RADIUM has expanded its Santa Monica office roster with a new head of

production JONATHAN WHITEHEAD and visual effects artists MARK HOLMES and

CHRISTINE RIVARD. Whitehead will oversee the daily operation of the Santa

Monica branch including client relations, bidding, marketing, personnel and

line producing. For the last six years, Whitehead was an executive producer

at Saatchi & Saatchi, primarily working on ads for Toyota. Whitehead's

feature film producing credits include GHOSTBUSTERS II, THE ABYSS, STEEL

RIOT, a digital effect house, breaks out with the naming of a new visual

effects producer ALIX EGLIS and visual effects artist CLAUS HANSEN. As a

freelancer, Eglis has produced commercials for Santa Monica,

California-based Crew Cuts and Lost Planet. For Culver City,

California-based Mars Media, she produced the R&B group, TLC's "Unpretty"

video and Will Smith's "Wild, Wild West" video. Eglis will oversee projects

for Riot, acting as a liaison from the client to the artists. Prior to

RING OF FIRE expands its flames with six new artists. Joining the

Hollywood, California-based visual effects and design studio are Infero

artists ALI LAVENTHOL and ALAN LATTERI, visual effects/digital composite

artist JEREMY ALCOCK, CGI artist JOHN JENKINS and producers JILL HEINRICH

and KIMBERLY EVANS. Before Ring of Fire, Laventhol was a freelance Flame

artist working at Rhythm & Hues. Latteri comes to Ring of Fire with credits

on X-FILES: THE MOVIE, STAR TREK IX: INSURRECTION and GODZILLA. Coming from

Hamberg, Germany-based IGEL MEDIA AG, an independent distributor of family

programming, has announced ED GALTON as their new head of distribution.

Galton will head worldwide distribution for the company focusing on

strengthening its operations outside of Germany. Previously at Gaumont as

VP/Head of Television and Video Sales, Galton organized the pre-sales and

distribution for such titles as OGGY AND THE COCKROACHES, SPACE GOOFS and

HIGHLANDER, THE RAVEN.

LUCAS LICENSING has appointed KERRY PHELAN in the new executive position of

director of domestic licensing & marketing. In her new role, Phelan will

oversee all aspects of the Star Wars licensing business for the U.S. Before

coming to Lucas Licensing, she was a long time marketing executive at LEGO

toys, where she was responsible for developing the LEGO brand among young

families. "The Star Wars licensing program has always been about creating

ATOMFILMS, a leader in next-generation entertainment, announced that JOHN

MARCOM, former President of Time Inc. International, will join as the new

senior VP of worldwide revenue and media strategies. In his new role,

Marcom will coordinate worldwide on-line and off-line sales of AtomFilms'

growing library of short-form entertainment. During his stint at Time Inc.,

Marcom oversaw a catalog of more than a dozen national and international

news, business and lifestyle publications. Joining Time Inc. in 1993,

LYLLE BREIER was promoted to the newly created position of senior vice

president, special events, for THE WALT DISNEY STUDIOS. Breier will be

responsible for developing and overseeing a vast array of worldwide special

events relating to the domestic and international releases of the studio's

motion-picture and video product. Over her ten year career at Disney,

Breier has helped to stage some of Disney's major events, including the

1995 premiere of POCAHONTAS in Central Park, the 1997 "HERCULES Premiere

STEPHEN L. BRAIN, former senior VP and general manager at Fox Animation

Studios has joined STAN LEE MEDIA, INC. as their new executive VP of

Production. In his new post, Brain will create Stan Lee Media's new digital

animation studio dedicated to developing Internet entertainment. Brain will

supervise the production team of storyboard artists, digital artists and

Flash animators as well as increasing Stan Lee's roster of 50 artists to

100 artists within the next 90 days. Beginning his career in 1977, Brain

CINAR ENTERTAINMENT has filled the newly created seat of president with

PETER MOSS. In his position effective March 1, Moss will focus on

developing CINAR's entertainment business in North America, Latin America

and Asia. Before joining CINAR, Moss served as programming and production

VP for YTV, Canada's youth network. Moss has regularly worked in pre-school

programming with the Children's Television Network and the CBC.

EDWARD ADLER has stepped up to the position of senior VP of corporate

communications at TIME WARNER. Adler will oversee all aspects of

development and implementation of the media conglomerate's global corporate

strategies. Since 1997, he has been a VP of corporate communications and

will continue to serve as the company's chief spokesman.

Jim Varney, the comic who most recently provided the voice of Slinky Dog in

TOY STORY and TOY STORY 2, died on Thursday, February 10, 2000 at his

Tennessee home of lung cancer. He was 50 years old. Best known for his

Ernest character in commercials, television and films, Varney also provided

voice over work for characters on the THE SIMPSONS. Varney was the star of

several Disney Ernest films, most notably ERNEST GOES TO CAMP and ERNEST

SAVES CHRISTMAS. Doctors diagnosed Varney with cancer in August 1998, and

On the eve of the final PEANUTS comic strip, creator Charles Schulz died of

a heart attack at his Santa Rosa, California home. He was 77 years old. As

reported [AF 11/21/99], Charles Schulz had decided to retire from drawing

his weekly comic strip after several strokes and newly diagnosed cancer had

left him partially blind in one eye and too weak to keep up with the

rigorous routine. A private funeral will be held later this week. He is

survived by his wife, Jeannie; two sons Monte and Craig; and daughter Jill

On February 4, CARL ROSENDAHL, founder and chairman of Pacific Data Images,

announced to his staff that he is exiting PDI after 20 years "to pursue

other interests." Rosendahl's remaining stake in the visual effects house

has been acquired by DreamWorks. Previously owning 40% of the Palo Alto,

California-based facility, DreamWorks now commands 80% of the company. More

details are soon to be announced.

PDI has recently promoted DENISE MINTER to vice president of production.

Minter will now oversee all of Pacific Data Images' production efforts

around the world. Most recently, she was been senior producer on PDI

commercials for Sega Dreamcast and Coca-Cola. Since joining the company in

1993, Minter has also served as production manager on the DreamWorks and

PDI feature ANTZ.

RAINBOW STUDIOS, a digital media company, announced DAVID STIPES has joined

Rainbow Studios' management staff. Stipes role will be to direct and

motivate Rainbow's team of award-winning producers, designers and artists

in current and upcoming projects. Stipes comes to Rainbow from Paramount

Pictures where he served as visual effects supervisor. Stipes designed

visual effects and supervised on-set live-action, motion control, CGI and

digital compositing for STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE, STAR TREK: VOYAGER and

REBECCA POOLE, a veteran Nickelodeon Movies exec, has been appointed to the

newly created position of VP, production, at Burbank, CA-based

AniManagement. Poole will help lead the company's new efforts in animated

and live-action film production. Her responsibilities will include managing

the division's existing client base and the acquisition and development of

original material. Most recently, Poole served as manager, creative

affairs, at Nick Movies. Before joining Nick, Poole worked at American

ARNOLD RIFKIN, whose Cheyenne Enterprises, LLC, is currently partnered with

such talent as Bruce Willis, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover, has joined

the Board of Directors of on-line entertainment company MediaTrip.com.

Rifkin was a founding partner in the talent agency, Triad Artists before it

was acquired by the William Morris Agency in 1992. Soon after Rifkin went

on head the Motion Picture Department at William Morris before being named

SYCONET.COM, INC., a leading U.S. distributor of anime videos and DVDs,

announced that ANNELIESE CHANG will become their new director of marketing.

Chang will be responsible for the development of sales and marketing for

the company. Before joining SyCoNet.com, Chang held a management position

at Disney Consumer Products-Licensing, where she managed the product

development for over 20 toy licensees on various Disney properties

including TOY STORY 2, DINOSAUR, MICKEY MOUSE and WINNIE THE POOH. Prior to

ACCLAIM ENTERTAINMENT INC., a leading worldwide interactive entertainment

company, has appointed JAY ANDRONACO as manager of public relations and

BRADFORD W. LOUCKS as vice president of sales. Andronaco will oversee

public relations initiatives for Acclaim's recently announced Extreme

Championship Wrestling (ECW) license, including the launch of the first

video game title on February 17, 2000, ECW HARDCORE REVOLUTION. In

addition, Andronaco will manage media relation initiatives for select

FILM ROMAN INC. has announced that veteran entertainment industry executive

LEONARD J. GROSSI has joined their board of directors and SIDNEY CLIFTON

has been promoted to director of television development. Currently, Grossi

is a partner in LSLG Associates, which owns a 49% interest in WHPN-TV, a

Madison, WS-based UPN affiliate. Grossi has recently formed and serves as

chairman and CEO of both Baseline Media and Entertainment Inc., a media,

communications and entertainment consulting firm, and Mile Square