Disney Continues Layoffs at Fox Studios

Seven-year corporate communications veteran Chelsey Summey was let go on Wednesday

21st Century Fox Sold To Disney For More Than $70 Billion
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Additional layoffs are coming for Disney and Fox, a spokesperson for Disney confirmed to TheWrap on Wednesday.

The cuts are set to take place across Walt Disney Studios, which now includes Fox, but details about which departments are expected to be impacted are being kept private until the staff is notified. The number of staffers expected to lose their jobs was not disclosed.

The spokesperson didn’t provide any additional information.

An individual with knowledge of the situation, however, told TheWrap that Fox senior vice president of corporate communications, Chelsey Summey, who has been at the studio for more than seven years, was part of the Wednesday’s layoffs. Summey oversaw the studio’s external and internal communications, including box-office reporting, trade media relations, transactional announcements and internal communications.

She was promoted to her most-recent post in 2017, and prior to joining Fox she served in various corporate communications and publicity roles at Paramount.

This recent round of pink slips comes roughly two months after the company began cutting staff immediately following the closing of the company’s $71.3 billion acquisition of Fox’s film and TV entertainment businesses.

The Mouse House began the layoffs in March by letting go of senior-level staff and executives at Fox in what is expected to amount to more than 4,000 jobs being eliminated as part of its Fox integration.

Disney leadership has said it plans to have roughly $2 billion in cost-saving as job cuts continue to eliminate overlapping business functions.

The first set of cuts hit both the TV and film studios and created a sense of unease and uncertainty on the Fox studio lot.

Disney has already set its leadership team in place, naming senior Fox veterans Peter Rice and Dana Walden to leadership roles post-takeover.

Dana Walden serves as chairman of ABC Entertainment and the newly named Disney Television Studios, which encompasses ABC Studios, ABC Signature, 20th Century Fox TV and Fox 21. John Landgraf and Gary E. Knell, who serve as the chairs of FX and Nat Geo Partners, respectively, will report to Rice, who is chairman of Walt Disney Studios and co-chair of Disney Media Networks. Warner Bros. veteran Craig Hunegs was hired to run the newly-combined Disney Television Studios.

On the film side, Emma Watts, as well as several other Fox film executives, have made the move to Disney’s studio entertainment management team. Watts, now serving as vice chairman for 20th Century Fox Film and president of production at Fox, reports directly to co-studio heads Alan Horn and Alan Bergman. Nancy Utley and Stephen Gilula were also brought over as co-chairs for Fox Searchlight reporting to Horn and Bergman.

Elizabeth Gabler serves as president of production at Fox 2000 — for as long as there is a Fox 2000.

Umberto Gonzalez contributed to this report

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