After more than a decade and a half at Disney, through its numerous name changes, and most recently at the helm of its home entertainment operation, Anthony Peet has this week left the company. Peet, a popular figure in the industry, chairman of the BVA,  a good mate of ours at The Raygun and lots more, was most recently vice president for home entertainment for UK and Ireland, has been made redundant as part of the ongoing restructuring at the major. The company has recently unveiled its new marketing organisation, Disneymedia+, which is aiming to bring its properties together to work with other brands, and it has also reorganised the way it works with retailers to ensure its full range of product, taking in DVD and scores of other elements, all sit together. In a note to the trade, Peet said: "When I joined Disney John Major was Prime Minister of Great Britain, Bill Clinton President of the USA, the VHS tape was a growing format, DVD hadn’t been invented, the UK was the number three international market for Home Entertainment after Japan and France, rental was a quarter of the UK market with, we had a rental window ahead of retail, no-one had heard of VOD, TVOD, SVOD, PPV, EST, DTO or Blu-ray discs, there was a massive singles market and people actually paid money for music, Woolworths and EUK were our key customers, Amazon, Netflix, Redbox, play.com and Lovefilm were years away from existing, no-one had an iPod, let alone an iPad, mobile phones came with a car battery and a mortgage and Blackpool Football Club were in the third tier of English football – how times have changed." Peet added he would be taking a deserved break and then search out new opportunities later in the year. The Raygun wishes him all the best for the future.

More recruitment news, and congratulations to another old friend of ous, industry stalwart Monica Chadha, who has been promoted to the role of managing director at  MyMovies.net. She has been at the online operator and production house, which is the UK's biggest content provider and produces everything from trailers to exclusive red carpet premiere reports for websites and broadcast, as well as working with distributors to promote DVD and Blu-ray on leading entertainment channels, for some four years. MyMovies has been shortlisted for Supplier/Agency of the Year at this year's BVA awards, as nominated by Optimum, and recently inked a million-pound movie deal with M&Ms and Digital Cinema Media to sponsor From The Red Carpet, the MyMovies entertainment programme which reports on worldwide film releases, with interviews with stars at premieres and on-set and is shown in cinemas nationwide.  

Also on the recruitment side, ever-expanding creative agency freeform.London has taken on a senior producer at its burgeoning AV service, freeform.Motion. Samina Haider, who boasts more than 11 years' experience in the industry on both the client and agency side, most recently at Momentum, will oversee all aspects of the creative and production prices. Freeform director Tony Roberts said: "freeform.London has the structure and resource to offer all aspects of the creative process from strategy and development to digital, AV and creative design. It's a very exciting time in our growth and I anticipate a very busy year." Right, some rather unusual news now, and the Industry Trust has put out an interesting appeal to distributors, suppliers and labels across the business as part of its latest salvo in the battle against piracy. It's looking for famous faces to help front an outdoor campaign with the Moments Worth Paying For tagline, asking for celebrities to talk about their favourite film moments. All you need is a famous face, an image, a genuine quote and a press comment and the Trust is promising that, thanks to its ongoing deal with ClearChannel, it can get their name in lights on outdoor digital poster sites around London. They could also go online and via Facebook. The Trust's Katy Carter said: "It will help to promote your films, and to promote that there are moments worth paying for. Everyone wins" For more details, contact Katy at katy.carter@industrytrust.co.uk.

Plaudits and deserved kudos should go to independent label Acorn Media. Not only did the company do what many had considered a nigh-on impossible task by pulling together the collected works of playwright Jack Rosenthal made by the BBC for its release of Jack Rosenthal At The BBC, giving a deserved but belated DVD debut to the likes of classic old Beeb Play For Today titles such Bar Mitzvah Boy and Spend, Spend, Spend, but it also organised a special screening at the gorgeous and recently restored Phoenix Cinema in London's East Finchley at the weekend. The screening was hosted by Rosenthal's widow Maureen Lipman, who praised Acorn's efforts, and was followed by a Q&A with some of his former collaborators. Lipman told the packed audience how the release came about after a visit to the Chief Rabbi's house for dinner, where he berated her about the lack of a BBC release to accompany Jack Rosenthal At ITV (Network). BBC bigwig Alan Yentob, present at the same party, couldn't make it happen, but within a week of her speaking to Acorn, the project was a goer. Not done with one good deed, Acorn also promised the proceeds of the event to help disabled facilities at the cinema, run as a charitable trust. Acorn md Paul Holland commented: “Acorn has built its reputation by releasing the very best of British television on DVD and we are delighted to be able to continue in this tradition by releasing this hugely anticipated, much requested and highly prestigious collection.” More on our website shortly.

More on the events side, and our new roving correspondent Alex Kidd, former HMV staffer and, this week, producer of the best fake trailer we've seen since Hobo With A Shotgun, Daddy Cross (see here for more, it was part of a competition organised to support Hobo), was at a special Killing Bono screening and Q&A last week. He's written in full about it in his new column, on our website, it's just the latest in LOVEFiLM's ongoing programme of events.LOVEFiLM's Helen Cowley said: "Our interactive Q&As are a great way of getting our members involved both online and offline. It’s a thrill to be able to stream the live experience straight to LOVEFiLM for people to watch, even better when we have people in the chatroom from as far afield as Mexico, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands - all getting involved and asking questions. It really does makes for a truly unique film experience." This week Alex will be covering the Kapow! comic con for us, and has been to see, among others, Little White Lies, from Lionsgate. Read more of his past seven days early next week.