Joss Whedon

MOST PUNISHING PRODUCER

Winner: Scott Rudin

Runner-up: Joel Silver

Rudin’s propensity for tormenting his assistants is legendary. The hot-tempered producer has fired over 119 of them in the past six years-notably including one legally blind minion whom Rudin dismissed but then rehired, according to a recent report, after seeing saw him standing helplessly at a bus stop. On occasion, the prolific producer has also been known to overturn tables in a blind rage, and he virtually invented the annoying Hollywood trick of returning calls at odd hours when no one is reachable. "He’s so not worth it!" says an exec who still has nightmares about the brief time he worked with Rudin. Others argued that voting for Rudin (The Truman Show, The Hours) was unfair since, "he at least attempts to execute some idea of taste," in the words of one writer-producer.

Not so for runner-up Joel Silver, whose assistants have famously survived flesh wounds (he stabbed one victim in the hand with a sharpened pencil) and 2am phone calls demanding that pastrami sandwiches be delivered right now. "Other than The Matrix and Lethal Weapon, Joel’s choice of movies and huge budgets aren’t worth the headache," says another writer-producer, probably referring to House of Wax and CW’s Veronica Mars.