This image was lost some time after publication, but you can still view it here.

The LAT pops over to Paramount to take a look at how new studio chief Brad Grey has put his imprint on The New Paramount™, soliciting quotes from employees and business associates about how much better things seem to be running than in the final, sputtering days of the Sherry Lansing Era, and noting successes both big (winning a stare-down with Tom Cruise over Mission: Impossible 3's costs) and small (the making-the-trains-run-on-time flourish of reducing DVD prices for employees). But most of all, the fun-loving new boss wants everyone to stop acting so stuffy and chill the fuck out, OK?

To accomplish his agenda, Grey is working hard to win over employees, including those who are still uncomfortable that a movie novice now runs the lot. Before Grey's arrival, Freston hired what he calls "an organizational shrink" to tap into the psyche of Paramount's 1,600 employees and solicit their opinions about work. That's how the DVD price issue and numerous other gripes came to Grey's attention.

"We're in show business," Grey said. "The climate didn't reflect that. It was more like a corporate enterprise rather than a Hollywood studio where everyone is feeling creative."

Unfortunately, some of the ideas that have arisen from the organizational shrink's employee probe and Grey's "Come on, people, this is a wonderful imaginarium, not a piece of a faceless multimedia conglomerate that will fire anyone who makes an expensive mistake" makeover plan haven't panned out. The "Primal Scream Out Your Childhood Pain" ice cream social recently turned one of the lot's plazas into an emotional black hole (we think it even led to the plans for a Summer School remake), and Pantsless Fridays, while fun, have yet to yield any significant creative byproducts.