Less than a month after becoming involved in a bizarre wrangle with rivals at Fox Searchlight at the Toronto Film Festival over Jason Reitman's Thank You For Smoking, Paramount Classics chiefs Ruth Vitale and David Dinerstein have been fired. The pair had been accused of botching negotiations with the producers of Smoking. Although they had claimed that they had a handshake deal to buy the film, producer David O. Sacks later insisted, "Although we had negotiations with Paramount Classics, no deal was ever concluded. ... I am also a lawyer and ... know when we have closed a deal and when we haven't." Losing out to Fox Searchlight may have been a particularly devastating blow to the pair since the Fox specialty unit has consistently outperformed its Paramount counterpart. Nevertheless, several publications observed that Paramount Classics has been having its best year ever with two films picked up at the Sundance Film Festival, Hustle and Flow and Mad Hot Ballroom, and in exit statements Vitale and Dinerstein observed that they have been profitable in each of the eight years that they have headed the division. Yet in reporting on the firing, today's (Friday) New York Times observed, "The division did not live up to expectations that it would be a thriving pipeline for talent and filmmakers from the independent film world."