NBC Universal executive Ron Meyer is out over affair

A 25-year veteran of the company, Meyer said that he had told his bosses of the alleged plot late last week “because other parties learned of the settlement and have continuously attempted to extort me.”

The incident’s details remain vague. They appear to involve an affair with the actress Charlotte Kirk, according to the trade paper Variety, but the third parties have not been identified.

Whatever the exact circumstances, Meyer’s sudden departure after a quarter-century atop one of America’s best-known studios sent tremors through an industry constantly measuring the landscape for instability. And it underscores Hollywood’s new moment in which corporate accountability — or at least its optics — can topple even the most immovable objects.

The news also came as NBC Universal and its parent company Comcast are grappling with the fallout from another alleged executive-misconduct scandal. Earlier this month executives fired former NBC Entertainment chairman Paul Telegdy in the wake of accusations that he fostered a toxic culture at the network.

Three weeks ago, an investigation by the Hollywood Reporter uncovered accusations against Telegdy of bullying and threats from two of the network’s reality stars, Gabrielle Union and Sharon Osbourne, along with multiple alleged instances of homophobic and misogynistic comments.

NBC had issued a statement condemning the allegations. “This narrative is not reflective of the values of NBC Entertainment or the culture we strive to create,” it said. Telegdy was fired a week later.

An NBCU spokeswoman declined to comment for this story.

Over the course of his Universal tenure, Meyer had created an aura of invincibility, retaining his role through a radical reordering of the studio business model, a revolving door of bosses, the onset of a new technological age and one of the biggest corporate takeovers in American media history.

Meyer had been a fixture at the studio for so long that he was hired within a few weeks of a major Disney acquisition — not the Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel or Star Wars purchases of this century but of ABC, in the summer of 1995. Meyer at the time was hired as president and chief operating officer of Universal precursor MCA.

A founder of the powerhouse Creative Artists Agency, Meyer, 75, practiced a kind of friend-to-all problem-solver school of management, particularly with celebrities, that is neither as common nor as necessary in the age of franchise Hollywood.

A frequent presence on the industry’s circuit of lunches and evening events, he was the rare executive trusted by both the people who made the movies and those who paid for them. That skill benefited his own career: Brian Roberts and Steve Burke, the two longtime Comcast leaders, were widely expected to push Meyer out when their firm bought NBC Universal in 2009. Instead they kept Meyer on and eventually promoted him.

Around the entertainment business on Tuesday, many were startled by the abruptness of Meyer’s fall. But others noted that it may have been accelerated because the skills he brought had become less necessary in an age when managing brands, not celebrities, is what matters, and when running a media company is as much about decoding optimal forms of distribution as getting multiple egos to agree to work on a film.

“Would he be out as quickly if he had a different role? I’ll just let that hang there for people to decide,” said a talent representative who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

Asked for comment on the firing, Meyer’s publicist, Matthew Hiltzik, referred to his client’s earlier statement.

The incident underscored a contrast with the earlier days of the #MeToo movement.

About 18 months ago, Kirk was at the center of another studio scandal, in that case involving former Warner Bros. chief executive Kevin Tsujihara. The executive was accused of lobbying for jobs on behalf of the actress after the two had an affair and embarrassing texts of his were leaked. But Tsujihara was not fired until two weeks after the accusations came to light.

Meyer was fired within hours of the allegations surfacing and just several days after Shell said he learned of them.

Still, NBCU will hire outside counsel to investigate the issue, said a person with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because of the matter’s sensitivity.

Universal Pictures has often been held up as a paragon of feminism in an industry criticized for a lack of gender diversity in its top ranks. Before Warner Bros. hired Ann Sarnoff last summer to replace Tsujihara, Universal was the only studio run by a woman, Donna Langley.

The company has sought to position itself as having moved beyond the scandal of former “Today” host Matt Lauer, who in the early days of the #MeToo movement was fired by NBC Universal after sexual misconduct claims by multiple women.

But those efforts have received a setback with the Telegdy and now Meyer news.