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How John Lasseter Got His New Gig by Karl Cohen
The founder and head of Pixar, John Lasseter, felt from grace for sexualized hugging. photo: courtesy Pixar
SURPRISE, SURPRISE: IT TURNS
out getting hired is often a matter of whom you know. In John Lasseter’s case it was Skip Brittenham, a Hollywood deal maker and a close friend of the Ellison family, of Oracle and World Cup fame.
Skip was also one of the guys who brokered the deal in 1991 to get a young startup company in the Bay Area a feature contract with Disney. That startup was called Pixar.
Skip was delivered to Pixar by Steve Jobs, who offered him a seat on the board because of his Hollywood connections. It turns out Skip also represents David Ellison, who is Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s son, and David owns a startup animation studio, Skydance.
Indeed, there is yet another close connection: Skip’s daughter Kristina is marred to Jesse Sisgold, president of Skydance.
Rebecca Keegan, from The Hollywood Reporter’s staff pieced this puzzle together and uncovered additional information. To independently investigate sexual abuse claims by Pixar’s women, Skydance hired two lawyers from the firm Venable, but Keegan found scant evidence for a thorough investigation.
Rebecca located one person who described his interview with the lawyers as “a perfunctory conversation,” and she said that other people familiar with the allegations had not been contacted.
Rebecca also noted Skydance was a privately owned company so there wouldn’t be a troublesome board members objecting to the Lasseter hire. So as long as John doesn’t do anything controversial, like hug someone, he has the full support of Skydance’s owners and executives.
John is 62. If he wishes to stay active as a creative person, he can have a solid career ahead of him. If he gets bored or screws up he can always retire and enjoy being a gentleman wine maker if he keeps his property in the Bay Area.
And don’t forget as the creative head of Pixar he became a multi-millionaire many times over.
Karl Cohen is an animator, educator and director of the local chapter of the International Animation Society and can be reached .Posted on Jan 26, 2019 - 11:38 AM