Bradley Cooper's 'Licorice Pizza' character is based on a real-life Hollywood producer who started out as a hairdresser, was married to Pamela Anderson for 12 days, and fought Steven Seagal



Jon Peters and Barbara Streisand were married.

Jon Peters became famous in the early 1970s as a hairdresser and as a man who dated Barbara Streisand.

He was a prominent producer with credits including "Batman" and "Flashdance".

He's had high-profile love affairs and has been in controversy.

Jon Peters is one of the Hollywood legends.

It's difficult to match the trajectory Peters had in his career, which began as a teen determined to make it big as a hairdresser to eventually running a major movie studio, after coming on the scene in the early 1970s.

Peters has a dark side as Paul Thomas Anderson's "Licorice Pizza" shows.

In Anderson's latest movie, set in California's San Fernando Valley in 1973, which chronicles the exploits of lovebirds 15-year-old Gary Valentine and 25-year-old Alana Kane, the two witness the outrageous antics of Peters first hand.

Bradley Cooper plays a man who comes off as intimidating and in some instances psychotic, as the two deliver a water bed to Peters' house. In the same breath that he praises Valentine for having a "from the streets" vibe, he also says he'll kill his family if anything happens to his house, which he shares with Barbra Streisand.

Bradley Cooper plays Jon Peters in a movie.

Cooper is the spitting image of Peters, who was a self-made hairdresser-to-the-stars, and was sleeping with one.

Peters' behavior became notorious, as he would go on to produce the Streisand-led "A Star Is Born" and launch the "Batman" franchise, as well as produce the box office disaster "Wild, Wild, West" and the never-made Nicolas Cage "Superman" movie

Peters had a wild career.

Peters did not respond to Insider's request to comment on the story.

Jon Peters and Barbara Streisand.

He told Streisand she had a great ass.

The Peters is having a good year.

He was making $100 an hour cutting the hair of stars like Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty, and he bragged to anyone who would listen that he was the inspiration behind Beatty's character in his 1975 movie, "Shampoo".

He met Streisand in 1974 when she needed a wig for her movie "For Pete's Sake."

Peters said "My God!" as he followed Streisand up the stairs after meeting her at her home.

What are you looking at? Streisand replied to him.

He looked at your butt. "You have a great ass."

Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson are in a movie.

Peters was married to a movie actress at the time, but the book states that the two began an affair.

The Peters-Streisand relationship was fueled by passion and arguments, which eventually led to the two working together creatively, according to the book. Peters produced Streisand's 1974 album "ButterFly" and the 1976 movie "A Star Is Born", in which Streisand is a young singer who falls for an aging rock star.

Peters had never produced a movie before, but his inexperience didn't make him shy to give his thoughts, or confront anyone on the movie with threats of physical violence, according to "Hit & Run."

He suggested starring as the lead and taking over as director, but neither were considered seriously, according to the book.

He inspired a line in the movie. He says to Streisand "You've got a great ass" when they meet for the first time.

Peters was a producer on the remake of A Star Is Born.

Kim Basinger and Peters had an on-set relationship.

Peters went from being a hairdresser to producing full time after "A Star is Born" was released.

He became a Hollywood player when he collaborated with Peter Guber on "An American Werewolf in London." He found success executive producing classics such as 1980's "Caddyshack" and "An American Werewolf in London." He became a Hollywood player when he collaborated with Peter Guber on "

The two secured the rights to make a "Batman" movie. The introduction of comic book adaptation to the big screen was made possible by Peters and Guber.

Tim Burton's "Batman" movie was a huge undertaking in which Peters was front and center.

According to "Hit & Run," he wanted Michael Keaton to play Batman and wooed Jack Nicholson as The Clown Prince of Crime by flying him to the "Batman" set to see the Batmobile and stocking it with luxuries.

Jon Peters and Peter Guber are pictured.

Peters was sleeping with Kim Basinger, the romantic lead of the movie.

Kim's husband was abusive. Peters told The Hollywood Reporter that he had a big affair with her after he grabbed him.

He said that Michael Keaton had an eye for Kim Basinger. He was angry when I hooked up with her. He felt rejected because he was the star. He is Batman. Yeah. I was a hairdresser. We lived together. She helped me write the third act.

Peters felt that the ending wasn't epic enough, and that Basinger's character was to die. He built a model of a cathedral that cost $100,000 for the set where all the action would take place, according to "Hit & Run."

Jack Nicholson and Kim Basinger were walking up the stairs of the cathedral and Jack turned around and asked why he was walking up the stairs. Where am I going? In "Hit & Run," Burton is quoted as saying that most of the cathedral ending was improvised due to the late change.

"I had to tell him that I didn't know," Burton said. The scariest experience of my life.

The Ron Galella Collection has a picture of Fleiss at her 1993 trial.

Peters became the head of Sony and was involved in a controversy with Fleiss.

Peters and Guber were made famous by the success of Batman. The two were hired as co-chairmen of Sony Pictures in 1989.

According to "Hit & Run," Peters tried to get Michael Jackson to make a movie at the studio and even had ideas of a theme park called Sonyland.

His antics are the most memorable. In the Hollywood Reporter interview, Peters said that he once used the Sony private jet to send flowers to a Swedish model, stranding Bruce Willis, who was supposed to get the plane to fly to the set of his next movie.

He left the company in 1991 and got entangled in the prostitution scandal of Hollywood's madam in the 1990s.

Fleiss was arrested and charged with five counts of pandering in 1993 and the stories began to run that employees at Sony were Fleiss' clients. Fleiss began dropping names. Fleiss was later convicted of three charges that were later overturned.

She told Vanity Fair in 1994 that Peters was a huge client. Everyone went to him when they wanted a girl.

Will Smith is a belly dancer.

Will Smith was made to dress in drag for 'Wild Wild West' and was paid millions to stay off the set of 'Man of Steel'.

The stories around Peters got even more strange after he left Sony.

The 1999 box office disaster "Wild Wild West," starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline, was one of his big contributions, and one of the reasons was to have Smith's character dress as a belly dancer to distract the villain.

Barry Sonnenfeld regrets the scene.

Sonnenfeld told MEL that he never wanted to see Will in drag. "I thought it was silly and unnecessary, and in there because Peters loved it and refused to let us take it out."

Peters was also trying to make "Superman Lives" with Tim Burton. The death of Superman was chronicled in the script written by Kevin Smith. Nicolas Cage was going to play a superhero.

One of Peters' ideas for the movie has become legendary.

In his 2002 DVD, "An Evening with Kevin Smith," Smith said that Peters wanted the movie's finale to feature Superman fighting a giant spider. Peters confirmed the story in the film.

According to Peters, he took in $85 million for not doing anything in the Superman franchise. Peters said that Christopher Nolan banned him from the set of "Man of Steel."

Peters told The Hollywood Reporter that his reputation scares the guys.

Pamela Anderson. Thomas Samson

Peters was married to Pamela Anderson for 12 days and was charged with sexual harassment in 2011.

There have been many stories about Peters getting into physical altercations, but the most significant is that he said he went at it with Steven Seagal in his pool.

In an interview about "Wild Wild West" for MEL, writer and producer Brent Maddock recalled talking to Peters at his house when the producer suddenly began recalling the time he took on the action star.

Peters asked the screenwriter if he saw the pool. I was in the middle of the pool and Steven Seagal was swimming behind me. He puts me in a headlock. He's such a pussy.

Maddock said that Peters described how they got out of the pool and had a martial arts battle on the lawn.

"All of the four, five young men executives who worked for Jon Peters are sitting around," said Maddock, "and the only thing I'm thinking is, 'How are these guys keeping a straight face?'"

The jury in Los Angeles ordered Peters to pay a former assistant $3.3 million after finding she was subjected to sexual harassment and a hostile work environment while working for him.

Peters' love life continued. Peters and Pamela Anderson married in a secret ceremony in Malibu in 2020 but called it quits a year later.

Peters is in a movie.

The producer had a suggestion on what the character would say in the movie. Anderson told Variety that he was told to get his pickup line in there. I asked what your pickup line was. He said he would ask a girl if she wanted a peanut butter sandwich. I asked if it worked. He said it worked. We put that in.

Sean Penn is in the movie "Licorice Pizza".

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