Viacom CEO cozies up to DreamWorks

December 04, 2007 That's a far cry from September, when Dauman called the potential loss of Spielberg, who can leave DreamWorks when his contract expires next year, "completely immaterial" to the bottom line of Paramount and its parent Viacom. The comments, coming amid rumors that the director was increasingly unhappy over his relationship with Paramount chief Brad Grey, created a media firestorm and turned "whither Spielberg?" into a Hollywood parlor game. Observers have suggested the DreamWorks founders could choose Universal as their future partner given that NBC Uni was close to winning the company before Viacom beat it out in money terms and given that Spielberg has long-standing ties at Universal.

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