BU Alum Named Most Powerful Woman in Hollywood

In what has become one of the entertainment industry’s most closely watched (and fiercely waged) competitions, the Hollywood Reporter Wednesday announced its annual Women in Entertainment Power 100 list. Topping the list was Bonnie Hammer (CGS’69, COM’71, SED’75), chairman of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment. A total of seven BU alums were selected, including Nancy Dubuc (COM’91), president and CEO of A+E Networks, who ranked third, and Nina Tassler (CFA’79), CBS Entertainment president and chairman, who took sixth place.

The Hollywood Reporter announced its 2014 Women in Entertainment Power 100 list at an invitation-only breakfast at Milk Studios in Los Angeles, which was attended by the likes of Angelina Jolie, an Oscar contender for best director for Unbroken, and Shonda Rhimes, the creator of TV hits Gray’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder. The list, which is published in the December 2014 issue of the magazine, comprises the industry’s top “mavens, up-and-comers, and game changers.”

Editors and senior staff members at the Hollywood Reporter hashed out the rankings over the course of eight meetings, according to a behind-the-scenes story about the list in Wednesday’s New York Times. Rankings were largely determined by cold, hard numbers—the number of employees each woman oversees, their box office results, and how much clout they wield in the industry.

Other alums on the list were Bonnie Arnold (COM’78), a film producer at DreamWorks Studios, who was number 38; Beth Roberts (LAW’83), vice president of business operations at NBC Universal Cable Entertainment, who tied for 56th place; Hilary Estey McLoughlin (COM’84), president of creative affairs at CBS Television Distribution, listed at number 67; and Tracey Jacobs (CAS’79), board member and partner at United Talent Agency, ranked 68th.

For those in Hollywood, the importance of being selected for the list can’t be overstated, says Bill Linsman, site director of Boston University’s Study Abroad site in LA. “The headline for Brooks Barnes’ article in the New York Times states it succinctly: ‘What Powerful Hollywood Women Really Want (Besides an Oscar),’” he says. “The jockeying for white space and a good position in the trades starts very early in the calendar year; this year’s selection was indeed a well-deserved bonanza for Boston University. Why? Put simply, it is a great school and has been for a long time.…The skill sets of this group have been very much appreciated in entertainment and media in New York and Los Angeles epicenters. There are a healthy number of accomplished executives, and they are loyal to their alma mater.”

Hammer, who was number two on last year’s list, took top honors from Anne Sweeney, the departed cochairman of Disney Media Networks, who had held the number one spot for 8 of the last 10 years.

“I’d be dishonest if I didn’t say it’s oftentimes harder to be in that boardroom,” said Hammer in the Hollywood Reporter cover story, referring to her belief that women still have to struggle with a glass ceiling in the entertainment industry. “But I’ve learned a lot, and one of my [strategies] is that I don’t try to be a guy, and I don’t feel I have to be a bitch to get my voice heard.”

The photography major began her career taking photos on the set of Infinity Factory, a show produced by Boston public television station WGBH. She was promoted to a producer on the show and went on to produce other PBS shows, including This Old House and the children’s program Zoom. She then moved to two cable networks, Lifetime and USA, where she transformed World Wrestling Entertainment into a major franchise, before becoming president of Syfy and USA.

The Hollywood Reporter placed Hammer at the top of their Power 100 list because she delivers: “Her group of 10 networks and 2 cable studios is expected to post profits of $2.7 billion this year, up 9 percent from 2013 and accounting for more than half of NBCUniversal’s total haul,” the magazine wrote. “In a given week, 129 million Americans tune into one of Hammer’s channels, many of which also have substantial global reach.”

Dubuc announced in August that A+E Networks would buy a 10 percent stake in the millennial favorite Vice Media for $250 million. As president and CEO of A+E Networks, a title she assumed last year, Dubuc oversees such channels as A&E, Lifetime, and History. She presides over a $26 billion portfolio that reaches more than 330 million households.

While at BU, Dubuc was a member of the Daily Free Press. She worked on WGBH’s This Old House before becoming a series producer on the Discovery Channel’s Discover Magazine. She joined A&E Television Networks in 1999 and became president of the History Channel and Lifetime Network in 2007.

Tassler, a University trustee, became the chairman of CBS in February. Under her tenure, she helped to bring Thursday Night Football to CBS (with the help of her boss, Les Moonves [Hon.’06]), replaced outgoing Late Show host David Letterman with Stephen Colbert, and continued to oversee such top-rated shows as The Big Bang Theory and NCIS.

She began her career in entertainment working for a nonprofit theater company in New York City, where she also tried to break into acting. She eventually became a talent agent at the Irv Schechter Company and later at the Triad Artists Group, where she represented such stars as Tony Curtis and Meredith Baxter. Tassler then joined Lorimar Television, now part of Warner Bros., before coming to CBS in 1997.

Arnold has been a producer for a number of hugely profitable films, among them Toy Story, The Addams Family, and the How to Train Your Dragon franchise; collectively, the films she has worked on have earned more than $2 billion at the worldwide box office. Arnold told the Hollywood Reporter that she knew she wanted to work in entertainment while still a student at BU, where she interned at WGBH.

Roberts tied for 56th place alongside Deborah Barak, executive vice president of business operations at CBS Network Television Entertainment Group, and Jana Winograde, executive vice president and head of business operations at ABC Entertainment Group. At NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, Roberts oversees business and legal operations for 10 cable networks and two studios. She told the Hollywood Reporter that it was after taking a screenwriting course while still a real estate lawyer that convinced her to pursue a career in the film and television industry.

McLoughlin moved to CBS in 2013 after 27 years at Telepictures/Warner Brothers and almost immediately made an impact, presiding over the reorganizations of Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, and repositioning Rachael Ray and The Doctors. She says her industry role model is fellow BU alum and sixth-place winner Nina Tassler.

Jacobs, the Hollywood Reporter notes, is widely considered to be Hollywood’s most powerful female agent, representing clients such as Johnny Depp, Oscar-winning director and screenwriter Alfonso Cuarón, and actors Benedict Cumberbatch and Kristen Wiig. For the Hollywood Reporter Top 100 issue, Jacobs listed as her proudest accomplishment “saving” Black Mass, the upcoming film starring Depp as the notorious Boston mobster Whitey Bulger, based on the book Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI, and a Devil’s Deal, cowritten by Dick Lehr, a College of Communication journalism professor, and Gerard O’Neill (COM’70). To her, she told the magazine, being a feminist in Hollywood means “equal or better pay.”

Additional reporting by Leslie Friday.