• E1 Entertainment has hired veteran Los Angeles development executive Larry Gilbert to drive its North American drama slate deeper into U.S. primetime. Gilbert, who in March departed Mel Gibson’s production shingle Icon Productions after three years as VP of television development, has joined E1 Entertainment’s Los Angeles office as VP of current programming.

Reporting to Noreen Halpern, E1’s president of dramatic programming, Gilbert comes on board after the Canadian producer sold The Bridge to CBS and CTV and Copper to ABC and Global Television. The Canadian indie studio is also shopping a third Canadian cop drama, Shattered, to the U.S. networks after it was picked up by Global Television.

Before Icon, Gilbert was a coordinator of drama development at the UPN network, and a post-production coordinator at New Line Cinema.

• Stacey Donen has added Whistler to his film selection duties. The director of programming at Toronto post-production-house-cum-rep-cinema The Royal, Donen has been named artistic director of the Whistler Film Festival. Donen will continue working with The Royal and as a programming consultant with Reel Canada, a national initiative designed to bring Canadian films into Canadian classrooms.

Donen has been living and breathing film selection for the past 10 years, beginning with his stint at TIFF as a Canadian cinema programmer from 1999 to 2006, when he made the move to the refurbished Royal. He has been a consultant to the Montreal World Film Festival since 2005.

Donen says the gig is particularly exciting because of the looming 2010 Winter Olympics. ‘Whistler is a fabulous place to hold a film festival and the Games will only intensify the experience. We will be attracting a lot of eyeballs.’ He declines to specify any special Olympic-sized programming, saying only that big announcements are pending.

Apart from programming, Donen also has experience in filmmaking. An alum of the Canadian Film Centre, his producing credits include Yan Cui’s Chinese Chocolate and Gerald L’Ecuyer’s The Grace of God.

• Ted Brunt has a new job at marblemedia, signing on as its VP of interactive production. The newly created position will see the former CBC and TVO exec take the lead on all interactive projects at the Toronto shop.

Brunt arrives at marblemedia after a six-year stint at CBC, where he held a number of positions overseeing digital and kids content. Before that he was at TVOntario, working in both online and in traditional TV.

First on his ‘to do’ list is overseeing the web/mobile production for marble’s Skatoony, Taste Buds and The Dating Guy.

• Rita Deverell has been named as the 12th Nancy’s Chair at Mount Saint Vincent University. She will take up the position in July for two years.

Deverell’s career has included work as an academic, broadcaster, television producer/director, journalist, arts administrator and theater artist. She recently completed her term as head of news and current affairs at the Aboriginal People’s Network and was a founding member of VisionTV.

Deverell was recognized in 2005 with an Order of Canada for her pioneering work in journalism, and has authored several screenplays for which she also served as producer and director. She has been a visiting scholar at New York University and was the first CanWest Global Fellow at the University of Western Ontario.