Ouster Rumors and a Tense Phone Call: Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy’s Final Weeks at Warners - The Hollywood Reporter

Mike De Luca began hearing the rumor over a month ago: He and his Warner Bros. film co-head Pam Abdy were on the chopping block.

The source of the rumor was not David Ellison, whom the duo had met months earlier and seemed to indicate they would stay on in a post-merger world. No, De Luca was hearing that this was coming from Josh Greenstein, co-chair of Paramount Pictures.

Greenstein, according to sources familiar with the meeting, told other executives in a cross-town engagement that he wanted to get rid of Abdy and De Luca. Other sources, also with direct knowledge of the conversation, countered the remark was directed toward the general stability of Warner Bros., and was made in the context of Greenstein vying for a project and peacocking Paramount's own superior stability and executives.