Bob Iger

After 38 years, the end for Dick Cook came in less than 10 minutes. The chairman of Walt Disney Studios, who began his career as a Monorail operator at Disneyland and went on to launch billion-dollar franchises like "Pirates of the Caribbean" and woo filmmaker Steven Spielberg to the studio, didn't know what was in store when his boss casually mentioned Tuesday that he wanted to see him for a few minutes later in the day. Cook had back-to-back meetings...

Walt Disney Co. has begun the process of laying off about 150 people who work at the company's movie studio. Analysts said that the layoffs, which were confirmed by the Burbank-based company Wednesday, are probably related to redundancies created by Disney's recent acquisitions of Marvel Entertainment in 2009 and Lucasfilm in 2012. “I am sure there is some overlap from those acquisitions,” said Disney analyst Harold Vogel, president of Vogel Capital Management. PHOTOS: Hollywood Backlot moments The cuts, which are expected to affect the studio's marketing and home entertainment divisions and possibly other areas, are believed to be the result of an internal corporate review initiated by Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger.

Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger must act quickly to replace studio head Dick Cook to avoid further destabilizing the Burbank-based movie operation. Cook's abrupt departure Friday is upsetting employees, many of whom are finding it difficult to focus on work because they are anxious about their future. In addition, stars and filmmakers do not like to face uncertainty and want assurances that their projects will remain on track. Iger is not tipping his hand about whom he will name to fill the job. One executive that's a subject of speculation is Disney Channel President Rich Ross.

CBS is home to "Two Broke Girls" and one rich chief executive. Leslie Moonves, the CEO of CBS, had a 2012 compensation package valued at $62.2 million, according to the company's proxy statement filed Friday. Although that makes Moonves the highest-compensated media chief executive, it is also a decline from 2011, when his pay package was worth almost $70 million. PHOTOS: Hollywood backlot moments Moonves had a base salary of $3.5 million and received a bonus of $27 million.

In the basements of the Disneyland and Paradise Pier hotels in Anaheim, big flat-screen monitors hang from the walls in rooms where uniformed crews do laundry. The monitors are like scoreboards, with employees' work speeds compared to one another. Workers are listed by name, so their colleagues can see who is quickest at loading pillow cases, sheets and other items into a laundry machine. It should come as no surprise that at the happiest place on Earth, not all the employees are smiling.

Regarding "Pixar's Creative Chief to Have Special Power at Disney: Greenlighting Movies," Jan. 27: Why didn't Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger just steal John Lasseter away from Pixar Animation Studios and set him up in his own shop? I guarantee it would have cost the shareholders far less than $7 billion. Jon Crowley Sherman Oaks

In a year when Bank of America's stock plunged 58% and the company announced plans to lay off 30,000 employees, chief executive Brian Moynihan's compensation package more than quadrupled to nearly $8.1 million. Here's why: In 2011, the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank recorded $1.4 billion in profit after losing $2.2 billion the year before. So far this year, the stock is up more than 70%. So although the bank's compensation and benefits committee kept Moynihan's salary the same at $950,000, he also landed $6.1 million in performance-reliant stock.