![]() ![]() She was called ‘Sumner in a wig.’ She had a harder hill to climb than she would’ve otherwise if she were a man. How did this affect Shari Redstone, who had to deal with her father and his male executives and is now chair at Paramount Global?Ībrams: Shari was really disrespected within this company. The book documents casual and overt sexism and misogyny at CBS and Viacom. Stewart: Let’s just say there’s a lot of interest. So, I welcome the comparisons with Succession. These are things that so many of us have experienced in one way or another in our own life. At its core, it’s a human story about love, vulnerability, the desire for companionship, the desire for approval from one’s parent who is withholding. It’s difficult to discuss this book without invoking Succession, which was inspired in part by the Redstone family saga.Ībrams: One of the reasons why people love that show is because it’s, at heart, about a dysfunctional family - with multibillion-dollar stakes. Stewart: Imperial CEOs who are surrounded by people that are loyal to them, who are also of their ilk: there’s no reason that that would be unique to entertainment. But even when the New Yorker story comes out, the board is in a chorus, saying, “Well, we’re standing behind Les.” Or, you know, “We all did that.” The corporate governance is revealed.Īre the workplace failures you reveal at CBS and what was then Viacom specific to their cultures and structures, or are they emblematic of larger issues and currents in corporate America? Now, there’s nothing quite that blatant in this case. I mean, to me, the most vivid example was that the head of the compensation committee during the Eisner years was Eisner’s own lawyer. The board is supposed to represent the shareholders. Starting with the fact that the boards were captive of the chief executive. ![]() Are there any parallels between Disney during that period and Viacom during the era covered here? Jim, you previously published DisneyWar, an inquiry into the executive machinations during the two-decade reign of its onetime CEO Michael Eisner. So, I think this is really a window into the vulnerabilities in corporate America, and a window in which there are growing pains to adapt to shifting cultural landscapes that we’re all talking about right now. Also, this is a window into the way one institution was run by aging men who held certain beliefs and treated people a certain way, and how that really affected their ability to run their companies. I think it is very illustrative of the ways that corporate governance can completely fail. It’s a look in real time at a company that was slow to adapt to modernity: technologically, culturally. Rachel Abrams: This book is about the collision of the #MeToo movement with corporate governance. Why should readers care about your telling of this saga, whether they’ve known nothing about it or they’ve been closely following previous press coverage over the past decade? The Hollywood Reporter spoke to Stewart and Abrams about their book, its novelistic cast of characters and what they learned in their reporting. ![]() (Holland and Herzer, who were described in the press at the time as his girlfriends, didn’t respond to the authors’ efforts to interview them.) By the time he ultimately rid himself of them, the authors report, citing a lawsuit, the pair had taken him for more than $150 million. Those two women, Sydney Holland and Manuela Herzer, who for a time toward the end of the mogul’s life resided in Redstone’s Beverly Park mansion, ended up rich. Paramount CEO: "General Entertainment Clearly Makes Sense For Us" As Disney Backs Away ![]()
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