Touchstone Executive Leaving After 13 Years

Donald DeLine, president of Walt Disney Co.’s Touchstone Pictures, will be leaving his post after 13 years at the studio, sources confirmed Thursday.

The well-respected production executive has no other job lined up. But he is said to have been considering a career change for some time and finally in the last few weeks asked his boss, Disney Studios Chairman Joe Roth, for early release from his contract, which has 1 1/2 years left.

Sources said Roth readily complied, since the move coincides with Disney’s plans to restructure and consolidate its production operations into one unit in the near future. The studio has steadily been reducing its number of live-action movies from some three dozen a year to a target of 15 to 18. Currently, movies are served up to Roth by separate staffs at Touchstone and Disney Pictures, the family-films label headed by David Vogel.

So far, Roth apparently has had no conversations with Vogel about running the combined operation, though speculation is that he may be offered the job once DeLine leaves.

It’s widely known that there is no love lost between DeLine and Vogel and that DeLine was furious when Vogel was handed added responsibilities last fall for live-action movies aimed at adults--a domain that heretofore had solely been DeLine’s.