EXCLUSIVE: Last night, at 9:13 PM, outgoing ABC Entertainment Group President Steve McPherson's pit bull litigator Marty Singer faxed the following letter to The Hollywood Reporter. It accuses THR of becoming an "outrageous scandal sheet" now that former US magazine editor Janice Min and new publisher Lori Burgess are in charge. "It appears that with a new editor and publisher, THR is adopting tabloid-like behavior". According to my own reporting, McPherson worked at Disney/ABC without any sexual harrassment-related complaints brought to the company's attention until 2010. This year, however, one sexual harassment complaint was made by a woman against McPherson, and HR conducted an investigation. My sourcing indicates that McPherson's resignation was voluntary and unrelated to the probe:
I hear that Steve McPherson, who resigned as ABC Entertainment Group president this week, has asked pit bull litigator Marty Singer to specifically target The Hollywood Reporter. If you haven't noticed, the front page of THR is increasingly resembling TMZ as a Hollywood scandal sheet now that former US magazine editor Janice Min has taken over. Today, Singer issued this statement; "Steve McPherson is not going to sit back idly regarding the false & defamatory stories fueled by unknown and anonymous sources that are now appearing in the media since his resignation from ABC. He has retained Martin Singer and Lavely & Singer to deal with these defamatory stories."
Ever since Deadline broke the news that Steve McPherson was resigning as ABC Entertainment 
Group President yesterday, emails have been sent to media outlets filled with rumors about his personal and/or professional behavior. Disney wouldn't respond to Deadline's requests for comment. But tonight, McPherson's longtime entertainment attorney Tom Hoberman issued this statement in response to Deadline's inquiry earlier today about allegations of possible sexual harrassment with female employees which led to an internal Disney investigation: "Upon Steve McPherson returning to work from his vacation on Monday, he made a voluntary decision to resign and ABC accepted his resignation. It is not uncommon for high level executives to be the subject of gossip and innuendo. That would includes rumors of internal situations which can easily be misinterpreted or misrepresented. Seems like it goes with the territory, and there is nothing further to discuss."
CBS is first up at TCA, so the network's entertainment president Nina Tassler was the first to get the Steve McPherson question this morning. Asked to comment on McPherson's exit from ABC yesterday, she said: "Dammit, he got out of doing press tour." Tassler noted that she is looking forward to "a case of Chardonnay over the holidays," a reference to McPherson's wine business, before adding, "He is a great guy, a good friend, and I wish him the best." After the official presentation, Tassler was asked to compare McPherson's wine and the wine made by another TV topper, 20th Century Fox TV chairman Gary Newman. "I think Steve's is better," she said jokingly. It's probably good that the network already completed negotiations with Newman for Chaos.
Tassler faced questions about casting Julie Chen, wife of CBS Corp CEO Leslie Moonves, on the network's mom daytime panel talk show pilot and especially for CBS' recent decision to pick up the pilot to series over 3 other candidates. BTW, the show now has a title, The Talk (if there weren't enough parallels to The View already) Tassler said it was the the series' creator/executive producer Sara Gilbert who suggested casting Chen. As for the pickup to series, "I made the decision," Tassler said. "I don’t think Les is unhappy with it,... but show screened great and tested the best of all the pilots." ... Read More »
Ben Silverman and Steve McPherson shared the most heated rivalry between broadcast toppers in recent years. Now, the two have something else to share: an exit date. On July 27, 2009, Silverman left NBC after a tumultuous 2-year stint. Today, July 27, 2010, McPherson departed ABC after a 6-year tenure that also got rocky in the last couple of years. Both executive changes were made on the eve of the summer TV Critics Association Press Tour. And speaking of TCA, it was almost exactly 3 years ago to the date (on July 25, 2007) when McPherson challenged Silverman to "be a man" at TCA. Boy, those two will be missed at press tour.
4TH UPDATE 6:30 PM: We've just confirmed that ABC Family President Paul Lee will take over as president of ABC Entertainment Group. Just like Steve McPherson, Lee will manage both ABC Entertainment and ABC Studios. "Paul Lee has had incredible success for the last 6 years and has built the ABC Family brand from scratch," a Disney insider praised. Interesting how this all went down before the Television Critics Association's upcoming executive sessions this week. 
Lee's promotion has been imminent because of his success with original programming on the cable channel that "had a fuddy-duddy image" and was saddled with that preacher" -- since Pat Robertson still controls several hours of programming time on the channel, the insider noted. "Paul made it a destination place for young and hip people."
Like McPherson, Lee started his job as president of ABC Family in 2004 when both were appointed as part of a big restructuring across Disney's TV divisions. Since then, the cable channel has posted six years of consecutive growth and has launched its first runaway hit, The Secret Life of American Teenager. ABC Family’s roster of shows developed under Lee’s watch also includes the channel's first buzzworthy drama Kyle XY, established series Greek and Make It or Break It, recent additions Pretty Little Liars and Huge and the upcoming Melissa Joan Hart-Joey Lawrence comedy Melissa & Joey. Before joining ABC Family, Lee was CEO ... Read More »
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