Leading Lady: Sherry Lansing and the Making of a Hollywood Groundbreaker

by Stephen Galloway

  “Could I have fought for my job?”: Ibid.

  Mel Karmazin, Viacom’s president and CEO: Lawrie Mifflin, “Making a Media Giant: Viacom to Buy CBS, Forming 2d Largest Media Company,” New York Times, September 8, 1999.

  “Mel had his own narrative of what went wrong”: Author interview with Jonathan Dolgen.

  “Mel had enough, and Sumner kind of punched his ticket”: Author interview with Tom Freston.

  “Sumner pulled me into the Carlyle Hotel”: Ibid.

  “We were trying to figure out what to do”: Ibid. CBS chairman Leslie Moonves declined to comment. Mel Karmazin did not respond to requests for comment.

  “Dolgen and Freston always had a bad relationship”: Author interview with Scott Rudin.

  “Sumner called me”: Author interview with Jonathan Dolgen.

  “I was [stunned]”: Author interview with Tom Freston.

  “Sherry was a success at a time when the business”: Author interview with Scott Rudin.

  “That’s when I saw her depressed for the first time”: Author interview with Lynda Obst.

  “We talked about [her leaving] for five years”: Author interview with Bryan Lourd.

  Her spirit had fled the enterprise: The recollection is Lansing’s. “That’s not my style,” said Freston. Author interview with Tom Freston.

  Freston was “dumbfounded” when he found out: Ibid.

  In a story headlined: Claudia Eller, “Hollywood Pioneer Lansing Is Poised to Exit Paramount,” Los Angeles Times, November 2, 2004.

  Rosenfelt was on an exercise bicycle at the gym: Author interview with Karen Rosenfelt.

  “The way Sherry left was like an incredibly produced movie”: Author interview with Michelle Manning.

  CHAPTER 21

  In fact, he was reaching out to tell her: Megan Garvey, “State Bets on the Promise of Stem Cell Research,” Los Angeles Times, November 4, 2004.

  “Parts of the Christian right were saying”: Author interview with Steve Westly.

  She was “a no-brainer”: Author interview with Steve Westly.

  “Our lawsuit focused on a feature of Prop 71”: Author interview with Catherine Short.

  Two lawsuits were filed in California courts: Lee Romney, “Court Asked to Expedite Stem Cell Research Suits,” Los Angeles Times, June 15, 2006.

  “The board members of the initiative didn’t think”: Author interview with Bob Klein.

  “The brilliance of the opposition was just to wear everyone down”: “Our goal was to win, not to drag things out,” said Short. “Our goal was to have Prop. 71 declared unconstitutional pursuant to Article XVI, section 3, of the state constitution.” Author interview with Catherine Short.

  “The September 9, 2005, meeting”: Ralph Brave, “Stem-Cell Wonderland,” Sacramento News and Review, October 20, 2005.

  “With the money we’d raised”: Author interview with Bob Klein.

  In November 2006, CIRM announced: CIRM, “$181 Million Headed for Stem Cell Institute: California Philanthropists Extend Support to Stem Cell Research, as $150 Million Loan Clears Last Hurdle,” posted November 20, 2006. www.cirm.ca.gov/about-cirm/newsroom/press-releases/11202006/181-million-headed-stem-cell-institute-california.

  “We had very little”: Author interview with Catherine Short.

  In December 2005, the plaintiffs: Author interview with Bob Klein.

  In an initial ruling in April 2006: Lee Romney, “Judge Upholds Stem Cell Initiative,” Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2006.

  “This was a states’ rights issue”: Author interview with Bob Klein.

  On May 16, 2007: California Family Bioethics Council v. California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, 147 Cal. App. 4th 1319 (2007).

  “This is the end of the road”: Mary Engel, “Hurdle to Stem Cell Funds Cleared,” Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2007.

  Days later, the bond sale moved forward: Author interview with Steve Westly.

  “It wasn’t so much an [individual] opponent”: Author interview with Barry Munitz.

  She became one of the leaders: Jennifer Steinhauer, “Deal Will Turn a Los Angeles Hospital Private,” New York Times, November 20, 2009.

  There was only one blot on those halcyon days: Dave McNary, “Par’s Grey Area,” Variety, July 12, 2005.

  But that was counterbalanced by the blockbuster returns: War of the Worlds earned $592 million, while Mission: Impossible III made $398 million (both are worldwide numbers); boxofficemojo.com.

  Costs had skyrocketed at the UC campuses: Richard C. Paddock, “Less to Bank On at State Universities,” Los Angeles Times, October 7, 2007.

  “We were almost $1 billion behind”: Author interview with Mark Yudof.

  “Sherry did not want to see tuition go up”: Author interview with Jerry Brown.

  “During two days of protests at UCLA”: Kevin O’Leary, “Tuition Hikes, Protests in California and Elsewhere,” Time, November 21, 2009.

  “They surrounded the building”: Author interview with Mark Yudof.

  The protests continued deep into 2011: Chris O’Brien, “How One Student’s Pepper Spray Photo Became an Internet Meme,” San Jose Mercury News, November 23, 2011.

  “She met personally with students”: Author interview with Larry Gordon.

  “She [was] a good advocate for UC”: Author interview with Jerry Brown.

  “The first hospital claimed I was cured”: Author interview with William Friedkin.

  “I had my very personal experience with my husband”: Author interview with Katie Couric.

  Joining three other women to create a television special: Fraser, alone among the women, did not respond to requests for comment.

  Things got off to a shaky start at a breakfast meeting: Author interview with Sue Schwartz.

  In another meeting, “I was feeling really bad energy”: Author interview with Rusty Robertson.

  “We didn’t just double-team them”: Author interview with Katie Couric.

  “In the midst of this meeting, Sherry Lansing approaches me”: Author interview with Phillip Sharp.

  “As everything fell into place with the final network commitments”: Author interview with Kathleen Lobb.

  “That hadn’t been done before”: Author interview with Phillip Sharp.

  “We established a goal of raising $100 million”: Author interview with Lisa Paulsen.

  “We sat down, and Sherry and Laura did the pitch”: Author interview with Ellen Ziffren.

  “We were coming from our home in Phoenix”: Author interview with Bud Selig.

  “We used to have such wild dreams”: “2008 Stand Up to Cancer Telecast,” YouTube, posted November 2, 2010, https://youtu.be/0biMPOMFcoA.

  That broadcast led to pledges of $101 million: Author interview with Kathleen Lobb.

  By the end of 2016, they had obtained almost $500 million: Ibid.

  “If those nine ladies hadn’t started Stand Up to Cancer”: Author interview with David Gobin.

  “It’s like any recipe”: Author interview with Sue Schwartz.

  Only one of Lansing’s Stand Up to Cancer friends: Aljean Harmetz, “Laura Ziskin, Producer of ‘Spider-Man’ and ‘Pretty Woman,’ Dies at 61,” New York Times, June 13, 2011.

  On June 28, 2011: Gregg Kilday, “Tobey Maguire, Sally Field Pay Tribute to Laura Ziskin at Memorial Service,” Hollywood Reporter, June 29, 2011.

  Melnick had died two years earlier: Douglas Martin, “Daniel Melnick, Hollywood Producer, Dies at 77,” New York Times, October 16, 2009.

  James Aubrey, one of her mentors: Burt A. Folkart, “James Aubrey Jr., Former Head of CBS and MGM, Dies,” Los Angeles Times, September 11, 1994.

  “She paved the way for the tsunami of women”: Meryl Streep, email message to author, June 23, 2014.

  “She was tough, but she had a lot of grace in her toughness”: Author interview with Jane Fonda.

  He spoke about her distinguished work: “Sherry Lansing Receiving the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award,” YouTube, posted
February 4, 2016, https://youtu.be/bTpfh38kvdQ.

  STEPHEN GALLOWAY is a senior editor with the Hollywood Reporter. He was named Entertainment Journalist of the Year in 2013.

  What’s next on

  your reading list?

  Discover your next

  great read!

  *

  Get personalized book picks and up-to-date news about this author.

  Sign up now.