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- <text id=90TT0200>
- <title>
- Jan. 22, 1990: Steely Dawn Calls It A Day
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- Jan. 22, 1990 A Murder In Boston
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- BUSINESS, Page 50
- Steely Dawn Calls It a Day
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Dawn Steel, the first woman to run a Hollywood studio, knew
- she would have only a short time to prove herself in that
- notoriously tenuous job. But when she quit last week after two
- years as president of Columbia Pictures, she had made her mark.
- After taking over the job from prickly British producer David
- Puttnam, who had alienated Hollywood's power brokers, Steel put
- Columbia back on track by enlisting such top names as director
- Mike Nichols and megastar Michael Douglas.
- </p>
- <p> A former merchandising director for Penthouse, Steel rose
- to production chief at Paramount in 1985. At Columbia she fired
- a few blanks, notably the $23 million Casualties of War. But
- she scored major hits with When Harry Met Sally...(gross
- revenues: $92 million) and Ghostbusters II ($112 million),
- pushing Columbia from last place among the major studios in
- 1988 to No. 3 last year. Even so, Steel, 43, figured her job
- was in jeopardy when Sony bought Columbia last September and
- installed producers Peter Guber and Jon Peters as co-chairmen.
- She departs with a pay package said to be worth $7 million.
- While her abrasiveness has earned her the label "Steely Dawn,"
- her star may keep on rising. Among the studios reportedly
- negotiating with her are Disney, 20th Century Fox, Universal
- and Warner Bros.
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
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