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Who gets Peter Chernin’s power table?

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Telephone really works.

UPDATED: News Corp. bigwig weighs in on Tablegate (see below).

The biggest parlor game going on inside 20th Century Fox right now is not how much the upcoming ‘Ice Age’ sequel will rack up at the box office this summer, but a much more crucial matter with far deeper import: which studio big shot will get Peter Chernin’s coveted table at the commissary when the News Corp. president bolts in three weeks to enjoy one of the richest production deals in Hollywood?

The joke making the rounds at Fox’s legendary dining room is, ‘It’s going to take one of those kick-boxing death matches’ to decide the heir apparent to the four-seat table [see photo above] that comes with the best view of the room and its very own black telephone -- what, these Fox guys don’t use cellphones?

Naturally, Rupert Murdoch’s new chosen one, Chase Carey, who is returning to the News Corp. fold as Chernin’s successor, has first dibs on the table whenever the New York-based executive is in town, just as his boss does. As one Fox insider says, ‘Daddy always gets it first!’

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When I saw newly promoted Fox Broadcasting Chairman Peter Rice in the Fox commissary Thursday, I asked the former Fox Searchlight honcho whom he thought would inherit Chernin’s dining throne.

In his typical dry manner, Rice quipped: ‘It will always go to the most powerful person in the room.’ Though Rice would certainly qualify to be a contender, a Fox snitch said the unassuming executive has no designs on Chernin’s table and is perfectly happy with the one he has in the center of the room.

So, that means it will come down to a food fight between his boss, Fox Networks Group chief Tony Vinciquerra, and Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chairmen Tom Rothman and Jim Gianopulos. Then again, there are four chairs, so technically there’s room at the same lunch for all those egos.

-- Claudia Eller

UPDATE: Reply from Tony Vinciquerra:

From: Tony Vinciquerra
Sent: Friday, June 05, 2009 5:37 PM
To: Eller, Claudia

You’ve got it wrong ( I like to stay in the middle) at least on my part!! But you got me thinking...whatever access I might have could turn out to be a very good thing for my favorite charities...I think I will offer to auction that access to the highest bidders!! Want to bid? :)

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