Michael Douglas once arrived at the Oscars as a presenter only to learn from the FBI and LAPD on the scene that there was a “credible threat” to his safety at the ceremony, the star reveals in his blockbuster new memoir, out Tuesday.
The authorities told Douglas that a mysterious man was at the exclusive awards show trying to “stab you with an HIV-infected needle,” he writes.
As a result, the starry awards show was secretly sprinkled with real-life undercover agents in the crowd trying to protect the famous actor.
The tell-all tome, “One Helluva Ride,” obtained by Page Six Hollywood, is filled with jaw-dropping anecdotes by the “Basic Instinct” star, 81 — from a tale of snorting coke with O.J. Simpson to his top-secret affair with Kathleen Turner and a string of other glamorous stars.
The Hollywood scion also dishes on a truly wild behind-the-scenes turn of events at the 1992 Academy Awards.
Douglas recounts arriving to the show as a presenter a year after he won the Best Actor Oscar for playing the ruthless “greed is good” trader Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone‘s “Wall Street.”
But when the star opened his limo door upon arriving at the Shrine Auditorium, he wasn’t met by a valet.
Instead, an FBI agent and an LAPD sergeant informed him of a “credible threat” against him. “We have information that someone will try to stab you with an HIV-infected needle tonight,” the authorities told the star, according to the book.
As Douglas puts it, “This was during the height of the AIDS crisis, and getting stabbed with an infected needle would essentially be a death sentence.” In fact, many famous attendees, including Douglas, were wearing red ribbons on their lapels that night to bring attention to the global fight against AIDS.
To deter the alleged plot, the FBI placed undercover agents throughout the crowd — even guarding Douglas during a smoke break outside. The legendary actor swallowed his fear as he took the stage to present Jodie Foster with the Best Actress honor for “The Silence of the Lambs.”
“As I walked out, I took a quick glance into the crowd to make sure that no one was rushing to the stage. All I could see were blinding lights,” he writes of the tense scene.
A longtime friend of Douglas corroborated the tale, telling us: “He was advised by the agent not to go out there [on stage]. They knew the person was in [the venue], but they didn’t know where. [They] could have been in the staff, the crew or the crowd… Michael was scared s–tless. It was a really ballsy move for him to go out there.”
Thankfully, nothing came of the threat — but no one was apprehended.
And that isn’t even the only credible attempt on Douglas’ life that he details in his explosive memoir.
While filming his ’70s TV series, “The Streets of San Francisco,” Douglas ended up on the “kill list” of the infamous Death Angels, a group of extremist killers behind the racially motivated Zebra Murders that claimed at least 15 lives in the early 1970s.
The actor writes that the threat resulted in him wearing a bulletproof vest under his wardrobe, and being flanked by undercover officers on set.
Douglas lays it all bare in “One Helluva Ride,” a 500-page odyssey unpacking his relationship with famous father Kirk, his many (and we mean many) romantic trysts and behind-the-scenes tales from his biggest films like “Fatal Attraction” and “Basic Instinct.”
Page Six previously reported last week how Douglas details his secret relationship with “Romancing the Stone” co-star Turner after four decades of secrecy.