Tarses: Nowhere to Go, so She’s Staying

Jamie Tarses, the embattled president of ABC Entertainment, would like to be paid off after being demoted last month as the network’s highest-ranking programming executive. The network would rather she quit.

But in the opportunistic community that is Hollywood, it appears that Tarses will be staying put--at least in the short run--because the two sides can’t agree on a settlement and because, in a strange way, they both need each other.

Sources close to Tarses expect the 33-year-old executive to continue in her job at least until the shows she developed for fall are launched, in large part because she has nowhere to go. Her new boss, Stuart Bloomberg, chairman of ABC Entertainment, apparently has encouraged her to stay, presumably because he would be short-handed without her and has been mostly out of the loop during the development season.

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“She has to make it work, because she isn’t going to walk out with a golden parachute and has nowhere to go,” said one agent.

Despite speculation that she might be history this week, Tarses, a source of controversy since she took her job a year ago, is scheduled to take the stage today with Bloomberg to discuss the network’s fall schedule with the nation’s top television critics, who are gathered in Pasadena this month.

The presentation is Tarses’ first public appearance since Bloomberg’s promotion last month.

Although top management at ABC Inc. and its parent, Walt Disney Co., are furious with the disclosures made in a scathing cover story on Tarses that appeared last Sunday in the New York Times Magazine, and briefly considered settling her out of the four years remaining on her contract, ABC executives say talks are not ongoing.

Sources say ABC President Robert Iger was particularly outraged to discover that Tarses had talked to him by phone without disclosing that the magazine reporter was in her office. Sources say Iger considered dismissing her for violating a confidentiality clause in her contract after she refused to accept a severance package considerably more modest than the $4 million she demanded.

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The article described how Tarses once failed to return Iger’s calls because she was mad at him and stood him up for breakfast when she overslept.

Many television industry sources saw the piece as evidence of Tarses’ lack of judgment, and were especially perplexed by the wide access the executive gave the reporter at a time when she was under fire. Television executives say the piece reflected poorly on the management of Iger and Disney Chairman Michael Eisner.

Tarses would not comment for this article, but she vaguely confirmed her intentions to stay put on Monday in Pasadena, where she was holed up in a meeting room most of the day at the Ritz-Carlton. “I’m staying as far as I can see into the future,” said Tarses, barraged by reporters when she emerged briefly.

Sources close to her say she considered joining two friends who have just left top spots at Fox and Warner Bros. to form their own production company but decided to stay in hopes of redeeming her reputation as a crackerjack program developer.

Sources say among the announcements that Tarses hopes to make today is the purchase of “Something So Right” from Universal Television. NBC dropped the show from its schedule, although it recently flirted with the idea of renewing it.

Tarses’ appearance in Pasadena may help clear up the lingering uncertainties that producers and suppliers say are making it difficult to conduct business with the network.

“It is very confusing,” said one such executive. “Jamie is acting as though she has authority, but you don’t quite know when dealing with her if a yes is a yes and a no is a no.”

In an attempt to defuse speculation that Tarses would soon be replaced, Iger endorsed her before advertisers in May as the company’s choice to lead the network. A month later he promoted Bloomberg, his protege and a longtime ABC development executive.

Sources say Bloomberg has become more supportive than Iger of Tarses. Many producers have complained to Iger about her handling of their shows at a time when the network can ill afford to alienate suppliers. Network ratings have fallen and Disney is pressuring Iger to turn the network around.

Times staff writer Brian Lowry contributed to this report.