Word: diller
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...spin doctors could have been cruel: one of Hollywood's biggest, baddest power brokers resurfaces as head of a rinky-dink cable outfit that hawks kitchen knives and costume jewelry. Yet the move was hailed as a stroke of visionary genius. QVC, Diller announced, would be the basis for a multimedia company poised to exploit all the new technology soon to transform TV: fiber optics and digital compression, which will multiply the number of channels available, and two-way capability, which will allow viewers to interact with the TV set. Home shopping, Diller promises, is just the first...
...industry gurus, it made sense: Diller, with his programming expertise, joining forces with some of cable's leading techies, most notably John Malone, head of Tele-Communications, Inc., the country's largest cable operator. In one swoop, television's fuzzy dreams of an interactive future had acquired both immediacy and show-biz cachet. "I'm only surprised at how stupid the rest of us were not to see it," says Jeffrey Katzenberg, chairman of Walt Disney Studios. Jokes CBS president Howard Stringer: "Already he's scared the Sears catalog out of business...
...Diller's first task is to redesign the on-air look and schedule of QVC, which is currently seen in 45 million homes. (A second QVC-owned service, the Fashion Channel, is seen in 10.5 million.) "If you're looking for sweaters," he says, "you need to be able to find sweaters." He wants to upgrade the product line -- more high-end electronics, less cubic zirconium -- and eventually to introduce self-contained programs. He has been contacted by everyone from top designers like Donna Karan and Calvin Klein to Roseanne Barr (who wants to market a line of large-size...
...Diller, 51, is a tough, frequently rude, sometimes imperious executive. "He's the most confrontational man I know," says HBO chairman Michael Fuchs. "He is fearless. He will ask anybody anything." A micromanager, he is obsessed with everything from program budgets to office design. Fox staff members in Manhattan recall secretaries scurrying around before one Diller visit, trying to replace the red poinsettias with the white ones Diller prefers. His outbursts of temper are legendary. During an argument with Stephen Chao, the former head of production for Fox's owned stations (later fired by Murdoch for hiring a nude male...
...Diller seems mellower these days, his steely gaze softened more often by a gap-toothed smile. Still, there is the cool, peremptory air of a man who has experienced power, and likes it. He talks in precise, carefully judged sentences and demands the same in return. Interviews are interrupted by phone calls that give piquant glimpses of the fabled "killer Diller." (After hearing about some new, unwanted contract language: "Tell him if he does not remove it, he can take the agreement and flush it in the river. If this is a manipulation, nobody's playing...