Women To Be Reckoned With
Paramount Pictures chairman Sherry Lansing tops this year's list of The Hollywood Reporter's 100 most powerful women in Hollywood.
"When she wants to pursue a project that is potentially risky, her tendency to share the financial burden with other studios helps counterbalance the risk," said Christy Grosz, the trade publication's feature department managing editor. "It's that business savvy and goodwill within the entertainment community that pushed her to the top of this year's Power 100."
Lansing got into show business as an actress, eventually switched to the production side of the business and in 1980 at 20th Century-Fox became the first woman to head up a major movie studio, as president of production.
Two years later, she teamed up with Stanley Jaffe to form Jaffe-Lansing Productions, which made films including "Fatal Attraction," went on to form her own production company, and in 1992 became chairman of the Paramount Pictures Motion Picture Group, which along with CBS, is part of Viacom.
Stacey Snider, who runs Universal Pictures, came in at No. 2 on the Hollywood Reporter's most powerful women list, and Amy Pascal, vice chairwoman of Sony Pictures, is number three.
Other celebrities on this year's list of women to be reckoned with in the entertainment business include talk-show host Oprah Winfrey (8), actress Julia Roberts (12), singer-actress Madonna (60), "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling (64), and the twin teenage actresses and entrepreneurs Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen (98).
The list also recognized the women who head entertainment programming for four of the six broadcast networks: CBS's Nancy Tellem (4); Fox's Gail Berman (6); ABC's Susan Lyne (7) and UPN's Dawn Ostroff (14).
The women who lead the four major entertainment guilds also made the list: Kathleen Kennedy, president of the Producer's Guild of America (46); Melissa Gilbert, president of the Screen Actors Guild (89); Martha Coolidge, president of the Directors Guild of America (96) and Victoria Riskin, president of the Writers Guild of America (97).