Disney/ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney is the most powerful woman in Hollywood according to The Hollywood Reporter‘s 19th annual “Women In Entertainment Power 100” list. It’s the second year in a row she’s topped the list.

The rest of the Top 10:

2. Amy Pascal, co-chairman, Sony Pictures Entertainment
3. Bonnie Hammer, chairman of NBC Universal Cable Entertainment
4. Oprah Winfrey, chairman of Harpo Studios
5. Abbe Raven, president and CEO of A&E Television Networks
6. Stacey Snider, co-chairman and CEO at Dreamworks
7. Donna Langley, co-chairman of Universal Pictures
8. Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment
9. Dana Walden, chairman of 20th Century Fox Television
10. Judy McGrath, chairman of MTV networks

Kinda surprising to see Oprah at number 4, considering she was named the third most powerful woman in the entire world this year by Forbes.

DreamWorks, in its new form with co-chairs Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider, is having a tough time raising the money to cover their half of the deal with India’s Reliance Big Entertainment, according to Variety.

Reliance will ideally put up $500 million against $750 million that DreamWorks would raise. But credit issues as they are have put a slight crimp in their plans.

DreamWorks has only been able to raise $75 million so far through bridge loan from JPMorgan Bank. Other banks are balking.

Meanwhile, DreamWorks is on the hook right away for $20 million to acquire the 17 projects they were making at Paramount. And they’ve already been notified that Reliance is only providing as much as DreamWorks can raise. So it’s kind of like fish or cut bait time.

Inside DreamWorks sources were tight-lipped as well, though one executive told FBLA that DreamWorks relationship to Reliance is solid and not going away.

At this point, no one is quite sure how this will play out. The credit crunch has scared most of the major banks out of the water and DreamWorks is struggling for its deal to stay afloat.

Variety is chiding DreamWorks for foresaking its Paramount deal. But that may be misplaced spite as DreamWorks is happy to be free and clear to set up its production process to the highest bidder. Presumably, Universal was coming back into the DreamWorks fold, but that’s in question now too.

The Reliance money came in handy to the studio, perhaps even moreso with the worldwide credit crunch spurred by Wall Street.

The Hollywood Reporter‘s Annual 100 Most Powerful Women List came out today with none other than, no surprise, Oprah at the top of the heap.

She was followed by some of the usual female subjects, including DreamWorks Stacey Snider, Sony’s Amy Pascal, CBS’s Nancy Tellem and MGM’s Mary Parent.

The girls are all breakfasting at the Beverly Hills Hotel this morning. No doubt eating power bars.

DreamWorks 2.0 announced its first deal in its new incarnation with India’s Reliance Big Entertainment money: the studio will work in a two-year deal with former production heads (and producers) Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, Variety says.

Production pact is the company’s first since principals Stacey Snider and Steven Spielberg left Paramount Pictures in October and partnered with Reliance on an independent venture.

DreamWorks exited Par with a number of Parkes/MacDonald development projects in tow as part of its separation agreement with the Melrose studio. Among the Parkes/MacDonald films staying in the DreamWorks fold are “The Trial of the Chicago 7,” “The Damned,” “Motorcade,” “St. Agnes’ Stand” and “Dinner With Schmucks.”

“Dinner With Schmucks” had been developed as a Sacha Baron Cohen starring vehicle, but curiously he is no longer involved in the project.

Maybe he has something against Spielberg.

Though no declarations have been made, an inside source at DreamWorks tells FBLA that the company is likely to stay put with Universal for its distribution deal.

“We’re actually on the Universal lot in the old Amblin studio space,” the source said. “It’s just easier to maintain with Universal. Paramount will still have its cut on a number of DreamWorks projects, but though nothing is set in stone, it looks like it will probably be Universal.”

DreamWorks recently severed itself from the Paramount deal that had been cut by David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider. Take Geffen out of that mix and you have the remaining two principals still involved with DreamWorks: Spielberg and Snider.

That pair negotiated and was awarded a $500 million deal with India’s Reliance to bankroll six to eight films a year.

Those films will not be out-and-out blockbusters, but rather limited-budget pieces that can turn a profit, the source said. The example that is always given is: Sam Mendez’s “American Beauty,” which not only came in on a low, low budget, but won its share of awards and attention.

DreamWorks publicity reps were expectedly close-mouthed about distribution for the studio.

Stay tuned. More to come in the next week.

DreamWorks will downsize its 150-person staff by about 15% as the company gets going with its Indian cash, says Deadline Hollywood Daily.

The Reliance deal will inject some $500 million into DreamWorks coffers with an additional half bil being raised on Wall Street, though that may not be so definite these days with the current state of the economy.

As noted last week on FBLA, President of Production Adam Goodman is gone, firmly ensconced in the Paramount fold, but senior executives Holly Bario and Mark Sourian will end up as co-presidents of production at Dreamworks 2.0 with about four execs following them. DreamWorks COO Jeff Small will follow studio chief Stacey Snider.

DreamWorks publicity did not return calls to FBLA.

UPDATE:
Gail Berman walked the plank at Paramount with two years left on her contract. Claudia Eller at the LA Times points out that this is another loss for Brad Grey, while Nikki Finke sees another woman in power become a woman in peril: Berman’s not even getting the golden handshake of a production deal.

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