Richard Nanula had everything going for him. A top job in Hollywood. He is one of the few people of color to make it to the top levels in not one “usually closed” industry but a number of them. Prior to becoming a major film industry exec he was a top-level exec in biotechnology, having been the chief financial officer of Amgen Inc., and as the head exec of a major hotel chain as well.
Now his name equals scandal.
Adult film actress Sarah Shevon claims that Nanula was her co-star and cameraman for a film she was in last year. Nanula resigned last month from his post as chairman of Miramax and principal at the private equity firm Colony Capital soon after explicit photos of him surfaced on the Internet.
Shevon says her talent agent booked her for a job at a gated Malibu estate where she was to perform a sex act for $300, reports The Los Angeles Times. On the “set” she met her costar, a well-dressed man who asked to be called “Mr. Rich.” He also operated the camera.
“Mr. Rich” turned out to be Nanula, 53.
Nanula was also identified in video images of a man they having sex with a different adult film actress, Samantha Saint, the article says.
“Neither he nor his representatives have publicly denied that he was the man in the pictures, and Nanula did not respond to requests for comment,” reports The Times.
By the time Nanula was just 31, the Harvard MBA had became chief financial officer at Walt Disney Co. and was considered a viable successor to then-Chief Executive Michael Eisner.
Nanula is credited with helping rescue the Euro Disney Resort from financial ruin by restructuring its debt and negotiating the sale of a stake in the theme park to a Saudi prince. He was later chief executive of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, operator of the Sheraton, St. Regis and other hotel chains. Next, he was named CFO of Amgen Inc., where his salary was a whopping $8 million in 2006. He also joined the board of Boeing Co.
There were high hope he would work his magic at Miramax.
Despite all of the education, praise, and executive positions, Nanula, whose mother is African American and father white, had problems. The father of three young children, he and his family lived lavishly. He and his wife, Tracey, divorced in 2005.
“According to Tracey Nanula’s divorce filing, Nanula admitted to her in 2001 that he’d paid for sex with prostitutes — spending as much as $10,000 at a time — and suffered from sex addiction,” reports The Times.
Nanula got help in 2003, doing a a six-day stint at a rehabilitation facility and he told his wife that he was cured of his addiction, according to her divorce declaration.
“TheDirty.com — the website that published graphic photos of New York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner — in June posted pictures it identified as Nanula having sex with Samantha Saint,” reports The Times.
Then a second website, Adult Videos News Today, posted the same pictures. TheDirty.com has since pulled the images without explanation.
This sad story shows that it’s not just getting to the top, but being able to stay there that’s important.
