EXCLUSIVE The seating at the Golden Globes Warner Bros table was more than a little interesting.
Right between Warner Discovery Chairman David Zaslav and Warner’s chief Mike DeLuca — not far frpm “One Battle After Another” star Leonardo Di Caprio — was a strategically placed face who rarely if ever has attended an awards show.
That would be Aviv Nevo, aka Vivi Nevo, who is 60 years old and is officially Israeli although he was born in Romania.
Nevo, worth a billion dollars, runs NV Investments. He turned a $10 million inheritance from his father into this vast sum largely by investing in Time Warner during its heyday.
Nevo’s presence was no coincidence. His very public placement was absolutely a signal to David Ellison and the Paramount Skydance group that wants to take over Warner Bros. Zaslav is trying to sell Warner Bros. to Netflix. But Ellison and his Trump endorsed gang want the studio mainly to get hold of CNN and do to it what they’re doing to CBS News.
Over the years I met Vivi Nevo mostly at parties given by Harvey Weinstein, as Nevo invested in The Weinstein Company when it launched 22 years go following the break up of Miramax from Disney.
Nevo keeps a very low profile. It’s so low that he’s rarely seen and never interviewed. But Zaslav was very clever last night. He was certainly reminding Ellison he has big dogs in his corner. He’s playing the highest level chess game. What comes next is anyone’s guess.
