HBO Chief on Leave of Absence

NEW YORK, May 9: Chris Albrecht, the chairman and CEO of
Home Box Office, is taking a leave of absence after being arrested in Las Vegas
over the weekend for alleged misdemeanor battery and domestic assault following
an altercation with his girlfriend.

The incident took place outside the MGM Grand Hotel, where
Albrecht was attending the Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxing
match broadcast on pay-per-view by HBO. He was reportedly arrested at 3 a.m.
after an altercation with his unidentified girlfriend, and spent 12 hours in a
holding cell before being released.

According to a statement from HBO’s parent company, Time
Warner, Albrecht’s leave of absence was granted at his request. Time Warner’s
chairman and CEO, Richard Parsons, said in the statement: “We take these
matters very seriously and will monitor this situation closely.” HBO’s COO Bill
Nelson will assume Albrecht's duties in the interim.

According to published reports, Albrecht issued a memo to
HBO staffers saying that the incident stemmed from his troubles with alcoholism.
“This weekend was a wake up call to me of a weakness I thought I had overcome
long ago,” the memo said. “I had been a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous
for thirteen years. Two years ago, I decided that I could handle drinking
again. Clearly, I was wrong. Given that truth, I have committed myself to
sobriety. I intend to take a temporary leave of absence from HBO effective
today, in order to go back to working with AA.”

Meanwhile, the incident has raised questions about a
previous altercation involving the HBO chief; the Los Angeles Times reports that in 1991, HBO paid a settlement of at
least $400,000 to a female staffer with whom Albrecht had been romantically
involved. She alleged that Albrecht shoved and choked her after she revealed
she was involved with someone else, the Times reports. Albrecht was the president of HBO
Independent Productions at the time. The female executive, Sasha Emerson, was
senior VP of the division.