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Lisa Henson was born May 9, 1960. She's the eldest child of Muppets inventor Jim Henson, Lisa Henson joined Warner Bros. as a production assistant in 1983. She played a role in such Warners fare as the "Lethal Weapon" series, "Batman" (1989), "Batman Returns" (1992), "New Jack City" (1991) and "Free Willy" (1993). Henson rose to the position of executive vice president. Her appointment to president of Columbia Pictures was made August 9, 1993. It was a bad time for the studio with its Heidi Fleiss scandals and bad box office. Aggressive, ambitious and forthright, Henson's appointment as head of production at Columbia made her the youngest such executive in Hollywood. When Henson wouldn't let her longtime friend Amy Pascal break her contract to move to Turner Pictures, the two women quarreled. "Henson, whose hiring had seemed like an inspired, stabilizing move, was alienating many filmmakers with what was perceived as a chilly, contemptuous attitude." (Hit & Run, pg. 434-435) "Young and smart, but not too smart to lead a studio," New York Times,
Bernard Weinraub, April 4, 1994, p. B1. There were many article about Lisa Henson after she was fired by Columbia in July of 1996. For the most part, the articles seemed to blame her bosses for the problems and suggested she was still respected. Summer 1996. Film Production, Hollywood Reporter, Feb. 25, 1997, p. 94. Henson entered into a producing partnership with Janet Yang in Manifest Films Company.
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