Mattel Mess: Michelle Mendelovitz Lawyers Up After Sudden Exit From Toy Maker’s TV Studio

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: (updated with more details) The sudden departure this week of Michelle Mendelovitz from running Mattel Television Studios looks to indicate the fun and games are over at the toy maker.

With legal action hanging overhead like a sword of Damocles, former 20th Television SVP Mendelovitz has engaged the services of bare knuckles attorney Bryan Freedman to negotiate her exit from Mattel, I’ve learned.

A situation that could be heading towards the courts. Perhaps more telling of the way things have been going down at the Ynon Kreiz run company, Mendelovitz may not be the only top exec on the TV team and elsewhere at Mattel who is heading out the door. “Michelle is a seasoned and well-respected television executive,” the Liner Freedman Taitelman + Cooley LLP co-founder told Deadline today of Mendelovitz’s shortish stint at Mattel.  “She was hired by Mattel and assembled a high caliber team to build out a preeminent television studio for an otherwise dysfunctional company,” Freedman added with clearly carefully chosen words. “It is unfortunate that certain members of Mattel leadership prevented her from doing so.

She is prepared for legal action but hopeful that it will not be necessary. Time will tell if others follow.” Both in Freedman’s mention of “legal action” and “if others follow,’ the seeds of a rapid escalation of this Mattel matter are certainly planted.