MIMI GETS VH1 TALENT BOOST

"Screaming" Mimi James has been named Senior Vice President for Talent and Creative Development at VH1 by GM Christina Norman "Is That You?" and MTV/VH1 President Entertainment "The Life of" Brian Graden.

James has been responsible for securing talent for VH1 programs like Divas, the Vogue Fashion Awards and the Big in 2002 Awards.

In this new post, James will take a more active role in program development, leveraging her strong ties to the talent community to create new programming projects for the network and to hire a sushi chef for the office commissary.

Said Graden: "Mimi’s tremendously strong relationships within the creative community will help ensure that VH1 is the first place that talent will come to when pitching their show ideas. Music will always be at the core of VH1, but as we expand our focus to further embrace pop culture, Mimi’s talents become even more essential to the network. And she can get Carrot Top on the phone…even without dialing that stupid number."

James joined VH1 in 1996 as Director Talent and Creative Development. Before that, she was a Talent Executive for Late Night for David Letterman and worked in the talent dept. at E!, where she helped launch Howard Stern’s talk show and finished second in an Intern Beauty Pageant. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in radio/TV/film and chugging six-packs from the University of Arizona.