Inside source says Hollywood publicist's murder was planned in advance as movie studios plan to pay for her memorial
By Daily Mail ReporterLast updated at 12:45 PM on 19th November 2010
- Six studios join together to pay for Ronni Chasen's Sunday memorial
- $100,000 reward offered to catch killer, who shot her five times
- Gun experts suggest she may have died at the hands of a hitman
- Hollywood tour buses have added crime scene to their route
Tragic: Ronni Chasen, 64, was shot dead in her car as she drove home through Beverly Hills. Here she is holding a client's Oscar
Police investigating the killing, during which Chasen was shot five times in the chest as she drove home from a premeire, have assembled a working theory.
A police source told the Hollywood Reporter they believe the Beverly Hills attack was planned in advance and was not road rage or a carjacking gone awry.
The police theory centres on shots being fired from another car that pulled up next to the passenger side of Chasen's black Mercedes- Benz around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.
It is believed these shots are what shattered Chasen's passenger side window.
They have ruled out a random sniper shooting.
They are reviewing video from home security cameras in the neighbourhood hoping for clues.
One house with surveillance footage belongs to Sherry Hackett, widow of comedian and actor Buddy Hackett.
Meanwhile, in their mourning the six major Hollywood studios have come together in a rare show of camaraderie. The Hollywood Reporter says that Sony Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, the Walt Disney Co. and Paramount Pictures will all co-host a Sunday memorial following Chasen's funeral.
Chasen regularly worked with all the studios on award season campaigns.
A $100,000 reward has offered for information leading to the conviction of the killer of the Hollywood publicist.
The slaying of Ms Chasen has left the entertainment community stunned.
It has prompted the the competitive community of behind-the-scenes publicists to contribute the substantial sum to capture who is responsible for her death.
The Palm Springs International Film Festival which worked with Ms Chasen for many years has put up the money a day after fellow publicist Michael Levine started a fund to raise an additional $25,000 by the end of the week.
Chasen regularly worked on award season campaigns. Here she is with Freida Pinto and Dev Patel at a Golden Globes party in 2009
Retired police chief Andrew J. Scott III told Radaronline that he believes there is more to this case.
'Clearly, this crime does not fit the MO of Beverly Hills, which suggests to me that this is not a random killing.
'If this were a random act of violence, usually it's going to be one or two shots - definitely not five.'
Mr Scott added: 'Normally a contract killing involves multiple shots to the head. She was shot in the chest... and to me, clearly the individual did not want to damage her face'.
'This could be a lead and it's interesting to me she was not shot in the head', he said.
Bus companies who give tourists guided tours of famous Hollywood landmarks have wasted no time in adding the crime scene where Ms Chasen was murdered to their tour.
Final hours: The evening before her brutal murder, Chasen, far right, arrived on the red carpet at the Burlesque premiere to support a client
At least one tour bus was seen yesterday slowing down at the place where she died so passengers could gawk at where she was gunned down.
It was revealed that six minutes before she was fatally shot in the chest, Ms Chasen placed a mobile call to her office, leaving a 'to do' list for her staff.
It was the second such message she left at the office that night.
The first came at 10.29pm, which would have been the time between when she attended the premiere of the film Burlesque and the beginning of the after party at the W Hotel.
Police have calculated that the second and final call was at 12.22am on Tuesday morning - just after she had left the after party and a mere six minutes before she was fatally shot.
Vivian Mayer-Siskind, a close friend and longtime Hollywood publicist, said: 'That was typical of Ronni.'
Ms Mayer-Siskind said she had seen Ms Chasen at the premiere, which they both attended with respective clients.
She said: 'I saw her on the red carpet and gave her a kiss. Then we all went to the party at the W Hotel.'
Ms Mayer-Siskind, who said Ms Chasen was her first boss at MGM in 1993 and was the maid of honour at her wedding three years ago in Martha's Vineyard, called her 'my best friend, my mentor and my sister - and she will be missed dearly by me as well as everyone else in the industry'.
She added: 'Ronni was loved and respected by everyone. She was part of the fabric of the industry that meant everything to her.
'Ronni loved every minute of what she did and in return her clients were equally dedicated to her.'
After hearing about Ms Chasen's death, Ms Mayer-Siskind drove directly to the Beverly Hills Police station to try to learn more about the murder.
She then drove to Ms Chasen's office on Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood, to write her friend's obituary.
By the time she arrived at the office, it was swarming with police, who were poring through Ms Chasen's phone records, listening to her messages, going through her computer (which they took with them) and taking photographs.
It was revealed that six minutes before she was fatally shot in the chest, Ms Chasen placed a mobile call to her office, leaving a 'to do' list for her staff.
It was the second such message she left at the office that night.
The first came at 10.29pm, which would have been the time between when she attended the premiere of the film Burlesque and the beginning of the after party at the W Hotel.
Police have calculated that the second and final call was at 12.22am on Tuesday morning - just after she had left the after party and a mere six minutes before she was fatally shot.
Vivian Mayer-Siskind, a close friend and longtime Hollywood publicist, said: 'That was typical of Ronni.'
Ms Mayer-Siskind said she had seen Ms Chasen at the premiere, which they both attended with respective clients.
She said: 'I saw her on the red carpet and gave her a kiss. Then we all went to the party at the W Hotel.'
HAPPIER TIMES: Chasen in September
She added: 'Ronni was loved and respected by everyone. She was part of the fabric of the industry that meant everything to her.
'Ronni loved every minute of what she did and in return her clients were equally dedicated to her.'
After hearing about Ms Chasen's death, Ms Mayer-Siskind drove directly to the Beverly Hills Police station to try to learn more about the murder.
She then drove to Ms Chasen's office on Beverly Boulevard in West Hollywood, to write her friend's obituary.
By the time she arrived at the office, it was swarming with police, who were poring through Ms Chasen's phone records, listening to her messages, going through her computer (which they took with them) and taking photographs.
Mystery: The passenger side of her Mercedes with shattered window
Investigation: A Beverly Hills Police Department forensic specialist leaves the office building of Chasen and Co on Tuesday
Chasen's brother, writer-director Larry Cohen, described her as a 'a loving and caring person who treated her clients like they were her own family'.
He added: 'She was my sister and best friend and we shared so many wonderful times together.'
Police are now sifting through phone records and computers from the offices and home of Ms Chasen, 64, as baffled authorities try to figure out what happened.
Ms Chasen was driving her Mercedes Benz around 12.30am on Tuesday when she was shot at least five times in the chest near Sunset Boulevard, leading her car to smash into a lamp-post.
Police do not yet have any suspects and said no threats had been reported against Ms Chasen.
Friends say she was not a drinker, did not do drugs and had no known enemies.
A friend who saw her just half an hour before the murder said she 'was happy-go-lucky and gossipy and fun, just like she always was'.
Police seized computers from her firm, Chasen and Co, and removed hard drives, CDs and file boxes from her luxury apartment.
Ms Chasen lived in Westwood, some ten miles away, and was believed to be driving home when the attack occurred.
Authorities said they arrived at Sunset Boulevard and Whittier Drive at about 12.30am and found the Mercedes Benz E350 crashed into the lamp-post.
Authorities initially called to the scene said the victim was 'in and out of consciousness but breathing'. No one else was in the car with Ms Chasen.
She was taken by ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Actor Morgan Freeman said he had the 'extreme pleasure' of working with Ms Chasen on Driving Miss Daisy.
'We've been friends ever since,' the actor said. 'She is someone I greatly admired, and she will be remembered.'
Witnesses said they heard gunshots in the serene Beverly Hills neighbourhood and called the police emergency dispatcher before going outside to help.
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Smash: Chasen was still breathing immediately after the crash, according to the first witnesses to reach her
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'I heard the 'Boom! Boom! Boom!' of gunshots, ran up to the window, and there was the back of the car,' Nahid Schekarchian, who lives in an apartment above the crash site, told The Associated Press.
Fatal: After she was shot five times, she was was struggling to breathe and bleeding from her nose and chest, a witness said
She said her daughter-in-law called police and her son and a neighbour ran down to the car and found Ms Chasen, who was struggling to breathe and bleeding from her nose and chest.
The front passenger's window was shattered.
The killing took place after the PR queen attended the premiere of the movie Burlesque, which the trade publication Variety said she was promoting for Screen Gems to position the soundtrack for an Oscar nomination.
Ms Chasen 'was at our premiere last night and so full of her trademark energy and love of life,' said Amy Pascal, co-chair of Screen Gems owner Sony Pictures. 'We are heartbroken, shocked and completely devastated.'
Her brother, screenwriter Larry Cohen - who worked on several episodes of Columbo in the 1970s - said: 'She was my sister and best friend and we shared so many wonderful times together.
Removed: Ms Chasen's damaged Mercedes Benz was towed away from Sunset Boulevard
Fellow publicist Howard Bragman called the killing bizarre.
'She wasn't a shady character,' he said. 'It's a small community and she was one of the fixtures in it.'
Ms Chasen was struck down in the middle of her busiest time of year - Hollywood's award season, when the movie studios mount expensive campaigns to promote their better films for awards consideration using spin-specialists such as her.
She also was working with 20th Century Fox on a supporting actor Oscar campaign for Michael Douglas in Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps, according to Allen Berry, a publicist for the actor.
Her other clients included movie producers Irwin Winkler and Richard D. Zanuck.
Songwriter Diane Warren who she also represented, was with Ms Chasen at the Burlesque premiere on the night she died.
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Scene: The Hollywood publicist was driving her Mercedes when she was shot five times in the chest leading her car to crash into a pole
Popular: Ronni Chasen with Jeff Bridges at an Oscars party
The famed songwriter who contributed the song You Haven't Seen the Last Of Me to the movie's soundtrack, said Ms Chasen also went with her to the after-party at Hollywood's W Hotel.
Ms Warren, who wrote amongst many other hits, Toni Braxton's tearful ballad Un-Break My Heart, said she was 'devastated beyond belief.'
'This was a nice woman. Everybody loved Ronni. She was the best at what she did. A great person. She worked her butt off all night, then goes home and someone does this to her. I'm angry, whoever did this', Ms Warren said.
Ms Chasen was involved in Hollywood publicity since the 1970s. She also promoted On Golden Pond, which won Academy Awards for best actor, actress and screenplay in 1981.
In recent years, she worked with a number of music clients, including Janet Jackson, composer Hans Zimmer, producer Glen Ballard and Diane Warren, who wrote the song You Haven't Seen the Last of Me, which Cher sings in Burlesque.
Stephen Jaffe, a crisis management consultant, said he and his wife, actress Susan Blakely, knew Ms Chasen for at least 25 years. The Hollywood awards season was always a busy time for her, Jaffe said.
'She would always call us this time of year to come to really incredible events,' he said, explaining Ms Chasen would often arrange screenings followed by intimate gatherings of filmmakers and guests.
'This was an absolutely shocking and inexplicable event that has hurt us,' Jaffe said of the shooting.
Bragman said Ms Chasen had a unique way of doing business.
'She was not a woman who was a slave to the fashion of the day,' he said. She played to her own vision and integrity. She was very bright, very successful.
'She had been doing this forever. She had a lot of class, a lot of style and a lot of intelligence. She was just very, very well-respected', he said.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1331214/Ronnie-Chasen-murder-Inside-source-says-shooting-planned.html#ixzz15jVGcEG1
