ANNE SWEENEY has been named president of DISNEY/ABC CABLE NETWORKS, filling a position left vacant when Geraldine Laybourne left in June to form her own media company. Since 1996, Sweeney has been president of the Disney Channel, a title she will retain with the promotion, which will add several programming outlets under her wing: Lifetime, A&E, The History Channel and E! Entertainment Television, as well as ABCs Saturday morning line-up. Prior to Disney, Sweeney was at FX for three years and at Nickelodeon for 12. . . . FILM ROMAN has hired MITCHELL SOLOMON as president of its new feature film division, which is currently developing live-action films. He was previously senior vice president of production at FILMCOLONY. . . . FOX KIDS NETWORK has hired PATRICIA LAVIGNE as vice president of on-air promotions. She was previously with the ad agency Pittard Sullivans European office in Munich but will now be based in Los Angeles.. . . . London-based multi-media and animation studio PEPPERS GHOST PRODUCTIONS has hired ALAN MARQUES as head of digital production. He was previously at The Magic Camera Company. . . . Los Angeles-based SONY PICTURES IMAGEWORKS (SPI) has hired animation director HENRY ANDERSON to work on the feature film Stuart Little. Anderson was most recently at Blue Sky|VIFX in New York. SPI has also hired GEORGE JOBLOVE as vice president of technology, a newly-created position. He was previously technology director at R/GA Digital in New York. . . . EVERLAND ENTERTAINMENT, distributors of the Veggie Tales animated home video series, has hired RICK FORSYTHE as executive director. He was previously with Rainfall Educational Toys, Chariot Media and Family Christian Stores. . . . Atlanta-based CRAWFORD COMMUNICATIONS has acquired the company Taylor McCormick Graphics, and hired its founding owners ROBERT TAYLOR and MICHAEL MCCORMICK as director of computer graphics and CG animation director, respectively, for Crawfords 3-D animation and digital effects division. . . . DREAMWORKS has cast several movie stars to play the voices of characters in its animated feature Shrek. MIKE MYERS will play the title character, a monster who was originally going to be voiced by the late comedian Chris Farley. The film will also feature voices by CAMERON DIAZ, EDDIE MURPHY, JOHN LITHGOW and LINDA HUNT. Shrek, slated for release in 2000, is currently in pre-production at PDI in Palo Alto, California. . . . Actors GENE WILDER, BRUNO KIRBY and JENNIFER TILLY have signed with Columbia Pictures to play the voices of characters in the live-action/computer animated feature film, Stuart Little, joining MICHAEL J. FOX as the title character (AF 8/04/98). The film, being directed by Rob Minkoff, will feature visual effects by Sony Pictures Imageworks and will be released in late 1999.
