Obviously looking to stir up some trouble, an anonymous tipster dropped us this note about the conspicuous table-hopping activities of Paramount emperor Brad Grey, whose various fiefdoms came away with awards for Dreamgirls and Babel:
To quickly review the grand mal seizures that rocked Paramount's executive ranks yesterday: Not only is Paramount Pictures president Gail Berman out (as is co-president of production Alli Shearmur), but after failing to reach terms with the guy from the Water Tower Cafe on a deal to replace Berman, studio emperor Brad Grey has decided to eliminate her position entirely, preferring a "label strategy" of organization, in which every Paramount employee will provide Grey with an in-person, ten-second update on his day's work at the close of business each evening. With all the upheaval in his moviemaking fiefdom yesterday, wizened Viacom corporate overlord Sumner Redstone took a moment to give Grey, whose job security has often been questioned during his tenure atop the 'Mount, an unequivocal vote of confidence following his personnel moves:
While we're still awaiting an official press release announcing president Gail Berman's departure from Paramount, Var has pulled the trigger on an ankling-invoking headline, citing "several studio insiders" who claim that Berman submitted her resignation around noon. An operative within Brad Grey's fortified Melrose lot walls tells us that chatterers think co-president of production Brad Weston will replace her, but we wouldn't be that surprised to discover that Grey, overwhelmed by the pressure of choosing a successor, wandered into the lot's Water Tower Cafe and offered the position to the guy making his banana-and-strawberry Smoothie.
· Gail BermanWatch:Var reads this morning's LAT story about Berman's imminent departure from Paramount and puts in some calls at the studio, getting a no comment and a promise that a statement about the situation is forthcoming. Meanwhile, the Reporter updates that "a source close to the executive" says Berman is negotiating a separation settlement. We're on pins and needles over here as we await the forwarding of a heartbreaking press release. [Variety, THR]
· Madonna's Maverick Films and HBO Films combine their resources to lock up the highly coveted, non-Johnny Knoxville part of the Jackass collective for the wacky firefighter comedy Hosed, in which we assume Steve-O and the gang do nothing but give each other firehose enemas and test the limits of their genitals' resistance to open flame. [THR]
· Paramount will sell its movies on iTunes. In a statement about their move to exploit the digital platform, studio boss Brad Grey made no comment on Gail Berman's reportedly imminent departure. [Variety]
· Fox House "easily trounced" (is there any other way?) L&O: Criminal Intent and the People's Choice Awards in the ratings last night, giving the network a nice win as it awaits next week's return of Nielsen juggernaut American Idol. [THR]
Today's LAT reports that Paramount Emperor Brad Grey and embattled lieutenant Gail Berman are expected to finally part ways this week, ending a partnership so doomed that early drafts of Grey's press release announcing the TV veteran's puzzling ascendency to his studio's presidency ended with the phrase, "I couldn't be more excited to welcome Gail into the Paramount family, and to eventually fire her long after it becomes apparent that this relationship just isn't working out, after an acceptable interval for saving face." The Times takes a look back at Berman's rocky tenure at the 'Mount, during which her "exclusionary, aloof and non-confrontational" boss made the classically passive-aggressive move of buying an entire movie studio rather than prod her about the slow progress of her development slate:
The LAT reports that the Producers Guild has rejected Paramount head Brad Grey's attempt to receive a producing credit* on Warner Bros' The Departed, a movie the former manager was "instrumental" in putting together before taking his current job at the 'Mount, a decision that will probably deny Grey the chance to hedge his Oscar bets by competing against his own studio's Best Picture hopefuls, Dreamgirls and Babel. The Times explains the PGA guidelines that could keep Grey off the podium in the eventuality of a Departed Academy Awards win:
We thought that all of the intramural tension between stranded CBS Corp employees rendered nothing more than unwanted tenants by the Great Viacom/CBS Schism of 2006 and their Paramount landlords would have worked itself out by now, but this report from a member of the Melrose lot's untouchable caste indicates that the holiday season, normally a time for people to put aside their differences over some spiked eggnog and mistletoe-enabled makeout sessions, seems to be providing a fresh opportunity for CBS staffer persecution:
Yesterday's Tom Freston-kebabing powwow was an event the likes of which we rarely see, with the world's greatest media titans gathered beneath the roof of the Pierre Hotel in New York to toast their associate with a steady stream of laughter and uncensored ribaldry, interrupted only by the occasional jab at the lukewarm Cornish game hen taunting them blandly from a luncheon plate. We return now to Variety's coverage of the historic event, with a detailed account of how the crucial rook of Sumner Redstone's expertly plotted chessboard—Paramount head Brad Grey—told a group of executives about the strategy behind his savage capture of Tom Cruise's vulnerable queen:
Toiling over in the new Fortress of Humpitude his E!nslavers have constructed for him on their redesigned website, disgruntled gossipist Ted Casablanca coyly blinded this item about a Paramount star (not pictured, probably) who rather rudely called attention to studio boss Brad Grey's well-documented, three-apples-tall stature:
PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, and are now posted several times a week—so start sending them in more often. Send yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put "sighting" or "PrivacyWatch" in the subject line) and let the world hear all about the time Aaron Sorkin betrayed his high-minded comic tastes for the hilarious, acorn-hoarding hijinks of a prehistoric squirrel.
Paramount head Brad Grey stayed mostly tight-lipped during the tense period following the femur-shattering kick-in-the-pants Sumner Redstone delivered to Tom Cruise on his way out of the Viacom family doors. Radar now reports that Grey might have been relieved to see Cruise go, especially after the deadlocked negotiations for his Mission Impossible 3 salary led to an after-hours run-in with a pack of navy-blazered Scientology goons, fists lightly pounding into their palms as they attempted to get shorty to see the light:
It seems like only yesterday that freshly Redstoned ex-Viacom president and CEO Tom Freston excitedly introduced new studio head Brad Grey to his corporate family by gushing about how "great" everything was going to be at the New Paramount in an e-mail so laden with giddy exuberance that computers on the company's overtaxed network nearly exploded into a hail of rainbows and smoldering happy face emoticons. But roughly nine months later, things are considerably more sad-face for Grey, as he had to take some time from his busy schedule of nervously hand-shredding stacks of buckslips while worrying about his own job security to approve a heartfelt goodbye to Freston lovingly penned by someone in Viacom PR.
Perhaps the only person who's been more suspiciously silent than Tom Cruise himself in the wake of the once-cherished Viacom son being left to die of exposure at the base of Mt. Paramount by displeased corporate parent Sumner Redstone is Brad Grey, the studio head who might be expected to have a say on such crucial talent decisions. It seems that Grey quickly tired of instructing his assistant to tell any quote-hungry reporters that he was unavailable for comment due to a weeklong sensory deprivation tank retreat, as the Paramount boss finally offered up a soundbite on the Cruise controversy:
CBS Corp's Les Moonves' sinister plan to slowly destroy corporate rival/brother Tom Freston of Viacom proceeds apace with the announcement that CBS's film unit will produce 4 to 6 mid-budgeted movies a year, which Moonves will then use to stock Showtime and reduce the network's dependence on Freston's Paramount product. That clear? No? Just imagine Moonves kicking Freston in the balls and you've got the gist. [Variety]
Christian Bale is "close to a deal" to star opposite Russell Crowe in James Mangold's western remake 3:10 to Yuma, which has survived a disastrous history of prolonged languishing in turnaround and rumored Tom Cruise involvement long enough to finally find some financing. [THR]
· Former Project Greenlight superstar and Weinstein survivor Jon Gordon lasts just a year as president of production at Universal, but publicly bears no ill will (yet) over his ankling/shitcanning: "Obviously, this is sudden. There are talks under way and things are not resolved now. I have no animosity towards these guys. I think there is a really good team in place." Gordon plans on spending the weekend designing a full-page Variety ad thanking the studio for the opportunity to be let go. [Variety]
World Trade Center premiered in New York last night, representing a "major test" for Paramount both because it's the first true project produced by the Brad Grey regime and the fact that it contains an obvious metaphor for his leadership of the studio. Is it too soon to joke about Grey piloting planes full of laid-off employees into the Paramount watertower? [Variety]
The Fox pilot The Adventures of Big Handsome Guy and His Little Friend finds it way onto the YouTube circuit, prompting 20th Century Fox Television to announce its intention to hunt down and kill the source of the leak. [THR]
At Tuesday's launch party at the Chateau Marmont penthouse for Variety editor Peter Bart's new book, Paramount's Brad Grey (pictured at right, standing on an apple box) demonstrates that if a studio head looks into an actress's eyes (played here by Nia Vardalos) and expresses seemingly sincere enthusiasm about her next project, she will not notice the hand slowly moving towards her breasts for a casual grope that will last for the duration of their encounter.
Details are somewhere between spotty and nonexistent, but we've received a couple of reports about a fire on the Paramount lot a little earlier this afternoon. All we've heard is that the fire was on a sound stage and that fire trucks (real ones, we hope, and not the "movie magic" kind) were called onto the lot to extinguish it. As far as we can tell, there is no truth to the rumor that the incident was a totally forseeable result of studio head Brad Grey's misguided "Burn Down Stage 21 Ice Cream Social" event, and we obviously welcome reports from those with any information on whether or not every Paramount employee should be quickly—but calmly!—evacuating their place of work.
Variety reports that Paramount has unexpectedly decided to postpone production on the big-budgeted Jim Carrey/Tim Burton project Ripley's Believe It Or Not for "at least a year." If this move seems eerily similar to Fox and Sony's unexpected decision to "pull the plug" on the big-budgeted Jim Carrey/Ben Stiller/Jay Roach project Used Guys, that's only because you haven't heard any of Paramount's executives stress the studio's undying love for Carrey and Burton and promise that the movie isn't dead, it's just taking a nap while they work on the script. Reports Var:
The powers-that-be at the reeling Paramount have devised a novel way of lifting the spirits of employees distressed by the apparent pall that's fallen over the Melrose lot following M:i:III's disappointing™ opening: by giving them the opportunity to spend two minutes and thirty seconds reliving the shock and pain of 9/11 tomorrow:
Fox 411's Roger Friedman reports that things over at Paramount, a place renowned for the oversized lollipops sprouting from its topiary and the rainbows that spontaneous appear over its executives' offices following daily, lunchtime teddy bear showers, have become a little gloomy in the wake of M:i:III's Armageddon-harbinging disastrous studio-crippling disappointing opening weekend:
