Unscripted; The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
Stewart, James B. and Abrams, Rachel
Language: English
Published by Penguin Press, New York, 2023
- First Edition
- Hardcover
- Used
Seller: Ground Zero Books, Ltd., Silver Spring, MD, U.S.A.Ground Zero Books, Ltd.
AbeBooks seller since August 14, 1998
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Add to basketItem description from seller
xvi, [2], 398 pages. Illustrations (color). Notes. Index. James Bennett Stewart (born c. 1952) is an American lawyer, journalist, and author. James B. Stewart is the author of Deep State, Tangled Webs, Heart of a Soldier, Blind Eye, Blood Sport, and the blockbuster Den of Thieves. He is currently a columnist for The New York Times and a professor at Columbia Journalism School. In 1988, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on the stock market crash and insider trading. Stewart's book Blind Eye: The Terrifying Story Of A Doctor Who Got Away With Murder, won the 2000 Edgar Award in the Best Fact Crime category. DisneyWar, his book on Michael Eisner's reign at Disney, won the Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book. Rachel Abrams was a reporter for The New York Times. In 2018, she was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for reporting that exposed sexual harassment and misconduct. In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global's entertainment empire hung precariously in the balance. Its founder, ninety-three-year-old Sumner M. Redstone, was facing a very public lawsuit brought by a former romantic companion, Manuela Herzer, which placed Sumner's health and judgment under a harsh light. When his daughter, Shari, took control of the business, she faced the hostility of boards who for years had heard Sumner disparage her. Les Moonves, the CEO of CBS, schemed with his allies to strip Shari of power. News began to leak of Moonves's involvement in instances of sexual misconduct. Unscripted lays bare the battle for power at any priceâ"and the carnage that ensued. Derived from a Kirkus review: Page-turning exposé of very bad behavior in the top echelons of the entertainment industry. If you need a tale of intrigue, infighting, and crime, this is it. Veteran reporters Stewart and Abrams uncover the untoward doings of the heads of CBS and Viacom: Les Moonves, "the first chief executive of a major publicly traded company forced to resign for predatory sexual conduct," and Sumner Redstone, a much-feared business leader who threw it all away to satisfy his own urges. Then in his ninth decade and, by the authors' account, in evident decline, Redstone courted women young enough to be his granddaughtersâ"and never mind that he had grandchildren of his own who were on the way to being bilked out of their inheritances by two of his paramours, who, one bragged, "could get [him] to do pretty much whatever she wanted." Amid all the sexual and financial misadventures came a complex dance to merge the two corporations. "Given Sumner's mental state and communication issues," the authors write, "it's hard to know how much of the intricacies of the proposed Paramount deal he knew or understood." Enter Redstone's often estranged daughter, Shari, a sharp negotiator and sole hero of this book, who went up against both her father and Moonves, cleaned house on the domestic and corporate fronts, and, amid a flurry of lawsuits, prevailed. Moonves and the parasites were gone, and the newly restructured Paramount was emergent, if well behind Netflix and Amazon, in the streaming-services market. To call it sordid is to undervalue the word, but Stewart and Abrams serve up a sharp-pointed morality tale that excoriates a corporate culture that "had largely ignored the misconduct of so many rich and powerful men so long as they delivered profits and higher stock prices." An ugly yarn full of money-grubbing villains, irresistible in all its inglorious nastiness.…
Seller Inventory # 87969
- Title
- Unscripted; The Epic Battle for a Media Empire and the Redstone Family Legacy
- Author
- Stewart, James B. and Abrams, Rachel
- Publisher
- Penguin Press, New York
- Publication year
- 2023
- Condition
- Very good
- Dust jacket
- Very good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 1984879421
- ISBN 13
- 9781984879424
- Illustrator
- Jorg Meyer (Authors photograph) and Justin Metz (J
- Edition
- 1st Printing [stated].
"Addicted to Succession? Well, here's the real thing." - The Hollywood Reporter
"Jaw-dropping . . . an epic tale of toxic wealth and greed populated by connivers and manipulators." --The New York Times Book Review, Editors' Choice
The shocking inside story of the struggle for power and control at Paramount Global, the multibillion-dollar entertainment empire controlled by the Redstone family, and the dysfunction, misconduct, and deceit that threatened the future of the company, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists who first broke the news
In 2016, the fate of Paramount Global's entertainment empire hung precariously in the balance. Its founder and head, ninety-three-year-old Sumner M. Redstone, was facing a very public lawsuit brought by a former romantic companion, Manuela Herzer, which placed Sumner's deteriorating health and questionable judgment under a harsh light.
As an all-powerful media mogul, Sumner had been a demanding boss, and an even more demanding father. When his daughter, Shari, took control of the business, she faced the hostility of boards who for years had heard Sumner disparage her. Les Moonves, the CEO of CBS, schemed with his allies on the board to strip Shari of power. But while he publicly battled Shari, news began to leak of Moonves's involvement in multiple instances of sexual misconduct, and he began working behind the scenes to try to make the stories disappear.
Unscripted is an explosive and unvarnished look at the usually secret inner workings of two public companies, their boards of directors, and a wealthy, dysfunctional family in the throes of seismic changes. From the Pulitzer Prize- winning journalists James B. Stewart and Rachel Abrams, Unscripted lays bare the battle for power at any price--and the carnage that ensued.
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Rachel Abrams was a media reporter for The New York Times and is now a senior producer and reporter for the television series The New York Times Presents. In 2018, she was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for public service for reporting that exposed sexual harassment and misconduct.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
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