Weapons of Mass Distraction 1997

Phillip Messenger and Lionel Powers are two of the wealthiest men in the media world, each surrounded by a web of secrets that stain their empires. They wage a ruthless battle for control of a Los Angeles-based football franchise, pulling every lever and using every weapon at their disposal to gain the upper hand. Powers also pushes to keep ownership of a successful Tucson club, a move that heightens the conflict and invites intense scrutiny. Their high-stakes feud unfolds against the backdrop of Congressional hearings, where Billy Paxton openly objects to what he sees as a dangerous conflict of interest.

As the rivalry intensifies, the fallout touches thousands of lives and snarls careers across the board. Robin Zimmer, a beloved children’s television presenter, becomes a casualty of the power plays, along with Dr. Jonathon Cummings, whose professional life is upended by the scheming machinations of the moguls. Meanwhile, Jerry Pascoe watches his secure job vanish amid Powers’s aggressive cost-cutting, and the strain migrates into his marriage with Rita Pascoe, further compounding the family’s precarious situation.

The plot thickens with the exposure of tabloid-worthy secrets that touch both families’ inner circles. The lives of Powers’s wife, Ariel Powers (aka Alexi), and trusted aide Alan Blanchard are thrust into the spotlight, with the revelations carrying dire consequences. Although Blanchard holds intimate knowledge of Powers’s most embarrassing private secret, he ultimately chooses suicide over revenge after the downfall.

Yet the gambit continues. After a secret, highly charged face-to-face meeting fails to settle the dispute, Powers closes the gap by leveraging the Messenger family’s darkest secret. Billy Paxton steps in to broker an uneasy compromise, and the two drastically different dynasties agree to share ownership of the Los Angeles franchise, a fragile peace that halts the immediate crisis but leaves a lasting taint on the deal and the players involved.

Back at home, the Pascoe marriage drifts from crisis to a strange blend of tragedy and reality-TV spectacle, turning private ruin into public fascination and shifting the family’s narrative from quiet desperation to sizzling tabloid fodder.