Jeff Bezos amassed the world's greatest fortune by relying on what he has called a ''regret minimization framework.'' He built an $800 billion company with 14 codified principles and a brutally exacting culture. His annual salary of $81,840 has not budged since 1998.

But then Mr. Bezos went to Hollywood.

In the weeks since the Amazon founder tweeted that he and his wife of 25 years were divorcing, he has gone to war with a grocery store tabloid and escalated a conflict with the president of the United States. And he has essentially ceded control of his own narrative to two rogue characters: a swashbuckling A-list security consultant, Gavin de Becker, and his girlfriend's fame-hungry brother-manager, Michael Sanchez. Locked in a feud, the two are prolonging the scandal's news value almost daily.

Mr. Bezos is at the center of an honest-to-God melodrama, full of salacious revelations, family betrayals and international intrigue. In Seattle, Amazon's senior vice president for global corporate affairs, the former White House press secretary Jay Carney, has recently tried to get the story back under control. But in Hollywood, the swirl around Mr. Bezos's love life refuses to be contained, churning through an ecosystem of gossip and favors, where dish on the rich and powerful is currency.

Amazon executives were blindsided by a sequence of events that began in early January: the announcement by Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos of their divorce; the 11-page National Enquirer expose that Mr. Bezos was romantically involved with Lauren Sanchez, a former Los Angeles TV anchor; a sensational blog post by Mr. Bezos accusing the head of the tabloid, an ally of President Trump, of attempting to extort him over a ''below-the-belt selfie'' and other sexts.

It has not helped matters that the intimate details of Mr. Bezos's personal life emerged around the same time that the company abruptly canceled its plans to build a new headquarters in New York, after fighting with lawmakers and activists. People who have worked closely with Mr. Bezos have watched dumbfounded that a man famous for being a vault of discretion could end up, as one of them put it, in the middle of such a ''clown show.''

For advice on the crisis, Mr. Bezos has relied almost entirely on Mr. de Becker, who in addition to providing security to stars is something of a celebrity himself. He once protected Cher, and he delivered a eulogy at the memorial of his friend Carrie Fisher. His book, ''The Gift of Fear,'' was a megahit -- Oprah Winfrey backed it -- and reads like a TED Talk for the rich and afraid.

Mr. de Becker is employed by Mr. Bezos, not Amazon, and appears to be hardly in touch with strategists at the company. Adding to the cast, Mr. de Becker has enlisted the famed law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, as well as Marty Singer, a notorious Los Angeles litigator who has represented John Travolta and Sharon Stone, to work the media.

Ms. Sanchez has consulted the Los...