Brad Grey's Poolside Ordered Pink Slip Hit
Shockwaves are still radiating from yesterday's announcement that veteran distribution president Wayne Lewellen had been fired from his post of 33 years by turning-out-to-be-not-so-nice New New Paramount head Brad Grey, a man who enjoys firing people in the same way others might enjoy, say, golf. Page Six has further details:
West Coast sources say the vacationing Grey issued the pink slip while basking seaside at a resort in South Africa.
Paramount marketing president Rob Moore was left with the unenviable task of informing Lewellen that his 33-year career at the company was over. [...]To preserve his staff's holiday spirit, we hear Lewellen kept the bad news to himself. [...]
"Everyone in distribution knows their jobs are on the line. There's no loyalty," the source said. [...]
"Everyone assumes Brad promised Spielberg that if Paramount bought DreamWorks, he could bring all of his own people with him," says the source. "Unlike Brad, who just got here and couldn't care less about us, Steven has actual loyalty to his people. Brad must have figured it was easier to get rid of everyone who built Paramount than to risk crossing Steven or screwing up the deal."
It's a decent theory, but the fact of the matter is that Grey had mass termination designs well before the DreamWorks deal had made; the first tip off should have been the all-staff memo he circulated week 1 on the job entitled, "My Plan To Reinvigorate Paramount By Firing Every Single One of You."
