Teen Idol's Son Finds Screenwriting to Be His Forte

1997-01-21 04:00:00 PDT Beverly Hills -- When Christian Forte takes his screenplays around to producers, they sometimes, in an attempt to be friendly, ask "So what does your dad do?"

His answer throws them. "Well," he says hesitatingly, "my dad's Fabian."

Mentioning his father -- a pop singer who was a teen idol in the 1950s -- is awkward, he says. "But, it's the truth. What am I going to say? I can't make up something."

Forte, 26, is the spitting image of Fabian at that age -- down to the lock of dark wavy hair falling over his forehead. He looks as if he should be delivering the lines instead of writing them, but, he says, "I'd be too scared to be an actor. I'd have a stroke immediately." Also, he says, "I have absolutely no singing talent. I can't do any of that."

What he apparently can do is write convincing screen dialogue. His first script, "Albino Alligator," written while Forte was a student at the University of California at Berkeley, was bought almost immediately. Even more amazing, in a system where scripts are known to languish for years, his actually got made into a film. It was speeded along by Kevin Spacey, who chose to make his debut as a director with Forte's story about small-time hoods who hold patrons of a New Orleans bar hostage.

To Forte's amazement, Spacey lined up a cast of heavy hitters including Faye Dunaway, Matt Dillon, Gary Sinese and newcomer Skeet Ulrich. "I was just going along for the ride," says Forte. When told of the latest star who had been signed up, "I'd go, 'Yeah, that sounds great to me. Good job, guys.' "

With the recent opening of "Albino Alliga tor," Forte suddenly finds himself in the spotlight. Unsure how to handle this interview -- his first ever -- he asked his father, who told him just to be honest.

Talking expansively over an iced tea at a neighborhood restaurant, a pack of cigarettes nearby as a kind of security blanket, Forte is taking dad's advice perhaps too literally. Asked about the Band-Aid on his forehead, for instance, he admits it's concealing a pimple.

Later, he gives serious thought to why he might be drawn to writing about gangsters and other lowlifes. He's working on a film about hustlers in South Philadelphia, a tough Italian neighborhood where his father grew up. Does he know any people like this?

Forte eyes the cigarettes, resists taking one, then blurts out, "All right, I'll confess to you. My family does know some gangsters. There's a friend of our family who is in prison right now. He grew up in South Philly around the same time as my dad and he was one of my dad's bodyguards. I heard stories about him when I was growing up, but nobody would ever tell me what he was in jail for."

Compared to Fabian's, Forte's childhood was one of privilege. The family lived in Los Angeles while his father tried -- unsuccessfully as it turned out -- to make the transition to acting. His mother, Katie Regan, is an actress in commercials.

The couple split up when Christian was 6 years old. "Because I was so young, it almost seemed normal for them to be divorced," Forte says. His parents shared custody, with Christian and his sister, Julie, dividing the week up between them.

"They were real good about splitting the time up," says Forte, who grew up very close to both his parents as a result.

PEOPLE IN THE BUSINESS

Surrounded by people in show business -- his stepmother, Kate Forte, was head of development for Oprah Winfrey's company -- his first thought was that he didn't want anything to do with it. Forte majored in history at UC Berkeley, intending to be a high school teacher. But all along, he had been writing fiction pieces, and he decided to see if one would work as a screenplay.

Forte, who has never taken a writing class, taught himself by studying the plays of Harold Pinter and David Mamet.

"Mostly, I was trying to get the rhythm and timing in delivery of dialogue," he says. "I was at the point where I was counting syllables in sentences to try to make it time out and hit the proper beats correctly. When dialogue flows, it has a wonderful rhythmic pattern like music."

Knowing how heartbreaking the business can be, it was "kind of scary for my dad to watch me want to be a writer," Forte says. Fabian read the "Albino Alligator" screenplay and made some suggestions, but that was the extent of his involvement.

Reviews of the film that refer to Forte as "the son of teen idol Fabian" have hurt. "It's like they're saying I got where I am because of my dad."

DAD STAYED OUT OF IT

In fact, Forte insists, his success had "zero to do with my father. I mean, he's been out of the film business for like 30 years. Nobody is going to spend 5 to 10 million on a movie because somebody's dad was famous a long time ago. It makes no sense. People who would think that don't really know how this business works."

Having a movie produced counts a lot in Hollywood, and Forte finds himself getting a lot of offers to rewrite scripts. He's working on one about oil-well fires that will probably be a $40 million movie if it ever gets made.

"They just throw money at you here," says Forte, who is rapidly moving into the six-figure category per script. "It's disgusting how much money is being thrown around."

It is enough for him to rent an apartment in Beverly Hills not far from where his father lives and to support himself and his girlfriend, Laura Russell, who is starting law school. Russell grew up in Fresno; the two met at UC Berkeley. "She doesn't understand the whole Hollywood thing and sometimes she is nervous about it, but for the most part she likes it," Forte says.

Eventually, he wants to write a movie about his father. As far as Forte is concerned, director Barry Levinson, who is working on one about Bobby Darin, is "doing the wrong project."

"My dad has one of the most amazing life stories ever," he says. "His story will shatter a lot of those myths about what it is like to be famous that young and be a teen idol. It wasn't as much fun as it looked by any means. And then dealing with fame and having fame kind of slowly fade away -- that's a very painful thing. He's had to live the rest of his life as Fabian, trapped in that world forever. But he's adjusted really well. He's happy with himself, which is the most important thing because for a while I don't think he really was real happy.

"I'm sure Bobby Darin's is a great story, too," Forte says, "but I like my dad's story better."

"ALBINO ALLIGATOR"