Bell Atlantic Reaches For The Stars In Hollywood

Michael Lasky is your typical bicoastal entertainment executive. He used to acquire movies for the video division of Carolco Pictures Inc. in Los Angeles. Before that, he lived in New York City, where he bought movies for the Showtime premium cable network. Now, he is in Arlington, Va., working for the phone company, Bell Atlantic Corp.

Say what? "If you had told me a year ago that I would be working at a phone company, I'd have said 'Get out of here,'" laughs Lasky. Like many entertainment types, he figured the Baby Bells were bureaucratic, boring, and staid--quite unlike the freewheeling atmosphere at Hollywood studios such as Carolco. Yet after hearing about Bell Atlantic's high ambitions in multimedia programming, Lasky took a flyer. Now, six months later, he is convinced that Bell Atlantic is an entertainment company for the 21st century.