Brad Grey

Brad Grey, whose purported demise at Paramount Pictures has been the subject of on-and-off speculation in Hollywood for at least two years, has signed on for five more years as chairman and chief executive of the Melrose Avenue studio. His boss at parent company Viacom Inc., Philippe Dauman, extended Grey's contract to early 2014, although it wasn't set to expire until March 2010.

Paramount Pictures Corp. unveiled plans Tuesday for $700 million in improvements including new sound stages and offices for its storied Hollywood lot. About 1.4 million square feet of development would take place over the next two decades at Paramount's Melrose Avenue headquarters and some adjacent properties owned by the company, if city officials approve. "We have run out of options for creating more production space," said Frederick Huntsberry, Paramount's chief operating officer.

Ever since "Wayne's World" became one of the year's surprise movie hits, grossing more than $175 million worldwide, characters from NBC's "Saturday Night Live" have been in hot demand in Hollywood. "The Coneheads," based on the monotone, beer-guzzling space aliens who became TV cult favorites more than a decade ago, begins production in January. "Hans and Franz Go to Hollywood in Search of Arnold" (as in Schwarzenegger) is also on tap, not to mention the inevitable "Wayne's World 2."

Brad Grey, whose purported demise at Paramount Pictures has been the subject of on-and-off speculation in Hollywood for at least two years, has signed on for five more years as chairman and chief executive of the Melrose Avenue studio. His boss at parent company Viacom Inc., Philippe Dauman, extended Grey's contract to early 2014, although it wasn't set to expire until March 2010.

How avidly is Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey seeking his own Oscar for producing "The Departed" -- a rival studio's movie? Neither Grey nor the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would say Tuesday after the film received an Academy Award nomination. But the first tip-off that he has more than a passing interest in who takes home the statuette should the Warner Bros.

In a lawsuit with potential implications for the relationship between personal managers and their star entertainment clients, comedian Garry Shandling is seeking $100 million from his former manager, Brad Grey, for allegedly failing to protect the comic's interests while furthering his own as a producer.

Even in a week packed with A-list Oscar soirees, Brad Grey's coming-out party as Paramount Pictures' new studio chief should take home the award for luring Hollywood's heaviest hitters. Producer Brian Grazer on Thursday night pulled off a virtually impossible feat. At his Pacific Palisades home, he gathered, under one very big roof, the entertainment and media elite to toast someone whom, come Tuesday, they'll be competing against.

Viacom Inc.'s co-president, Tom Freston, swears he picked the brains of 100 Hollywood insiders about whom to tap to reinvigorate the company's Paramount Pictures. In the end, though, Freston chose somebody he already knew quite well -- a friend who has joined him on travels to Cuba and Brazil. On Thursday, as expected, Freston named top talent manager and producer Brad Grey as Paramount's new chairman and chief executive.

Fresh from landing the biggest name in movies, Steven Spielberg, Paramount Pictures Corp. Chairman Brad Grey is aggressively pursuing the hottest young producer in television, according to three sources close to the talks. Grey, who this week reached an agreement to buy DreamWorks SKG, the company Spielberg co-founded in 1994, has simultaneously been wooing J.J. Abrams, these sources said.

One of the first complaints Brad Grey heard when he took over Paramount Pictures in March was about DVD prices. Workers were charged more to buy the discs on the studio lot than at a Best Buy or Target store. From now on, Grey decreed, prices would be wholesale. "I didn't think it was necessary to make a profit on our employees," Grey said. Grey's fingerprints are everywhere on Paramount's Melrose Avenue lot, even in the company store.

Nearing the end of his third year as chairman of Paramount Pictures, Brad Grey has again realigned his top management team in hopes that the studio can produce more homegrown hits as it braces for a future without its key movie supplier, DreamWorks.

Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey has lost his appeal for a producer credit on "The Departed," a best-picture Oscar nominee released by rival studio Warner Bros. The decision by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which doles out the Oscars, was made Thursday evening at a meeting of about 20 top producers who sit on the organization's executive committee.

How avidly is Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey seeking his own Oscar for producing "The Departed" -- a rival studio's movie? Neither Grey nor the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would say Tuesday after the film received an Academy Award nomination. But the first tip-off that he has more than a passing interest in who takes home the statuette should the Warner Bros.

PARAMOUNT finds itself in a strange place this awards season -- in the race. Stranger still is how it got there. Last week the studio picked up 15 Golden Globe nominations, two more than any competitor, positioning it well for the Oscars. It has four potential best picture contenders. In descending order, they are "Dreamgirls," "Babel," "Flags of Our Fathers" and a long shot, "World Trade Center."

For Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey, the firing of his boss, Tom Freston, is the most unsettling development in his already turbulent 18-month run at the studio. Although Grey, 48, has received a vote of confidence from his new boss, Viacom Chief Executive Philippe P. Dauman, as well as from Chairman Sumner M. Redstone, he has nonetheless lost his strongest advocate at the company. And, as anyone in Hollywood knows, assurances from the corporate brass don't guarantee job security.

In separate interviews with the FBI, Paramount Pictures Chairman Brad Grey provided two accounts of the extent of his acquaintance with rogue Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano, the studio chief's attorneys confirmed Thursday night. But there was nothing inconsistent about the two accounts, the lawyers said.

Methodically, like a chess master thinking 10 moves ahead, Brad Grey has spent years plotting his entry into Hollywood's upper echelons. On Thursday, he finally arrived. As expected, the 47-year-old manager-producer was named chairman and chief executive of Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures -- the latest in a series of carefully calculated steps to the top. In his 20s and new to Los Angeles, Grey couldn't even afford to rent office space.

As Brad Grey takes the helm of historic Paramount Pictures today, there's at least one person who hasn't been blowing air kisses his way: KTLA-TV Channel 5 entertainment reporter Zorianna Kit. "Now, interesting choice in hiring Brad Grey since his film credentials are extremely limited," Kit reported on Channel 5's "News at 10" on Jan. 6, the day Grey's hiring was announced. "Has anyone seen 'View From the Top' with Gwyneth Paltrow?" Kit continued as a clip rolled.

Viacom Inc.'s top brass gave Brad Grey, chief executive of Paramount Motion Picture Group, a vote of confidence Monday despite the unwanted attention the studio is getting from his links to indicted private investigator Anthony Pellicano. In their first interview on the subject, Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone and CEO Tom Freston said Grey's ties to Pellicano were fully examined by the company before he joined the studio more than a year ago.