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On Dec. 14, 20th Century Fox Film chairman and CEO Stacey Snider was in a morning meeting with her top executives when the unthinkable happened: Cellphones lit up with word that The Walt Disney Co. was bidding to buy most of parent 21st Century Fox from the Murdoch family, including the film studio. Like everyone else in the room, Snider was blindsided. Within minutes, she was called away to be briefed by her bosses Rupert, James and Lachlan Murdoch. Snider had been in the Fox job for slightly more than a year and was just starting to implement her agenda. But now all bets were off. Six months later, Snider — the only woman to have run two studios, Fox and Universal — has emerged as an emblematic figure in…
1999 Snider is named chairman of Universal Studios. 2000 Months after she takes the top job, Seagram scion Edgar Bronfman arranges the sale of Universal to French water utility and media company Vivendi. 2004 Snider becomes an employee of General Electric when Vivendi sells 80 percent of Vivendi Universal to General Electric, creating NBCUniversal. 2006 Snider leaves Universal and is named co-chairman of a pared-down DreamWorks, then owned by Viacom/Paramount. 2008 After a contentious relationship, DreamWorks and Paramount part ways. 2009 Snider works closely with Disney brass after DreamWorks strikes a 30-picture distribution deal with the studio. 2014 Snider joins 20th Century Fox Film as co-chairman.…
As Hulu begins to get traction with its live TV service, CEO Randy Freer is restructuring its content teams with the hope of better integrating the new product with its existing on-demand business. On June 1, Freer unveiled a reorganization that resulted in the exit of three senior executives, including chief content officer Joel Stillerman, whom Hulu had poached from AMC only a year ago. The changes come amid a period of uncertainty for the company. Thanks to breakout The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu is in the middle of the biggest growth in its history, but it is awaiting changes to its ownership structure as Disney and Comcast fight to acquire assets of 21st Century Fox, including a minority stake in Hulu. “There’s no way to look at Hulu distinct from…
How can Shari Redstone possibly position CBS and Viacom to compete with Facebook, Google and Netflix? Maybe she won’t try. On May 29, the company run by CEO Leslie Moonves claimed in legal documents that Redstone wanted to merge Viacom with CBS, then sell the combined company for a premium the former couldn’t hope to command alone. Moonves is suing to dilute the Redstone-controlled National Amusements’ 80 percent stake down to 17 percent. If Redstone, 64, were to merge CBS and Viacom, NAI could offer to relinquish the voting control it holds over the merged entity in order to entice potential suitors. Still, no potential buyers likely will show much interest in purchasing CBS or Viacom — Redstone is vice chairman of both — until the lawsuits are settled, and…
This year’s Tony Awards, like Broadway (which just wrapped a record $6.7 billion season), is taking on a pop music aura. That’s because the co-hosts June 10 at Radio City Music Hall are SpongeBob SquarePants score nominee Sara Bareilles and Josh Groban, music stars who recently made their Great White Way acting debuts. Can we expect some duets? GROBAN We’re hoping to sing in the opening, we’re hoping to sing throughout the night. Some stuff may be a little more serious, some stuff comedic. BAREILLES We’re both excited to use our voices onstage. But there are things about Josh that many people don’t know. He’s extraordinarily funny and has a wonderful, dry wit. He’s got a lot of tricks up his sleeve that people don’t know about. Is there anything…
The headlines are — depending on whom you talk to and what day it is — exhausting or galvanizing. Since the name Weinstein went from synonymous with Oscar contender to synonymous with sexual assault, Hollywood doesn’t quite know which way is up. For example, there was a piece on The Hollywood Reporter’s website June 1 — covering an extended Twitter thread from writerproducer David Slack — about agents telling their unemployed male writer clients that the #MeToo movement is responsible for their lack of a job. The idea that some agents are doing that is super funny — and by funny I mean painful. And by painful I mean so incredibly false and damaging it makes me want to stay in bed all day. #MeToo is an international movement comprising…
