seeing Redstone and that he made all decisions about whom he would see, which generally did not include Shari. According to Herzer\u2019s filing, Redstone told her, \u201cShari is all about money\u2026. A billion dollars is not enough for her,\u201d referring to the N.A.I. deal that fell apart. \u201cSumner and I treated each other like family,\u201d Herzer says. \u201cAnyone who knows Sumner knows how he feels about Shari. He instructed everyone around him to just \u2018ignore her.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Redstone himself backed up Herzer\u2019s view of access to him. In the January 2015 e-mail to Shari\u2019s children, he wrote, \u201cI need to clear up another misapprehension\u2014neither Sydney nor Manuela controls the phones in my home.\u201d He wrote that he had a \u201clog of every incoming phone call\u201d to prove his point. \u201cThere has been no so-called alienation of any kind on the part of Sydney, Manuela, or anyone else, and please do not insult me by suggesting otherwise. From what I\u2019ve heard my daughter Shari has been to Los Angeles several times and has not bothered to call or visit me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manuela Herzer is a Jewish Argentinean beauty whose grandparents owned \u201ca lot\u201d of Buenos Aires real estate, she told me. When she was two, the family moved to Miami. She studied in Paris. She speaks English, French, and Spanish fluently. After divorcing Eric Chamchoum, the scion of a wealthy Lebanese family, and having a third child out of wedlock\u2014Kathrine Herzer, who plays Alison McCord on the hit CBS show Madam Secretary<\/em>\u2014she was introduced to Redstone in 1999 by his longtime friend Robert Evans, the Hollywood producer. She and Sumner fell in love and dated for about two years. In 2000, she told me, he proposed marriage, but she declined, saying she did not want to re-marry. They remained friends, however, and Redstone often asked Herzer to vet the young women in whom he had taken an interest. In 2009, Redstone \u201csurprised\u201d Herzer and her children by buying her a home not far from his Beverly Park mansion. In 2013, she said, he asked her to take up residence at Beverly Park, which she did off and on for the next two years. A 2015 version of his will gave her $50 million in cash, plus the Beverly Park mansion, worth around $20 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holland became Redstone\u2019s live-in girlfriend in 2011, a year or so after they had been introduced by Patti Stanger, the host of a Bravo reality show called The Millionaire Matchmaker.<\/em> Born Sydney Stanger (no relation to Patti), Holland came from a well-to-do family in La Jolla, California. Her father, a cosmetic dentist, pioneered the use of veneer to improve the look of teeth. Her mother, a social worker, specialized in interventions in Los Angeles. Holland has a complicated personal backstory, including a few failed businesses, one of which was a Los Angeles matchmaking service. In 2009 her 53-year-old fianc\u00e9 died suddenly from \u201ccocaine toxicity\u201d while Holland was in his Wilshire Boulevard apartment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time that Stanger introduced Holland to Redstone, Holland was in debt and down on her luck. Her relationship with Redstone changed all that. Her debts disappeared. She started Rich Hippie Productions, a currently inactive Hollywood production company, and a personal charitable foundation. According to people who shopped and traveled with her, she had nearly unlimited access to Redstone\u2019s money, which she used to charter private jets and buy expensive clothes. She also began to purchase, renovate, and sell homes in Los Angeles. Redstone was supposedly fine with that arrangement. \u201cHe didn\u2019t want [Holland and Herzer] to pay for a fucking thing, not one thing,\u201d says the onetime close friend. \u201cHe would get mad, on the contrary. He\u2019d be like, \u2018No, I\u2019m paying for everything.\u2019 Don\u2019t forget, Sumner\u2019s not about money at all\u2026. He\u2019s old-school\u2014he takes care of whoever he wants to take care of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But going public turned out to be a tactical mistake for the two women, setting off a chain of events that ended with both of them banished from Redstone\u2019s life. Enter George Pilgrim<\/a>, a 49-year-old former actor and ex-con living in Sedona, Arizona. (Pilgrim had served 27 months in prison after being convicted of tax evasion and wire and mail fraud.) He read the 2015 Vanity Fair<\/em> article closely, and he did not like what he read. According to Pilgrim, he had been dating Holland since the previous summer and had fallen in love with her. He says Holland had heard about him when he was living in Los Angeles\u2014\u201cI had a colorful life living in the Hollywood Hills on Appian Way,\u201d he says\u2014and she wanted to option Citizen Pilgrim,<\/em> his unpublished autobiography, for Rich Hippie. He says initially he had no idea that Holland had anything to do with Sumner Redstone, let alone that she was his live-in girlfriend, but she told him that Redstone owned Simon & Schuster, the book publisher, and Paramount Pictures, and both companies were interested in Pilgrim\u2019s story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By early 2015, Pilgrim was living in a $3.5 million house she had bought in Sedona. He believed they would soon be married. She regularly sent him videos of herself in the Beverly Park mansion, sharing with him her plans for the day and showing off her outfits. \u201cI have dozens [of videos],\u201d he says. The course of their relationship is documented in text messages that Pilgrim has shared with Vanity Fair.<\/em> (Through lawyers, Holland has declined to answer specific questions.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In late 2014, Pilgrim says, he proposed marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIs that yes?\u201d Pilgrim texted Holland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, yes,\u201d Holland replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOmg. I\u2019m so happy,\u201d Pilgrim replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMe too,\u201d Holland texted, along with more than a dozen heart emojis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assuming they would be married, Pilgrim says, he planned to adopt Holland\u2019s young daughter, Alexandra Red, who was borne by a surrogate and had been raised in Redstone\u2019s home. (Last year, Redstone told me by e-mail, \u201cI love Sydney and Alexandra.\u201d) Pilgrim and Holland had started their own process of in-vitro fertilization, he says. On October 28, 2014, he donated his sperm. \u201cI gave you my blood today,\u201d he texted her. \u201cMy sperm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know. Thanks,\u201d she replied. \u201cI give you my heart and soul.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a regular basis, Pilgrim says, Holland would fly to Sedona by private jet, spend the day with him, and then fly back to spend the night at Beverly Park, presumably without Redstone\u2019s having a clue where she had been or what she had been doing. Pilgrim was concerned that Holland was living with Redstone, but, he says, she assured him that her relationship with Redstone was not based on genuine emotion; it was a financial investment, designed solely for cashing in on Redstone\u2019s wealth. The texts between her and Pilgrim bear witness to that view. In one, she wrote Pilgrim that Redstone \u201cis old and crying all the time\u201d and that during a visit Shari and her family \u201cwon\u2019t be able to do much[.] I will be there the whole time[,] so will pitbull [her nickname for Herzer].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI definitely wouldn\u2019t leave [Sumner] alone with any of [Sumner\u2019s family] now!!!\u201d Pilgrim replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo way!!\u201d Holland wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFuck them,\u201d Pilgrim replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cExactly,\u201d Holland texted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pilgrim seemed to believe that Holland was just waiting around for Redstone to die and for her to collect her millions so that they could then live happily ever after. \u201cWe need to be a family healthy working and having fun,\u201d he texted her. \u201cThis old man is draining u!!! He better come through.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI agree,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(In fairness to Holland, Herzer intimated to me last spring that Holland deserved the big payday she was expecting: \u201cI mean, five years of your life with a man every single day like that. I have to tell you, would she be there if he wasn\u2019t doing something for her? Probably not. But does she love him? Absolutely\u2026. She has his best interests at heart. For her it\u2019s a job almost, it\u2019s a job.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pilgrim\u2019s Pride<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Pilgrim says he couldn\u2019t believe his eyes when he read about Holland and Redstone in Vanity Fair,<\/em> especially the passages about how much Holland loved Redstone, how beautiful his hair was, and how he had such soft skin. \u201cI blew up and lost my temper,\u201d he recalls, \u201cand I think I lost my shit\u2014excuse my French. I did, and I confronted her about it and said, \u2018What the fuck is this?\u2019 I said, \u2018I don\u2019t understand, Sydney. I\u2019m flying back and forth on private jets. You\u2019re flying out here, buying me houses\u2014you\u2019re giving me the world. We\u2019re supposed to have a fucking life, and all Sedona, Arizona, knows about us.\u2019 I said, \u2018My family and everybody wants to know what\u2019s going on.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pilgrim says things went downhill quickly. \u201cIt hurt,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt hurt me very, very bad. I didn\u2019t understand. And I\u2019m just like looking at myself in the mirror like, \u2018Why, God? Didn\u2019t I pay my dues going to prison? Haven\u2019t I done enough?\u2019 I mean, I lost everything\u2026. I was trying to really, you know, change my life, man, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2015, Pilgrim says, Holland insisted that he enter the Arbor, a rehab center outside Austin, Texas, for a 30-day program because she claimed he had a drinking problem. He says she promised him \u201ca huge party\u201d when he got back to Sedona, but instead she had his possessions removed from the Sedona house and the locks and security codes changed. When Pilgrim got word of what was happening, he says, he left the rehab clinic with no money and no ID and persuaded a cabdriver to drive him 18 hours back to Sedona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pilgrim refused to go quietly. He hired Bryan Freedman, a tough Los Angeles litigator<\/a>, to threaten to file suit against Holland unless she entered into settlement negotiations with him. Discussions were under way by the end of July. He initially wanted $25 million but soon proposed $4 million in cash up front plus another $6 million spread out over the next 25 years, plus another $7 million when Redstone died. After much back and forth Holland made a final counter-offer: $2 million from the sale of the Sedona house, $2 million spread out over 100 months, and 5 percent of what Holland received from Redstone\u2019s estate, subject to a floor of $1.5 million and a cap of $4 million. Holland also wanted a restraining order and suggested a clause that would keep Pilgrim 100 miles away from her, meaning he could no longer go to Los Angeles, where his two daughters from a previous marriage lived. In the end, this proved to be a deal breaker. He walked away from a settlement worth $6 to $8 million. \u201cI didn\u2019t want her money,\u201d he says. \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to let her treat me like I\u2019m some fucking Gucci bag.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without a deal, Pilgrim no longer felt the need to be discreet about his relationship with Holland, and word of it quickly got to Redstone, who was enraged. On August 30 he kicked her out of the Beverly Park mansion and within days removed her from his will and as one of the power-of-attorney designees on his health-care directive, leaving Herzer alone in that role. Holland has said nothing publicly about the end of her relationship with Redstone. Some think that he gave her a fresh $35 million for her to fade away quietly or made a $35 million donation in her name to a charity she supported. But an attorney for Holland denies that she received a parting gift of any sort from Redstone. \u201cIt\u2019s absolutely false,\u201d he says. A source close to Holland says that she still loves Redstone and that it is \u201cextremely painful\u201d for her to watch from afar what is happening to him. Meanwhile, a source close to Redstone says that Redstone\u2019s credit-card bills are \u201c10 percent\u201d of what they were when Holland was in his life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the onetime close friend, when Redstone re-did his will, in September, to eliminate Holland, he wanted to give the bulk of his personal estate to Herzer, but after discussions with Leah Bishop, his estate-planning lawyer, he changed his mind. Instead he bequeathed to Herzer $50 million in cash and the Beverly Park mansion. Much of the rest of the estate was designated for charity, with small bequests for people such as his longtime secretary. Brent\u2019s daughter Keryn Redstone was slated to get $6 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Holland gone, Herzer took control of Redstone\u2019s life, and on September 3 he signed a new health-care directive naming her as his health-care agent. At that time, Herzer said in her petition to the court, Leah Bishop asked Redstone whether he wanted Herzer to serve in this capacity alone or with Philippe Dauman. Redstone replied that he wanted Herzer to have sole responsibility. Dauman was named the \u201cfirst alternate\u201d agent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herzer moved back into the Beverly Park mansion on nearly a full-time basis, even though her own house was nearby. She was now the only person in charge of Redstone\u2019s health care, she wrote in another declaration to the court. There had already been serious scares. In 2014, Redstone had been hospitalized on three separate occasions, twice for aspiration pneumonia, a potentially severe form, according to Herzer\u2019s court filings. He lost the ability to \u201ceat, drink, and vocalize clearly\u201d after his third hospitalization, she added. His doctors said he would need a feeding tube in order to survive. Herzer claimed Shari and her son Tyler Korff\u2014two of the seven trustees of the family trust\u2014opposed the feeding tube on religious grounds. (\u201cNeither Shari, Tyler, nor anyone in her family, opposed the insertion of a feeding tube,\u201d counters Shari Redstone\u2019s spokesperson.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herzer and Holland had the feeding tube installed, \u201cto prolong his life,\u201d Herzer claimed, though the quality of his life would be forever changed. \u201cAlthough therapy helps, Sumner\u2019s doctors believe that he will never be able to eat, drink, or speak intelligibly again,\u201d she wrote. He can \u201cbarely vocalize,\u201d she continued, and gets \u201cemotionally distraught\u201d because he can\u2019t eat or drink. The picture painted in Herzer\u2019s filing was bleak: Redstone was crying a lot for apparently no reason; he was basically unable to leave his mansion; he required a catheter to urinate and sleeping pills to sleep; he was unable to walk or stand by himself and had to be carried from the bedroom to the living room to the bathroom; he required around-the-clock nursing care. There was, in effect, \u201can intensive care unit\u201d in his home, Herzer concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gone Girls<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With Holland\u2019s banishment in the summer of 2015, Redstone\u2019s health again deteriorated rapidly, according to Herzer. \u201cThe sudden loss of her regular companionship\u2014and shock at her betrayal\u2014se[n]t Sumner into a visibly downward spiral both physically and mentally,\u201d she wrote in her filings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On September 9, soon after Herzer\u2019s return full-time to Redstone\u2019s side, the New York Post<\/em> reported that she could be the next to go. Concerned, she contacted David Andelman, Redstone\u2019s longtime personal lawyer (and a member of the CBS board of directors), to inquire whether it was true. Andelman told her by voice mail not to worry. \u201cIt\u2019s not a big deal,\u201d he said, according to Herzer. \u201cWe know Sumner is not going to do anything with you, but you know you are in great shape there\u2026. Let\u2019s just let it go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suddenly, Herzer had to confront an unexpected crisis: the Beverly Park mansion was found to be infested with termites. The exterminators wanted to fumigate the place, but Herzer did not want Redstone exposed to the chemicals. She decided to move him to a Malibu oceanfront home that he had previously arranged to rent for six months from its owner, billionaire Larry Ellison. (\u201cSumner loves the ocean in the summer,\u201d Herzer explains.) In the court papers, there is a picture of Redstone, sitting on a couch in Ellison\u2019s house, his hair completely white, with a vacant expression on his face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Malibu, Herzer claims, Redstone became obsessive about wanting to have sex. After his wife Phyllis initiated divorce proceedings, in 1999, he had gone on a dating spree, meeting with a slew of beautiful women, often with Herzer\u2019s help. According to the onetime close friend, one of those women remained on retainer with Redstone, getting $5,000 a month at the gate to Beverly Park whether she saw him or not. In Malibu, Redstone relentlessly called out for her, demanding that she come over. But she didn\u2019t answer her phone. Back at Beverly Park, post-fumigation, Redstone continued to pine for her. She showed up, but \u201che can\u2019t have sex, so it\u2019s all in his head, right?\u201d says the onetime friend. \u201cHow can a guy with a feeding tube who can\u2019t move have sex? There\u2019s no sex.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was not the only woman who continued to come to the mansion, however. In early September, Herzer got back in touch with Heidi MacKinney, another Redstone favorite from the old days. \u201cSumner wanted to see me,\u201d she wrote in a court filing. But he was not the same. \u201cMentally, Sumner was not present,\u201d she wrote. \u201cHe did not seem able to communicate with me, was frail looking, and was not fully aware of his surroundings or what was happening around him.\u201d She met with him five times after he kicked Holland out<\/a>. On her fourth visit, on October 3, he was \u201ccompletely non-responsive and vacant,\u201d she wrote. She offered to have sex with him. He did not respond. \u201cIt was as if he did not understand what was happening.\u201d She resolved to stop coming to see him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week later, though, according to MacKinney\u2019s filing, one of Redstone\u2019s male nurses called MacKinney and said Redstone wanted to see her again. She returned for her final visit to Beverly Park. \u201cThis time he appeared even more disoriented, distant, and non-communicative,\u201d she wrote. She spent 20 minutes with him. \u201cIt was clear to me that he was not aware of my presence, much less able to communicate with me.\u201d Nevertheless, she continued in her filing, the male nurse\u2014identified in Herzer\u2019s filings as Jeremy Jagiello\u2014remained in the room with her and Redstone, \u201cdirecting me and telling me what sex acts I should perform.\u201d Jagiello would \u201csometimes tell Sumner that he had ejaculated, when in fact Sumner had not,\u201d she concluded. \u201cSumner appeared to believe him, not aware of the truth.\u201d (Attempts to reach Jagiello were not successful.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there is supposedly a sex tape, made by one of Sumner\u2019s \u201chandlers\u201d inside Beverly Park. According to people who have heard about it, the tape shows a \u201cbutt naked\u201d Redstone watching two women kissing. \u201cHe\u2019s just sitting there, kind of like comatose,\u201d says one of the people who heard about its contents. Then Redstone heaves himself over the armrest of the chair, and the two women direct their attentions toward him. The other person who heard about the contents of the tape said just visualizing the scene \u201cruined my sex life for a couple of weeks.\u201d (Redstone declined to comment.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By fall the deterioration in Redstone\u2019s health had become severe, Herzer wrote in her court filings. He no longer understood the significance of recommendations made to him, was no longer able to follow the plots of movies and TV shows, lost interest in current events and business news, and lost the \u201cability to modulate his emotions, often experiencing spontaneous crying spells.\u201d He was no longer interested even in the stock prices of CBS and Viacom, or in his tropical fish, a longtime passion. Herzer\u2019s filings relate that Redstone\u2019s dermatologist described him as \u201cout of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Herzer\u2019s filings, one of the recommendations Sumner received\u2014and ignored\u2014was to conserve his energy by reducing his sexual activity, such as it was, to once a week. If he had more energy, he was allegedly told, he might be able to pass his swallowing test, which would allow the feeding tube to be removed from his throat, enabling him to eat steak. \u201cSumner is obsessed with eating steak,\u201d Herzer wrote, \u201cand would attempt to eat one if it were placed in front of him, not seeming to recall or understand why he cannot do so.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 7, according to Herzer\u2019s filings, Leonard Goldberg, a longtime television producer and CBS board member, visited Redstone with his young granddaughter, who wanted to see his tropical-fish tank. She said hello to Redstone, but he did not acknowledge her. \u201cSumner appeared especially vacant and absent that day,\u201d Herzer claimed. (Goldberg did not respond to a request for comment.) That same day, Redstone became \u201cirate\u201d about his granddaughter Keryn\u2019s use of his credit card to pay for her move to Los Angeles to stay with him, Herzer continued, explaining that he had given Keryn permission to use the card days before but could no longer remember doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just the day before, even though the Viacom stock had fallen by around one-third since the start of 2015, the press had received a statement expressing Redstone\u2019s support for Philippe Dauman. \u201cPhilippe is my long-time friend and partner,\u201d the statement began. \u201cHe continues to have my unequivocal support and trust, which he has earned over our many years together\u2026. We are both long-term thinkers and I am more confident than ever that he is on the right track.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Herzer\u2019s filings, Redstone did not write or dictate the statement. \u201cSumner did not say or articulate the flattering words,\u201d she claimed. On October 8, Dauman said, he met with Redstone for more than an hour and found him \u201cengaged and attentive.\u201d But Herzer, who was present during the visit, said that Redstone was \u201cgazing somewhat vacantly\u201d at the television during the meeting, which was \u201c20\u201330 minutes at the most,\u201d and that \u201cthere was no two-way conversation or discussion between Mr. Dauman and Sumner…. It was a monologue by Mr. Dauman.\u201d (An attorney for Dauman said that his client would not comment on anything related to this case, except to say that \u201cHerzer and her lawyers have shown themselves fully capable of inaccurate and self serving public statements.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 11, Redstone invited his friends the Kopelsons\u2014Arnold Kopelson, a veteran movie producer of such films as Platoon, The Fugitive,<\/em> and Joe Somebody,<\/em> is also on the CBS board\u2014to Beverly Park for his regular Sunday movie screening. Herzer was there, along with her brother Carlos. On tap was Steve Jobs,<\/em> the film about the late Apple co-founder. \u201cIn the past Sumner greatly enjoyed hosting his friends for movie day,\u201d Carlos Herzer explained in a declaration in support of his sister\u2019s case. \u201cSumner \u2026 appeared out of touch, remote and non-responsive to the people around him. While in the past I had seen him disinterested and even fall asleep when a movie did not keep his interest, this time was different. He seemed very weak and emotional, and he did not seem well.\u201d Before the movie started, Manuela Herzer wrote in a filing, she saw that Redstone was having trouble breathing because his throat was blocked. She ordered everyone out of the room and brought the medical staff in to suction out his throat and clear the obstruction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kopelsons returned and the movie played, but Redstone was still not well and fell asleep. (Kopelson did not respond to a request for comment.) The nursing staff removed him from the home theater. Later, Herzer says, she checked on Redstone and found him in a very deep sleep, in the middle of watching a baseball playoff game. It was only 6:30 P.M. She woke him and asked him if he wanted to go to bed. He shook his head no. She instructed the nurse on duty to put him to bed if he fell asleep again. \u201cI was troubled by Sumner\u2019s unusual behavior that day,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sotto Voce<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There were other signs that Herzer found troubling. Jagiello, Redstone\u2019s principal nurse, had allegedly started translating his grunts into definitive statements of his desires. Inside the house, she says, the staff started referring to Jagiello as \u201cthe Sumner Whisperer.\u201d Herzer says she did not at first realize what Jagiello was doing. She thought he was being helpful: significantly increasing his work hours, staying late, and caring for Sumner. More and more, though, she felt that Jagiello was acting as Redstone\u2019s interpreter. If this had started out as innocuous, Herzer claimed, increasingly it was not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 12, according to Herzer\u2019s court filings, all hell broke loose at Beverly Park. At eight A.M., she told Jagiello that Redstone\u2019s doctor should be summoned to see why he was falling into such deep, trance-like sleep. She then left Beverly Park to do some errands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she got back to the house, later that morning, Herzer says, security wouldn\u2019t let her through the front gate. She went to the back gate and used her security code to get in, only to be confronted by Redstone\u2019s driver, Isileli Tuanaki. \u201cMr. Redstone doesn\u2019t want you here,\u201d he told her, according to her filings. Herzer ignored Tuanaki and proceeded to the sitting room, where she saw Redstone, Bishop, and Jagiello. \u201cA frenzy ensued,\u201d she wrote, claiming that Bishop told her, in a loud voice, \u201cYou can\u2019t be here!\u201d Bishop was holding her cell phone. They were talking with David Andelman, wrote Herzer, remembering the conversation: Bishop told Andelman, \u201cManuela is here, but is not supposed to be here, I don\u2019t know how she came in.\u201d Herzer started shaking. She asked Redstone if he was O.K. and if he wanted her to leave. \u201cSumner did not respond,\u201d she claimed. \u201cI asked again and Sumner made a grunting noise and began crying uncontrollably.\u201d She remembered asking Jagiello what Redstone had said and Jagiello replying that Sumner wanted her to leave. But Herzer believed that Sumner had made no intelligible comment. Herzer asked Bishop what to do. She replied that Redstone wanted to speak with her and Andelman alone and that she should leave. She could come back later, when their conversation was over. (Andelman declined to comment; Tuanaki could not be reached for comment; and Bishop did not respond to repeated requests to comment for this article. )<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was unusual, Herzer thought, but she complied. She went up to her room. Tuanaki came by and told her to leave the house. He said they would call to tell her when she could come back. She was incredulous. She went to her daughter\u2019s house and tried to calm down. She called Bishop\u2019s cell phone, but Bishop did not pick up. Before long, Tuanaki called her and told her she could come to the house to get her things. When she arrived, an armed guard followed her to her room. She told him to get away from her and said that she wanted to see Redstone. He also said Redstone did not want to see her. She tried calling Bishop again but got no answer. The security guard told her that if she did not leave he would have her thrown out of the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She left Beverly Park because they were threatening to call the police. \u201cI\u2019ve never been allowed back,\u201d she says. \u201cThey have not let me see him since that day\u2026. I\u2019d love to see him. It\u2019s not fair.\u201d She eventually spoke to Bishop, who declined to tell her what was going on. \u201cShe would only tell me that I had \u2018lied\u2019 to Sumner,\u201d Herzer later wrote in a court filing. She spoke to Dauman, the filing continued, and he explained that her supposed lie involved giving Keryn Redstone permission to use Redstone\u2019s credit card to pay for her move to Los Angeles. \u201cI did not lie,\u201d she maintained. \u201cSumner had simply forgotten what he had said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On October 16, Redstone signed a new directive, replacing Herzer as the person named to take charge of his health care, and changed his will. The $70 million she was to receive was designated to go instead to his charitable trust, which she was removed from running. In a court filing, Herzer claimed that Shari was motivated to make this change to her father\u2019s will in order to get more money for herself, since N.A.I., of which she owns 20 percent, would be obligated to pay any debts or taxes that Redstone owed at his death. If the $70 million went to charity, there would be no gift tax on it. (\u201cAll of these allegations are false,\u201d says Shari Redstone\u2019s spokesperson.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his new health-care directive, Redstone named Dauman as his agent. He was to share that responsibility with Thomas Dooley, Viacom\u2019s chief operating officer. This was an odd development, since both Dauman and Dooley have full-time jobs at Viacom, in New York. In a separate letter, Redstone instructed Dauman and Dooley to consult with Shari about his health care, if necessary. Redstone\u2019s signature on the new health-care directive, notarized by Leah Bishop, is a long sweeping downward arc that trails off the bottom of the page. Herzer brought in Jim Blanco, a handwriting expert, to examine Redstone\u2019s signature on a November 19 document that gave Herzer four hours to remove her belongings from Beverly Park. Blanco found it to be \u201ca poor attempt at a forgery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After he had been appointed to replace Herzer as Redstone\u2019s health-care proxy, Dauman called her. As she remembers the conversation, he said, \u201cManuela, now you have so much money. You have a beautiful family. You\u2019re a nice person. You have everything. If you ever need anything, you can always call me. I\u2019m going to take care of Sumner.\u201d Herzer was incredulous. \u201cPhilippe, how are you going to take care of Sumner?\u201d she asked him. \u201cYou live in New York!\u201d He replied, \u201cManuela, please listen to me. I\u2019m going to hire the best people. You know there\u2019s nothing more you can do for him. These are his words. He loves you. He loves your family. Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ve got your back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 3, Dauman wrote in an affidavit, he again met with Redstone for 90 minutes at his house. \u201cI found him to be engaged and attentive,\u201d he added. He said that Redstone told him that Herzer was threatening to litigate \u201cand that all she wants is his money.\u201d He said they spoke about \u201cbusiness matters,\u201d an upcoming Viacom board meeting, an investor conference he was attending the next day, and \u201cpersonal matters.\u201d According to Dauman, they watched a basketball game together and spoke about a movie Redstone had recently seen. He explained that he believed Redstone\u2019s \u201cmental acuity\u201d had not changed since he had seen him on October 8. \u201cOn both occasions,\u201d Dauman wrote, \u201c[Sumner] was engaged, attentive, and opinionated as ever.\u201d He asserted, \u201cI care deeply for Sumner and will do whatever is necessary to ensure that he continues to receive superior care.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On November 23, Herzer removed her clothes and personal effects from Beverly Park: \u201cWhen I went to the house to retrieve my things, they divided the house with the biggest, longest black curtain I have ever seen,\u201d she recalls. \u201cThey placed security guards all over the house and hid the staff. It was eerie! It was heartbreaking for me to think he was behind the curtain, not knowing I was there and wanting to see him. I have requested many times to see him. They will not let me see him. He is a prisoner in his own home.\u201d Two days later she filed suit in California state superior court seeking to reinstate the earlier health-care directive that had made her Redstone\u2019s sole health-care agent. In addition, she wanted to take a slew of depositions, have Redstone examined by her chosen physician, and get a ruling that he was not \u201ccompetent\u201d in that crucial time period when he threw Herzer out of his house and cut her out of his will. In additional filings, she argued that others\u2014mainly Shari Redstone\u2014had manipulated him to get her out of the house and get his money and power. To this charge, Shari\u2019s spokesperson issued a response saying, \u201cMs. Herzer\u2019s attack on the Redstone family reached a new low with her unfounded claim to the court that Shari\u2019s devotion to her father is motivated by money or power, and not love. The family has no financial interest in the case and always understood and supported Sumner\u2019s plan to honor his legacy by leaving his estate largely to charity. Shari and her family are well provided for by the multi-billion-dollar company National Amusements, Inc.\u201d In addition, Redstone\u2019s attorney, Gabrielle Vidal at Loeb & Loeb, responded, \u201cAs we have said before, Ms. Herzer\u2019s action is meritless, riddled with lies, and a despicable invasion of his privacy. We are confident that when the Court has evaluated the evidence it will determine that Mr. Redstone had capacity to change his health care directive and that Ms. Herzer should have no role in his life whatsoever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reasonable Doubt<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In her quest to regain her position as Sumner\u2019s caretaker, Herzer has won a string of court rulings. In January, Dauman opposed her request that he be deposed. He lost. Redstone\u2019s lawyers produced statements from doctors claiming he was competent at the time the decisions were made. They opposed Herzer\u2019s request that her doctor examine him on an expedited basis. She won. On January 29, Dr. Stephen Read, a geriatric psychiatrist, examined Redstone. He made an audiotape, which is said by Herzer supporters to be particularly revealing of the seriousness of Redstone\u2019s condition. (At the time of this writing, Read\u2019s 37-page report has not been filed publicly, but the court was due to consider releasing it in mid-March.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On December 11, 2015, Sumner sent a letter to Shari seeking to restore his relationship with her. \u201cI love and trust you and your family,\u201d he wrote. \u201cYou are all invited to stay with me and visit me any time. I am very sorry to hear that others have excluded you and your family from my house. That will never happen again.\u201d Though this represents an abrupt reversal, Redstone states that he was under \u201cno duress\u201d in composing and signing the letter. It was witnessed by Jagiello and another of Redstone\u2019s nurses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On February 29, David Cowan, the judge in the case, wrote that Read found that Redstone \u201clacked mental capacity when he allegedly revoked\u201d the directive that named Herzer as Redstone\u2019s sole health-care proxy. Cowan found it hard to read the details \u201cdescribing how this man is hanging on to life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While making the point that nothing had yet been decided about Redstone\u2019s mental competence, Cowan\u2019s ruling made a number of observations favorable to Herzer. He wrote that the case raises legitimate concern about who can best care for Redstone. He noted that, while Shari now is to be consulted about her father\u2019s health care, \u201cshe still lives in Massachusetts\u2014not around the corner\u2014even with the ability to come here quickly.\u201d He also questioned how much Shari had really \u201cpatched things up\u201d with her father since Herzer\u2019s removal from the house. Cowan found it \u201cperplexing\u201d that Redstone had put Dauman and Dooley \u201cahead of his own daughter as his agent in case of his incapacity,\u201d and he wrote that he does not have confidence that things are quite as \u201cpatched up\u201d as Shari claims. \u201cIt has to be an unusual situation where a parent still at this late date puts his East Coast business colleagues ahead of an adult child, or for that matter adult grandchildren, in terms of his care,\u201d he wrote. Cowan also questioned Dauman\u2019s ability to care for Redstone from New York. \u201cThe Court does not see how a person in charge of a public company in New York has the time or ability to look after Redstone even assuming his best of intentions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his ruling, Cowan also referred to an October 26 letter, written by Benjamin Ferrer, then a night nurse working for Redstone, who claimed to have overheard Jagiello making allegations about Herzer to Redstone. According to Cowan, Ferrer contended that Jagiello \u201chad told Redstone that Herzer had lied to and stolen from him, and hence the reason for her forced departure, and further is exercising an undue amount of control over Redstone\u2019s care.\u201d The judge wasn\u2019t sure whether Ferrer was just a \u201cdisgruntled employee\u201d or if there was some truth in the accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Needless to say, Redstone\u2019s lawyers wanted Herzer\u2019s case thrown out of court. And she won that ruling, too. She believes that the lawyers don\u2019t legitimately have a client because Redstone is no longer mentally competent. Resolving the question of Redstone\u2019s competence, Cowan noted, was hard to do, given Redstone\u2019s lack of direct participation in the case. \u201cA lot of things have been said about what Mr. Redstone wants, but unfortunately, I have no declaration from him\u2026. It appears the person we\u2019re all concerned about isn\u2019t here.\u201d On February 29, Cowan ruled that the trial would proceed, starting May 6. Herzer was subdued about this news. \u201cToday\u2019s victory is bittersweet,\u201d she e-mailed me. \u201cI\u2019m still very worried about Sumner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early February, the decision was made that Redstone should resign from his chairmanship of both CBS and Viacom. He did. In after-hours trading on February 3, Viacom\u2019s stock rose to $49 a share, amid hopes that Dauman would not be named to replace Redstone as chairman of the Viacom board, especially since Shari had the right to succeed her father if she desired. That same day, Shari had supported Moonves to be the new chairman of CBS. But it turned out that she did not want to be chairman of Viacom, though neither did she want Dauman to have the job, and she voted against him. The Viacom board, which Dauman had cultivated for years, voted 10\u20131 in his favor, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days later, on February 9, Viacom announced that its fourth-quarter profit was down 10 percent and that its future revenue prospects would be hampered by lower fees from the cable and satellite companies that distribute its programming. Viacom\u2019s stock had fallen some 45 percent in 2015, the worst performer in the S&P 500 Media Index. (The poor performance did not effect Dauman\u2019s 2015 compensation, though. The board paid him $54 million, including a $17 million stock bonus for signing a new three-year employment contract.) When Dauman spoke in a conference call to Wall Street analysts, the stock collapsed, especially after he challenged an analyst who claimed that Viacom\u2019s financial results were \u201cexceedingly poor.\u201d Instead, he said, \u201cour outlook and the facts have been distorted and obscured by the naysayers, self-interested critics and publicity seekers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the end of the day, Viacom\u2019s stock had fallen 21.5 percent, slicing some $320 million off of Redstone\u2019s wealth. Once upon a time, after a day like that, Redstone\u2019s ire would have been white-hot. \u201cSumner, if the stock was down 5 percent, he would fire people,\u201d a media executive says. \u201cThere\u2019s no way he could have handled this.\u201d Dauman would likely have joined the list of former Viacom chiefs Tom Freston, Mel Karmazin, and Frank Biondi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this time there was not a peep out of Beverly Park. In her court filings, Herzer described Redstone as a \u201cliving ghost.\u201d For Freston, her description was not precise enough. \u201cHe looks like a corpse,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With lawsuits, accusations, and sordid revelations flying, even the C.E.O.s of Redstone\u2019s Viacom and CBS have been dragged into the mess. William D. Cohan, whose June 2015 V.F. article fueled the fire, reports on the famously cranky and willful billionaire\u2019s last chapter. Had everything gone according to a plan formulated last June, when the billionaire media mogul Sumner Redstone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41536,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104,100,930,931,212],"tags":[968,932],"class_list":["post-10091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bryan-j-freedman","category-entertainment","category-george-pilgrim","category-sydney-holland","category-vanity-fair","tag-deposition","tag-sumner-redstone"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nInside the Raging Legal Battle over Sumner Redstone\u2019s Final Days - Liner Freedman Taitelman + Cooley LLP<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Inside the Raging Legal Battle over Sumner Redstone\u2019s Final Days\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With lawsuits, accusations, and sordid revelations flying, even the C.E.O.s of Redstone\u2019s Viacom and CBS have been dragged into the mess. William D. Cohan, whose June 2015 V.F. article fueled the fire, reports on the famously cranky and willful billionaire\u2019s last chapter. 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