Hollywood’s Powerful Put Aside Their Feuds to Toast Their Newest Rival at Paramount

Even in a week packed with A-list Oscar soirees, Brad Grey’s coming-out party as Paramount Pictures’ new studio chief should take home the award for luring Hollywood’s heaviest hitters.

Producer Brian Grazer on Thursday night pulled off a virtually impossible feat. At his Pacific Palisades home, he gathered, under one very big roof, the entertainment and media elite to toast someone whom, come Tuesday, they’ll be competing against.

That’s when Grey takes the reins of the legendary studio from Sherry Lansing. In an industry in which business rivals eat each other alive, these moguls had to settle for sharing a marble white chocolate chip cake featuring the famed arched gates of Paramount on Melrose Avenue.

At the cocktail party, where the hors d’oeuvres included spicy albacore poke on wonton chips and mango brie quesadillas, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch huddled in one corner with longtime competitor Viacom Inc. chief Sumner Redstone, whose company owns Paramount.

Nearby were Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner and President Robert Iger. Not far away was Eisner archrival Jeffrey Katzenberg, as well as Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who are on the verge of a bitter split with Disney. Even in a town where moguls regularly rub elbows at political fundraisers and charity events, industry veterans were in awe.

“I was blown away looking around the room,” said former Warner Bros. Chairman Bob Daly.

Throwing what amounted to an inaugural ball for Grey was the brainchild of Grazer and Grey’s immediate boss, Viacom Co-President Tom Freston. Also hosting the party was Bernie Brillstein, Grey’s business partner in his former career as a talent manager and producer.

The 250-person guest list was seeded with Grey’s new opponents. Warner Bros. chiefs Barry Meyer and Alan Horn were there. So were Universal Studios’ Ron Meyer, Disney Studios’ Dick Cook and Sony Pictures Chairman Michael Lynton and his boss, Sony Corp.’s Howard Stringer.

“We’re all rivals, but we each understand the demand of the job and we’re all members of a certain club,” Horn said.

Johnny Depp headlined a list of top stars. Dustin Hoffman, Warren Beatty and Don Rickles were there. So were Kirsten Dunst, Penelope Cruz and Kate Hudson. Longtime Grey client Jennifer Aniston made an appearance. Longtime client Brad Pitt did not.

It helped that Los Angeles was packed with moguls and stars in town for Sunday’s Oscar ceremony.

Guests parked their cars with a valet, then were driven by golf cart up the winding driveway to Grazer’s four-acre estate -- a sprawling one-story California ranch home built by noted architect Clifford May for actor Gregory Peck in 1940.

“It took me longer to sit in the valet line than it did to fly in from New York,” joked Revolution Studios founder Joe Roth. He said that when he became a studio chief such a head-turning affair “didn’t happen for me.”