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Today’s Ankler Hot Seat podcast takes you to ground zero in Disney CEO Bob Chapek’s shocking ouster of a top lieutenant, Peter Rice. Hosts Janice Min, Richard Rushfield and Tatiana Siegel are joined by Ankler contributing editor Peter Kiefer to discuss the fallout and what it means for Chapek, who once again finds himself stepping into a PR minefield. Rushfield brings the juice, talking about the ‘gang fight’ within Disney and how Dana Walden’s contract renegotiation underway may have played a part in the timing. However, “the town is outraged at the treatment of Peter Rice after 30 years of service to the Disney-Fox companies, that he’s told to hit the bricks after a seven-minute conversation, where he is told that after 30 years, he’s not a ‘cultural fit,’” he says. “There’s no door prize that he gets with this.” Siegel notes that the Rice case breaks with Hollywood’s soft-landing tradition for other top executives like Warner Bros.’ Toby Emmerich, who was allowed a dignified exit with a production deal. In other topics: Kiefer joins to discuss a new lawsuit rocking L.A.’s elite school community over a “woke” curriculum accused of discriminating against Jews; the team talks Johnny Depp and his post-defamation suit victory lap (he’s got 12.1 million TikTok followers after his first two days on the platform); and finally, they applaud the effective and emotional plea for stricter gun laws in Mr. McConaughey Goes to Washington.
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Pod: Gone in 7 Minutes