Word: ovitz
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...lived in seclusion, first on Fisher's Island, N.Y., and then in rural Connecticut. He played the foreign-exchange market and ignored movies, except for producing an occasional project with his friend director Mike Nichols, like 1990's Postcards from the Edge. At one point Michael Ovitz--then the top man at Creative Artists Agency--dropped by to ask if he was satisfied with his life. At the time, says Calley, "I felt I was living a little bit in God's waiting room. I was sleeping 18 hours a day...I like to dream. It was not a sign...
...will be costly for the studio. Early estimates from the plaintiff's camp put that amount around $250 million. Now, following court-ordered discovery detailing Disney's finances and profits, projections run between $300 million and $500 million--much more than the $125 million payout to ousted executive Mike Ovitz...
...fusses over its "guests," Walt Disney Co. can treat its shareholders as if they'd been caught littering the Magic Kingdom. Its CEO, Michael Eisner, already a model for runaway executive pay, made investors livid last year by running up a $100 million tab in hiring and firing Michael Ovitz. More recently the stock has lagged the market, dogged by boycotts by religious groups protesting everything from racy movies to personnel policies and, potentially far worse for shareholders, by concerns that the formula for the Mouse's wholesome animated films has grown stale. Never mind that Disney shares, including dividends...
Most insiders think Tarses' job is safe for now, if only because Disney and ABC can ill afford the embarrassment of another high-profile executive shake-up. Last December, Michael Ovitz, the former superagent who spearheaded the effort to hire Tarses, resigned after a troubled 14-month tenure as Eisner's No. 2 executive. The news division is currently going through a rocky transition, as longtime president Roone Arledge has been promoted and his successor, David Westin, is weathering a messy scandal over his affair with the network's top public relations executive, Sherrie Rollins...
...feeling at Disney--perhaps because of an overzealous reading of management's mood--that the Ellen decision might best be delayed until after last February's Disney stockholders' meeting so that chairman Michael Eisner would be spared having to defend that as well as his salary and Mike Ovitz's lavish payout. "When Disney or ABC were worried about boycotts or this or that, I kept saying to everybody, 'I'm the one who's going to get the biggest boycott,'" says DeGeneres. "'You can cancel the show, you can go and make another one. It's not going...