Epix, the new network started by Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM, has brought in Laverne McKinnon as executive vice president of original programming and development. McKinnon was previously president and chief executive officer at Shibui Entertainment.
Steven White has been named West Division president at Comcast, putting him in charge of Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah and Wisconsin. White replaces Brad Dusto.
The Gary Parsons project is over. Parson has stepped down as a director and chairman of the board at Sirius XM Radio, to be replaced by Eddy W. Hartenstein. Hartenstein is also publisher and chief executive officer at the Los Angeles Times.
NBC has added former “Arrested Development” and “Larry Sanders Show” actor Jeffrey Tambor to the cast of its pilot “Rex Is Not Your Lawyer,” about a lawyer who has panic attacks and teaches his clients to represent themselves. Tambor will play the main character’s psychiatrist, who himself suffers from anxiety disorders.
Pilar Lamadrid is special. Or at least she’s now vice president of specials at Telemundo. Lamadrid has been promoted to that position, reporting to senior executive vice president of studios, production and broadcast operations Derek Bond
Tom Sparks, a former radio DJ, died of a stroke earlier this month at age 33 after competing on the ABC reality show “Wipeout.” Sparks complained of pain in his knees after the first part of the show’s obstacle course, and he was told to stop by producers. He was sent to the hospital and then two weeks later suffered the stroke, which doctors say was likely caused by an unnatural clotting of the blood.
Curtis Lavelle Vance was found guilty of capital murder, rape and burglary in the killing former KATV-TV Little Rock anchor Anne Pressly. The jury will now decide if he gets the death penalty or life in prison without parole.
Cue the wedding bells. “Office Space” and “Defying Gravity” star Ron Livingston and “Rachel Getting Married” actress Rosemarie DeWitt were married on Nov. 2 in a ceremony in San Francisco. The two worked together on the Fox drama “Standoff.”
New York Daily News executive editor David Ng and deputy city editor Marilyn Matlick are leaving the paper, according to a report from the New York Post’s Keith J. Kelly. The word is that Ng’s contract wasn’t renewed and that Matlick left voluntarily.
Stephen A. Smith is back in the newspaper business. Smith has rejoined the Philadelphia Inquirer as a general sports columnist, after the paper fired him in January 2008. An arbitrator ruled in August that the paper didn’t have good and reasonable cause to fire Smith and ordered that he be reinstated.
Gary Wenzel is on a health kick. He’s been moved to president of TBWA\WorldHealth, based in New York and reporting to president and chief executive officer of TBWA Worldwide Tom Carroll. Wenzel had been chief operating officer at TBWA\Hakuhodo in Tokyo.
There’s a bit of musical chairs going on at Disney. Tom Staggs and Jay Rasulo have switched positions, meaning Staggs becomes chairman of Disney Parks and Resorts and Rasulo becomes the company’s chief financial officer. Word is Staggs is being groomed as an eventual replacement to chief executive officer Bob Iger, or at least as his No. 2 man.
Larry Brownell is going back to L.A. Brownell, chief executive officer at the Marketing Research Association, has resigned from his position effective Jan. 31, and he plans to move back to his home in Los Angeles. The MRA has formed a committee to search for his replacement.
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