The Women Who Run Hollywood

I'm an expert in hookers," Shirley Maclaine once said. She was speaking about the limited repertoire for actresses in Hollywood. Things have improved a bit over the years for female stars, but behind the camera, it's a different story. Consider this: according to statistics recently compiled by Martha M. Lauzen, a professor at San Diego State University, men directed 90% of the top 250 movies released in 2001, while the ranks of female directors (and writers) dwindled from the previous year.

Those numbers remind us that the movie industry remains at its core a boys' club. Yet for the first time in history, women are now running half of the six major movie studios. Sherry Lansing is celebrating her 10th anniversary as chairman of Paramount Pictures, ruling the studio with an iron fiscal fist. And her two younger colleagues--Amy Pascal at Columbia and Stacey Snider at Universal--are known to be every bit as brazen as their male counterparts when it comes to gambling with $200 million production and marketing budgets. All three women are working mothers with decidedly feminine personalities and gentle management styles. And all three are experiencing remarkable success, making them a dominant force in Hollywood at a time when the movie industry is enjoying perhaps its most impressive winning streak ever. "Three women are running companies that make a product that has a huge influence on the culture," says Spider-Man producer Laura Ziskin. "That's historic, because they're going to do it differently than men, and it's going to have an impact." It already has. Here are the women who are determining how you spend your Saturday nights.

AMY PASCAL

It has been said that you can gauge her mood by whether her hair is straight (foul) or curly (ebullient). These days her mane is growing wild, with good reason. She and her husband, New York Times reporter Bernard Weinraub, have their first child, and with hits like Panic Room, Spider-Man and Men in Black II, the chairman of Sony's Columbia Pictures has generated more than $1 billion at the box office this year. Some in Hollywood are skeptical about the profitability of films with such expensive stars and special effects, but her summer slate of pictures has broken all records. "People want spectacle in the summertime," insists Pascal, 44, "and obviously the ancillary markets [like video and DVD] will be gigantic."

Pascal, who cultivates a disarmingly dizzy but likable persona, originally became known for "chick flicks"--with strong mainstream instincts--in the early 1990s. As a Columbia vice president, she championed such hits as Single White Female and A League of Their Own. She has always been a popular figure who relates easily to creative types. "Amy's emotional," says a male producer who has worked with her recently, "and that's good and bad, but she can get down in the trenches and help you work out a story." Her own ascent to power, however, hasn't been easy. Though she was named chairman in 1999, she seemed to lack the golden gut of the most successful studio chiefs. She released a string of uninspired teen movies and such duds as the 2000 Sandra Bullock-goes-to-rehab drama 28 Days. Guessing when she would be fired by her Sony bosses became a favorite Hollywood pastime.