The question on most people’s minds in the entertainment industry as well as those who live or work in Beverly Hills is who killed publicist Ronni Chasen and why? Was she specifically targeted or is everyone in danger in Beverly Hills?
CRIME LIKE THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN BEVERLY HILLS
In a town where there is little crime and no murders in 2009, people are very frightened and on edge. The reason people are so spooked is because there is little to no crime here. That is due to the Beverly Hills Police Department, who is next to none. They are the crème de la crème.
They watch this town like a hawk with surveillance cars and constant patrolling and monitoring. If they are called for any 911 emergency, they will promptly be at the scene within 60 to 150 seconds. So that is all the more reason people are freaked out by what happened to Ronni Chasen.
POSSIBLE THEORIES FLOATING AROUND AS TO WHY RONNI WAS MURDERED
There have been many theories floating around as to the motive of killing Ronni Chasen from
a) a gang initiation
b) a professionally jealous colleague jealous of her successful Oscar campaigns
c) someone whom she leaked bad press about to media outlets that cost them a relationship or a business deal
d) someone who wanted to stop her from doing her job, which was to create publicity campaigns in an attempt to persuade the judges of film awards like The Oscars to choose her clients above the rest which would result in big money
e) gambling debts and refusing to pay up
f) someone whom she cut off in traffic six minutes before she was killed because she was talking on her cell phone and leaving a “to do list” on the other end while perhaps not paying attention to the road
g) an art deal gone wrong
h) a mob killing linked to investors on one of her many movies
i) a psychopathic serial killer on the loose
j) a disgruntled former client
k) a disgruntled former employee or housekeeper
j) someone whom she snubbed, disrespected, humiliated, belittled or screamed and yelled at because they didn’t do what she wanted or do things her way
PR PRAISES ABOUT RONNI FROM THE TOP OF THE LINE PR PROS
When it was first in the press that Ronni has been murdered only her fellow PR colleagues like top of the line veteran PR people like Paul Bloch, Stan Rosenfeld, Howard Bragman, and Michael Levine spoke out and sang her praises in true Hollywood PR fashion.
They stated that she was the sweetest woman alive and that everyone loved her and she had no enemies. Powerful Hollywood journalist Nikki Finke spoke lovingly and kindly as did other journalists who were interviewed.
But as the days have passed, while her clients have also attempted to say positive things about her in the press, they also managed to leaked out another side to Ronni’s persona that may give us some insight into her personality which may have alienated the wrong person.
THE OTHER SIDE OF RONNI REVEALED BY FRIENDS AND COLLEAGUES
Here are some other revealing comments and descriptions from her clients, friends and colleagues:
“She was persistent” Peter Hamond
“doggedly determined”person Eddie Kalish
“She was known for her “fast-talking, old school, New York aggressiveness on behalf of her clients and was not a person one quickly forgot after meeting. Peter Goldstein
Songwriter Diane Warren paints a picture of a publicist who was determined to get what she wanted and who was ”fiercely protective” of her clients.
When it came to Ronni getting a photo op with celebrities Diane reported Ronni said” “(Chasen) goes, ‘I don’t care what I have to do – I’m getting that picture,’ ” Warren explains. “That was Ronni — she had something she wanted to do… and she got that picture.” “She really cared, her clients were like family to her,” says Warren. “She’d tell you what to do and people listened to her.”
At her funeral service her turbocharged drive in a segment of the business never known for the faint of heart was mentioned. Eulogists all described Chasen’s forceful personality.
At the funeral service her close friend Vivian Mayer-Siskind’s seemingly lighthearted comment about Ronni revealed even more about her and her personality that some would not find so appealing as she said “Ronni came to me last night and was pissed as hell. ‘Now you get me a free Armani suit.’ “
Perhaps the most revealing insight into Ronni Chasen;s personality came from Producer Irwin Winkler of Rocky fame who said that when his 2004 film “De-Lovely” was not nominated for a Golden Globe, Chasen “was furious.”
“She screamed and yelled at (members of) the Hollywood Foreign Press (Assn.),” the group that puts on the annual awards show, Winkler told The Times.
While she may have been consistently pleasant to her friends and colleagues and described as fiercely protective over her clients who clearly paid her large amounts of money, the real question is how was she to others who were not A list paying stars or movie studio executives?
DID SHE YELL AND SCREAM AT THE WRONG PERSON?
While friends colleague and clients may have appreciated her being pushy and having too much chutzpah, and sense of entitlement, traits that obviously work in Hollywood, perhaps there were others who were equally so put off with her relentless behavior, that they may have found her to be one of the most Toxic People.
When someone yells and screams at others like Irwin Winkler reported Ronni did to the Hollywood Foreign press because her client didn’t get nominated for an award, it makes you wonder about who else she yelled at because she didn’t get her way or get what she wanted.
Did she scream and yell at the wrong person? Did she humiliate them? Did they harbor such ill feelings towards her and allow them to fester to the point they wanted her dead? Did they hate her that much that they took their fantasy of wanting her dead and turned it a reality by driving up to her car and shooting her five times in the chest?
SHOOTING SOMEONE 5 TIMES IN THE CHEST SIGNIFIES SEVERE HATRED TOWARDS THE PERSON
Apparently she had been shot while traveling to her home in Westwood after attending the premiere of Burlesque, a new film starring Cher, and an after-party at the W hotel. The person or people who shot her obviously had such disdain for her that they shot her in the chest not one time- but five times.
That screams of hatred and rage. In a random drive by shooting there would usually be one shot. But for someone to keep their finger on the trigger and shoot five times, it means they were furious with her. They wanted to make sure she was dead!
While we know that the shooting was from one car to another, as of today there are still no suspects, no motive, no witnesses according to Beverly Hills Police Department Lt. Tony Lee. So the mystery remains.
The one thing that gives hope in solving this tragedy is that the well respected Beverly Hills Police Department is on top of it and they will leave no stone unturned until the killer or killers of Ronni Chasen are found.www.drlillianglass.com










































