Executive Search ContinuesThe search goes on for...

Executive Search Continues

The search goes on for someone to fill the job of slain Live Entertainment Chairman Jose Menendez. But there’s no shortage of prospects, according to executive recruiter Harry Usher.

“It’s going well. There’s quite a bit of interest,” says Usher, managing director of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Los Angeles office, which is handling the search.

Menendez, chief executive of the video distribution and retail firm, was murdered with his wife in their Beverly Hills home last August. Police investigators haven’t identified any suspect or motive.

Usher says he’s talked with “dozens” of potential replacements and has found many are willing--if wary.

“Initially, people respond differently, ranging from ‘Wow’ to . . . Well, it doesn’t matter what they say. No one has a bodyguard (at Live) or is concerned for his own safety. I think it’s pretty clear that (the murder) has nothing to do with the business.”

Menendez was paid a base salary of $500,000 and bonuses of up to $350,000 a year. His replacement’s salary “will have to be negotiated,” Usher says.

Yet Another ‘Best’ List

Hilton Hotels Corp. has begun a “Best-Stressed List” that recognizes people for their ability to balance the pressure of daily stress with leisure and family activities.

The inaugural winners were Batman, “who has weathered the years gracefully”; actress Candice Bergen, “quality time with family”; former First Lady Betty Ford, who “follows a relaxation regime”; hockey star Wayne Gretzky, “proven to be worth the wait”; United Airlines Capt. Al Haynes, the pilot in the Sioux City, Iowa, crash and a softball coach in Seattle; sports pro Bo Jackson, who finds time for duck hunting and “collecting leaves”; former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, who has some new-found leisure time; Jane Pauley of “The Today Show,” who also may have some spare time; Chief Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who “has been called uncommonly calm,” and diva Beverly Sills, who “scaled new heights in her career.”

What do the winners get? A weekend at the Hilton of their choice and a pink-and-

blue statuette.

Beer Battle Comes to a Head

Call it a brewhaha.

The clamor began late last month when Miller Brewing Co. announced that on Jan. 1 it will introduce Miller Sharp’s, calling it the country’s first non-alcoholic beer “with real beer taste.”

The key to preserving the taste, Miller said, is to brew the beer at a temperature too low to produce anything more than a scant amount of alcohol. (Under federal standards, a beverage is considered non-alcoholic if less than one-half of 1% of its contents are alcohol.) That way, Miller said, no one ever has to remove the alcohol and thus hurt the flavor.

Miller’s assessment apparently made G. Heileman Brewing Co. hopping mad. Heileman--which makes Kingsbury, the nation’s top-selling non-alcoholic beer--shot back that the true brewing secret is knowing when in the brewing process to remove the alcohol.

Heileman Vice President Hans Reuther said in a prepared statement that to be both crisp and refreshing, “Beer must go through full fermentation and maturation cycles. Only then should the removal of alcohol take place.”

To Gary Hemphill, editor of Beverage Industry magazine, all the commotion seemed like more of a Heileman headline-grabbing stunt than anything else. “They probably woke up and saw that Miller got the publicity,” Hemphill said.

He added: “The only thing that really matters is what consumers think.”