owned by Begelman, and was further traced to a personal account of Begelman. Rather than confront Begelman at a time when he was playing such a pivotal role in her show business re-emergence, Garland decided to eat the financial losses based upon the promise of millions coming from the deal with CBS. However, once her show was cancelled, she and Luft sued Begelman for the hundreds of thousands he had allegedly stolen as well as $1 million in punitive damages. Due to her dire financial situation at the time, Garland was forced to settle the suit for royalties owed her by Capitol Records that Begelman and Fields, as her agents, had collected but were holding because of the lawsuit. Sherwood Productions / Gladden Entertainment In January 1980, Begelman returned to the production world and became COO and president of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer signing a four-year contract worth $1.9 million. In 1981, MGM acquired United Artists and in October, Begelman was appointed as chairman and CEO of UA but with the exception of Fame, Clash of the Titans, and Poltergeist, he was unable to repeat his success at Columbia and was dismissed in 1982. After leaving MGM/UA, Begelman was offered a position to run a production company, Sherwood Productions, by backer Bruce McNall. Under Sherwood, Begelman backed WarGames (which started production at MGM), Mr. Mom, The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, and Blame It on Rio. According to the makers of Buckaroo Banzai, Begelman continued to be engaged in fraud: reporting inflated figures to investors but producing the films for much less to pocket the difference. When investor Nelson Bunker Hunt pulled out of Sherwood in 1984, Begelman took the slack and founded Gladden Entertainment (named after Gladyce, his wife) with the remaining assets and repartnering with McNall. There, he greenlit Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Short Time and Mannequin Two: On the Move. Short Time and Mannequin Two did poorly. In 1986, the company revealed that they filed a lawsuit against The Cannon Group, Inc. and Cannon Screen Entertainment, stemming from a decision for the previous agreement with Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment for removing two films from the slate, but the suit was settled on August 12, 1986. In 1988, McNall sold 40% of his ownership to foreign investors. At the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, Begelman revealed that the company had a distribution deal with MGM,