Judge Shook’s threat of a mistrial was provoked by a special report appearing in the business section of the Los Angeles Times. Written by Glenn Bunting, the headline asked, “How do a bestselling novel, an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, a pair of Hollywood hotties and a No. 1 opening at the box office add up to $78 million of red ink?” Based on leaked confidential documents entered into evidence, Bunting provided an item by item enumeration of Sahara’s $160 million budget, exposing the mind-boggling money nonchalantly thrown around by Hollywood executives.

“The concern that I have,” Judge Shook said, “is that the jury is going to be deciding this case on something other than the evidence that was presented during the trial.” Marvin Putnam was outraged. “I’m floored that these documents could have been provided by someone, despite the fact that there is a clear agreement within the litigation ensuring that they are confidential.” Before he declared a mistrial, Shook decided he would think about it. “I hate to do it,” he said. “Both sides have spent so much money.”

“Movie budgets,” Glenn Bunting reported, “are one of the last remaining secrets in the entertainment business, typically known to only high-level executives, senior producers, and accountants.” Among the items in the purloined ledger - McConaughey was paid $8 million for the twenty-four-week shoot. He also received an additional $833,923 in “star perks,” including $179,262 for entourage travel, $114,000 for his assistant, and $72,800 for his hair colorist. Penelope Cruz earned $1.6 million. Her hairstylist took home a check for $135,550. Steve Zahn’s $2.2 million salary was augmented with perks totaling $264,153, including two fitness trainers, first-class round-trip airfare to Morocco, business-class airfare for his wife, two children, and nanny, and coach tickets for his personal assistant. Ten screenwriters shared $3.8 million, and a total of $237,386 was doled out for “gratuities” and “local bribes.” Dayna Cussler’s deleted forty-six-second crash scene cost $2 million and a list of “incidentals” included $1.4 million for catered meals, $105,556 for bottled water, and $16,744 for prop skeletons.

Judge Shook decided that the Los Angeles Times airing of Hollywood’s dirty laundry was not an adequate reason to declare a mistrial and the proceedings ground on. Thirteen weeks after the trial began, Clive was finally called to testify. Fields was able to persuade the judge to throw out testimony about Clive’s alleged use of racial and anti-Semitic slurs and any reference to a cartoon Clive drew depicting Howard Baldwin planting a kiss on Sherry Lansing’s derriere.

The unflattering cartoon was rendered on a copy of a 2002 news release announcing Paramount had signed a three-year deal to distribute Crusader’s films. Clive had sent it to Lampack who inadvertently allowed it to fall into the hands of Anschutz’s lawyers.

As he had done earlier with Lampack, Putnam clobbered Clive on his sales numbers. Anschutz had paid a litigation consulting firm, Freeman & Mills, $200,000 to examine Clive’s royalty statements and sales reports from three publishing houses. Their “forensic” report suggested the 100-million number was actually half of that. When Putnam asked Clive if he pulled the 100-million figure out of thin air, Clive replied, “Pretty much.” Clive also admitted Lampack had warned him in the late 1990s against mentioning the number of books he had sold since the actual amount was not known. Instead, he should talk about the number of books “in print.”

There is a big difference between books printed and books sold. Not only do publishers often hype the numbers to create interest, stores can return unsold copies to the publisher and receive full credit. When books were shipped to thousands of small stores, nobody knew how many copies were sold except the publisher and the author - and sometimes not even the author.

In 2001, Nielsen BookScan was launched, a service that tracks and reports information gathered from approximately 70 percent of the U.S. book market. Although BookScan has added a new level of accuracy, the actual number a book sells still depends on how much information publishers are willing to share. Commenting on Clive’s sales numbers, Albert Greco, professor of marketing, communications, and media management at Fordham University stated, “If Anschutz was willing to pay Freeman & Mills Inc. $200,000 to investigate Clive’s sales numbers, he probably should have done it before agreeing to spend $10 million for the rights to Sahara. If you don’t do your due diligence, this is what you end up with - a lawsuit.”

“When it came time for me to testify, Burt and his girls really screwed up,” Clive says. “They didn’t prime me. Just wanted me to play the kindly old grandpa and not come off like a curmudgeon. ‘Say yes, no, or you don’t remember.’” Clive insisted neither he nor Lampack had mentioned the 100-million number during their original meeting with Anschutz in Denver. Putnam’s habit of constantly asking the same questions over and over exasperated Clive to the point where, at one point, he buried his head in his hands. “I did all right the first four days,” Clive says, “but the last day, they kept harping on the numbers and slaughtered me. There’s a photograph taken after I finished testifying and I look like I’ve just been mugged.”

During the trial, Clive’s family was a steadfast presence in the courtroom. Dayna, living in Los Angeles, attended three or four times a week. “The LA County Courthouse is old and dirty,” Dayna says. “I couldn’t help but feel for the poor jury who gave up three months of their life, especially with some of the nonsense that went on. I almost got kicked out of the courtroom for laughing when they put Karen Baldwin on the stand. When Clive’s lawyer asked her if it was her signature on a contract, which it obviously was, all she could say was, ‘I’m not sure.’”

Dayna’s decision not to attend Sahara’s premier proved to be a wise move. During her deposition by Anschutz’s lawyers, they asked her what she thought of the movie. When Dayna told them she had never seen it, they insisted she had received the tickets and somebody was sitting in those seats. “When I explained the tickets were given to a couple of tourists,” Dayna says, “Those lawyers didn’t know what to say.”

Janet spent almost every day in the courtroom. “The experience,” she says, “was extremely tedious - I must have finished a million crossword puzzles - and often turned ugly. Anschutz’s lawyers were trying to make Clive out as a confused old man and a liar. We were all worried about the toll it was taking on him.” Marvin Putnam took everybody by surprise when he unexpectedly rested his case after the lunch break on Clive’s fifth day of testimony. “This case,” Putnam announced to the press, “doesn’t have to go a minute longer. I don’t think there is a soul in that courtroom that believes what Cussler was saying.”

On May 1, Fields presented his closing arguments. First, he countered Putnam’s portrayal of his client. “They have tried to smear Clive with all kinds of side issues that don’t go to the main point - the breach of contract.” He then went on to ask, “Of course, we have the $64-billion question, ‘Where is Philip Anschutz?’” By resting his case, Fields reminded the jury, Putnam ensured Anschutz would not have to testify. “Cussler,” Fields said, “took his lumps. You really got to know him. He sat there and took it. Yes, he has a bad memory. Yes, sometimes he struggles for words. I think you will conclude he is not an evil man . . . Mr. Anschutz failed to take the heat off. [Yet] it is Mr. Anschutz that wants you to enrich him at Mr. Cussler’s expense.”

The next day, it was Putnam’s turn. He asserted Clive received “the largest payday ever” based on the misleading claim he sold 100-million copies of his books. It was the numbers, and only the numbers, that led to the film’s failure at the box office. “Sahara,” Putnam exclaimed, was a “big beautiful popcorn movie . . . Everybody got paid except Crusader.” As far as Anschutz’s failure to appear, Putnam explained, “He had no reason to be here because he wasn’t sued . . . It’s an easy shot to make him sound like a cigar-chomping Daddy Warbucks in his luxury penthouse, but he didn’t do anything except say, ‘I’ll give you the money because you sold 100 million books.’”

Dirk, who was in the courtroom for the closing arguments, contrasts the two attorneys. “Marvin Putnam was showy and theatrical, playing for an emotional response from the jury. It was extremely difficult to sit there and listen to the baseless attacks on my father. Putnam tried to paint the entire process as a planned effort by Clive and Peter to never honor the deal and pocket the money.”

“Bert Fields,” Dirk continues, “was calm and rational in his delivery and argued his points in a thoughtful manner, but I don’t think I was alone in wishing he would have defended Clive’s integrity more in the closing. We were all anxious, not only because Clive was visibly worn down, he could have been hit with a huge adverse judgment.”

On May 15, 2007, following eight days of deliberation, the jury returned their verdicts. Clive had breached his contract and must pay Crusader Entertainment (now Bristol Bay Productions) $5 million. Clive also fraudulently misrepresented the number of books he sold, but no actual harm had been done, and Anschutz was not awarded the $115 million in punitive damages he was seeking.

Crusader, the jury found, owed Clive for the second book and he was awarded $8.5 million. Both sides claimed victory. Putnam declared the verdict was “a complete victory . . . It was a complete finding of liability, just not a finding of damages.” Fields saw it differently. “We feel like Cussler is the clear winner. We’re $3.5 million ahead, and Clive got his book rights back.” The jury foreman, Anthony Villa, told reporters the complex contract between Clive and Crusader played a major part in the jury’s deliberations. “The contract was a nightmare,” Villa said. “There were problems on both sides and both parties were at fault. We didn’t stick to one side.” He added the jury never considered awarding the huge damages each side sought.

Outside the courtroom, Clive, hugged Janet. “I’m relieved that it’s over,” he said, smiling. “Now we can go home. If I knew the trial was going to turn into a personal attack, I would have passed, but it wasn’t over the money. I just wanted my book back.” When a reporter asked him if Dirk Pitt would return to the big screen, Clive declared, “There won’t be another Clive Cussler film, at least not during my lifetime.”