>
I know I’m a day late on this, but I just can’t get over all the wholesale madness going on over at Paramount now that they’ve taken on DreamWorks. YOU try telling Spielberg his staff has to go because your studio already has their equivalent.
Exactly. So Paramount got a litte lotta wobbly-legged nutted up and is letting their own people go in order to make room for the DreamWorkers.
Per Defamer.com:
· The marketing department has been hit hard, and an operative expects it to get nasty in distribution.
· Everyone’s wondering about the fate of Grey’s first big Paramount hire, Gail Berman. She apparently emerged from a long closed-door meeting and sent her assistants home for the day, either a sign of the world’s greatest boss or the world’s greatest ex-boss. [Update to update: We hear the assistants are still at battle stations. Faulty intel or dedicated assistants? What’s going on over there?] Currently on the Gail Berman Rumored Replacement Tote Board are DreamWorks’ Jeffrey Katzenberg and Walter Parkes, or Universal’s Stacey Snider (a rumor everyone’s been hearing for at least a week).
I found the news about Gail Berman particularly sad. I thought it was such a coup when she was hired by Brad Grey to run Paramount after such a successful run over at Fox. It’s been just shy of a year since she became president of the then-troubled studio, and now this.
I was once introduced to her by my good friend David Salzman as we waited for a pitch meeting we were about to have at Fox. She was incredibly nice and I was honored to meet her. She’s made tremendous headway for women in this town.
But that’s the way the cookie crumbles in the City Without A Heart. One minute you’re running a network, the next minute you’re running a studio, the next minute you’re at home, wondering what your next move will be, thinking maybe you’ll wait before buying that villa in Lake Como just yet. The beauty of it all, though, is this is the one place where failing up has become the norm. For every exec unceremoniously bounced out on their ear, there’s a door opening across town, ready to welcome them in and appreciate their talents.
Update: Looks like she’s safe. Thank goodness!!!
Defamer.com: Brad Grey Stands Behind His Gal Gail
Defamer.com: Black Wednesday: Paramount Layoffs Begin – Update
Variety.com: Jittery Juncture
The Lo Zone 
>hmmmm, maybe she may leave, if not already, and run that new CW merger….she'll already have the black vote, fo sho.they're gonna need all the help they can get!
LikeLike
>Now that's an interesting point, Lance, especially since The CW is a part of the Viacom family (of which Paramount is a part of, even though Sumner has split the company in two with Freston running one half and Moonves running the other). It'll be interesting to see what happens when the dust settles.
LikeLike
>like i said before about FUX….create mega-hits like "ny undercover" & "in living color" then pull the rug, once they got the audience. i hope CW doesn't go that way, the washin' machine factor…out goes the coloreds, in goes the whites!
LikeLike