HOLLYWOOD: David in Gomorrah

Manhattan's own David Susskind, successful producer of safe-at-home TV classics and voluble critic of TV's lack of daring, has been, to use his favorite verb, denigrating Hollywood for years. "Hollywood has an advanced case of intellectual leprosy." he says. "It is sterile and bland. a place of languor and procrastination, of overwhelming provincialism." Hollywood's responses are equally engaging. "Susskind." says Oscar Levant, "is salami dipped in chicken fat." Yet there was Susskind. out in the Hollywood provinces last week, and not just to carry the battle to the enemy's home ground. He was there to show the languorous natives...