Daily Variety
Thursday, April 17, 1997

Bakula inks Paramount TV deal, moves to ICM
by: Adam Sandler

    Actor Scott Bakula and his Bakula Prods. Banner have inked a
first-look producing deal with Paramount Network Television.  Bakula and
partner Tom Spiroff will develop and produce TV shows in all genres, with an
emphasis on telefilms.

    Bakula, who is best known for his role as Sam Beckett in "Quantum
Leap," has also signed with International Creative Management, ending a
nearly four-year run with United Talent Agency.

    Bakula's team at ICM will consist of Chris Andrews, Toni Howard, Brian
Mann and Eddy Yablans.

    The two-year deal with Paramount, which was shepherded by legal eagles
Thomas Hansen and Donald Steele, mirrors a pact Bakula recently ended with
Warner Bros. TV.

    While at WB, Bakula's company developed several projects in addition
to producing the CBS telefilm "The Bachelor's Baby," the Eye web series "Mr.
& Mrs. Smith" and the pilot "Prowler."

    Bakula, whose feature film credits include "Necessary Roughness" and
"Lord of Illusions," has turned the burgeoning production outfit into a
multifaceted company with projects in the hopper spanning film, TV and legit
theater.

    Spiroff was recently upped to prexy of the production entity, while
Ron Cortes has been named its creative exec.

End of quote

I especially liked the reference to BPI as a "burgeoning  production
outfit...with projects...spanning film, tv, and legit theater.  Scott has
been doing more than we thought---it was behind the scenes.  Let's hope that
we see many successful BPI productions, hopefully many with Scott in front of
the camera.

Sue  
Thanks much to Sue for copying this off.