Studio Arm Wrestling

Politics and discord in the upper reaches of one of our fine entertainment conglomerates.

When Disney purchased Marvel, they not only bought a lot of cool comic book characters, but they also got a hard-driving exec --- Ike Purlmetter -- who likes to do things his way.

Sources now tell me that all three female executives in employments disputes with the Walt Disney Co have settled – including one today — many months after the women lost their jobs in a Department Of Consumer Products reorganization set in motion nearly a year ago by Marvel boss Ike Perlmutter -- who is Disney’s 2nd largest shareholder.

Former DCP head of fashion and home products Pam Lifford, former chief financial officer Anne Gates, and former DCP HR exec Susan Cole Hill were all represented by the same attorney with the Pasadena law firm Hadsell, Stormer, Keeny, Richardson and Rennick which has sued Disney in other employee rights cases. ...

Big fish eat and chase out smaller fish, and Mr. Perlmutter is one of the biggest of the bigs in 21st century Hollywood. (When you're the second biggest corporate owner, you have ... ah ... influence.)

But there is nothing new in this storyline that hasn't been told many times before. Back in the middle eighties, some of the old guard Disney producers and directors in the animation division clashed with the fresh-faced whipper snapper Jeffrey Katzenberg. All of them were ultimately shown the door, but not before at least one walked away with a fat cash settlement.