The annual pecking order of showbiz power is revealed as Disney CEO Bob Iger leads the list, the Murdochs tumble from the Top 10 and LeBron James (yes, LeBron James) stakes his claim in a year of merger and #MeToo upheaval.
Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger remains the most powerful person in entertainment, only adding to his empire with $71 billion of 21st Century Fox assets. But his dominance is one of the few things that hasn’t changed since THR published 2017’s list of Hollywood’s most influential figures. Along with Disney-Fox, 2018 saw AT&T win a judge’s blessing to acquire Time Warner, spawning new entity WarnerMedia — whose chief, John Stankey, arrives at No. 4. There were the milestones: Filmmakers Ryan Coogler (No. 93) and Jon M. Chu (No. 97) brought inclusive movies to the multiplex, smashing records along the way. And there are the movements: #MeToo and Time’s Up drove a reckoning. Out of work, and off the THR 100, are John Lasseter, Roy Price, Brett Ratner and, just this month, Leslie Moonves. His spot has gone to Ronan Farrow, whose reporting took the CBS chief down.
Along with Farrow, there are 34 people making their first appearance on the THR 100, many of them female and diverse — including stars (summer 2017 breakout Tiffany Haddish, No. 79), producers (LeBron James, No. 75), execs (Netflix’s Lisa Nishimura, No. 9) and creators (Kenya Barris, No. 81). White men still make up 70 percent of this list — but the sands are shifting, more rapidly and more unpredictably than ever, as THR takes stock of Hollywood power now.
100. Ronan Farrow – Journalist
Kay Nietfeld/DPA/Newscom
Farrow earned his place on this list by rewriting its highest ranks: His persistence in bringing to light accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct by Hollywood titans has set off an industry earthquake, earning him hero status and media stardom (including a multi-doc deal at HBO), not to mention awards (no less than a Pulitzer, along with Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor of The New York Times, for reporting that uncovered decades of predation by Harvey Weinstein, spurring the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements). His first report about Leslie Moonves in July, detailing accusations of misconduct and retaliation by the CBS chief, was a body blow. His second, containing far more serious allegations, served to dispatch one of the most powerful execs in media. And Farrow, 30, is not done; his book Catch and Kill will detail just how far the powerful will go to silence and terrorize victims.
MY FOCUS FOR 2019 “I can barely think past my next deadline, please stop stressing me out with this 2019 talk.”
THE ONE THING POWER DOESN’T GET YOU “Hopefully, increasingly: impunity.”
WHEN I WANT TO TRULY UNPLUG, I … “Lose terribly at Mario Kart.”
