Major Comings and Goings in Hollywood's Big Leagues

For Whom the Ax Falls

A A A Comments (0) By Nikki Finke Wednesday, Mar 19 2008

Disney, for a long time, didn’t replace Dennis Rice when he left his job in the motion-picture division as senior V.P. of publicity to come over to United Artists as czar of marketing. Then, last May, the studio quietly promoted Teri Meyer to the newly created position of executive V.P. of worldwide publicity for Walt Disney Studios motion-picture marketing, and Jasmine Madatian, even more quietly, to head of domestic publicity. But Paramount still has a big (and high-paying) PR opening, ever since Janet Hill was dumped as Brad Grey’s exec V.P. of corporate communications last June. Meanwhile, NYC-based Steven Rubenstein (the son of PR legend Howard, a.k.a. “The Fixer”) has been fielding media calls for Brad while the studio continues to interview. Steven, in turn, is looking to add a bigtime entertainment PR exec for Rubenstein Communications.

There’ve also been PR changes at two of Hollywood’s talent agencies. David Shane recently left ICM after three years as senior V.P. of corporate communications to take the hefty job of senior V.P. and head of the corporate and entertainment practices at Weber Shandwick, Los Angeles, where ICM is now a client. (Shane deftly disarmed me when I kept reloading during the Limato-Silbermann war.) His No. 2 at ICM, Michelle Suess, was promoted to V.P. of corporate communications. At William Morris, Christian Muirhead was upped to the agency’s V.P. of corporate communications after Cecile Ablack didn’t last long as Jim Wiatt’s hand-picked senior V.P. of global corporate communications. (Words cannot express how I disliked this rude bitch.)