The Studio Shuffle : The top jobs in Hollywood practically come with an expiration date. What’s life like after leaving that power, money and status on the lot?

Hollywood’s executive suites are designed with a revolving door. A studio head, on average, has a three-year life span on the job, and sometimes only half that time. Since 1991, six of the eight major studios--all but Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures--have suffered major shake ups in their top managerial ranks.

This fall, the industry has seen back-to-back departures by two of its highest-profile players: Sony’s Peter Guber and Disney’s Jeffrey Katzenberg. Earlier this year, TriStar’s movie head Mike Medavoy stepped down to join ex-studio luminaries such as Ned Tanen, Frank Price, Dawn Steel and Alan Ladd Jr. in independent production.

Those who’ve been on top say the highly coveted studio chief post is like none other, extreme in its ups and downs. Price, who formerly headed both Universal and Columbia, compares the job to being president of a small country. More like being in a straitjacket, says Disney’s Joe Roth--at least when he was at 20th Century Fox.

The use of a company plane, automatic deference and mega-ego stroking, and the power to greenlight pictures, are seductive--but they come at a price. The downside includes seven-day weeks, round-the-clock meetings and relentless media scrutiny to which Paramount’s Sherry Lansing has yet to adjust. United Artists chief John Calley cut out from Warner Bros. at the peak of his career because his sole identity was “studio chief.” Frank Mancuso remembered the almost palpable tension that preceeded his departure from Paramount. Steel missed the creativity--and, initially, her own celebrity--after she left Columbia.

So, what happens to the call sheet, the table at Morton’s, and that all-too-fragile sense of self when one relinquishes the reins, which is more by force than by choice? Seven movie executives, all of whom have gone from “in” to “out”--and, in some cases, back to “in” again--reveal what it’s like to be part of that rarefied circle of studio chiefs--and to leave that power behind.