– and out of Alliance post

Jay Firestone’s sudden departure as vice-chairman of Alliance Communications in early January has taken the industry by surprise. Until the terms of his departure are settled, Firestone cannot discuss the matter.

Since the news, rumors have been flying that creative differences between Firestone and his 10-year colleague, Alliance chairman Robert Lantos, caused the split. Mostly, the unofficial word is that Firestone was increasingly involved in production deals and was told to butt out.

Firestone was openly connected to the purchase of music publisher Partisan Music Productions by Alliance and Vancouver’s A&F Music, and Alliance made no secret he had been one of the pivotal forces behind the deal.

Firestone was also connected to the Alliance/BLT Productions, Vancouver, deal to produce the children’s computer-animated series, ReBoot.

There is nothing new about this, says Firestone, he has always been striking deals. ‘I’ve made a lot of deals over the years,’ he says. ‘I’ve always maintained a very low profile and a couple of those (deals) became higher profile. That’s it.’

Lantos says of the split: ‘Jay Firestone made an important contribution to the growth of Alliance in the corporate development and finance areas. Recently, his priorities and interests had shifted toward other arenas. The board of Alliance and I believe that the company and Jay are both better served if he pursues these new interests outside Alliance. We are confident that he will succeed at whatever he chooses to do next.’

Heenan Blaikie lawyer George Berger will take on the role of vice-president, corporate development Feb. 1.

Meanwhile, Alliance has announced Steven Mendelson has been appointed to the newly created position of senior vice-president, series and new media development, and Laurie Pozmantier to the new post of senior vice-president, television movies and miniseries.

Mendelson’s responsibilities will include development of cable, first-run and network syndication series, animation and interactive projects. Pozmantier will oversee the development of miniseries and movies for cable, first-run and network syndication.

Both Mendelson and Pozmantier will be based out of Alliance’s l.a. office, Alliance Entertainment U.S.A.

With files from Janice Lee.