SENTENCING DELAYED FOR PRODUCERS CONVICTED OF BRIBERY

The husband-and-wife producers who were convicted last September of bribing Thai officials in order to secure a contract to run the Bangkok Film Festival will have to wait until April 29 to learn what their sentence will be. Gerald and Patricia Green were to have been sentenced in Los Angeles on Thursday, but Judge George Wu said that he wanted to hear additional arguments by each side. Meanwhile, entertainment publications and Hollywood bloggers observed that producers may have to rethink their time-honored policy of greasing the palms of foreign officials and regional leaders to secure favorable and secure treatment following the Greens’ conviction. They were accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 by spending $1.5 million to bribe Thai tourism officials between 2002 and 2006 to win the contract to run the festival, from which they reportedly earned $14 million.