Image Queens Shake Film World in Battle Royal

Here's the pitch: young go-getter joins staid movie publicity company and forms dynamic partnership with veteran boss. Together they steer the agency to the heights of Hollywood: Nicole, Tom, Meryl, Woody and Harvey all become close friends and clients.

But in a callous turnaround the young thruster sees her dreams of one day taking over dashed as the veteran fires her. The final scene has the young gun flicking through her phonebook as she ponders whether to take her stars with her and set up in opposition to her erstwhile mentor.

Should the film ever be made, the casting would be easy: Meryl Streep would play 72-year-old Pat Kingsley, chief executive of the all-powerful Hollywood PR firm PMK/HBH, while Nicole Kidman would bag the part of Leslee Dart, 50, the firm's New York president.

The pair, reigning queens of the Hollywood PR world, fell out spectacularly last week in a row that breaks the golden rules of public relations: they did it in public, and they, not their clients, have become the story.

"PMK/HBH has opted to not renew [Dart's] contract, which expires at the end of this year," said an unusually stark press release from the company. "Dart's exit is effective immediately." Ms Dart was told not to return to the office, but was allowed back the next day to say goodbye to her staff.

Ms Kingsley made sure she got her own version of the story out first. "I think Leslee is capable and ready to run a company," she told reporters after summoning Ms Dart to the headquarters of the agency's parent company in New York, to tell her she had been fired. "I was just not ready for it to be this one."

"I definitely felt I had put in my time, and was told all along that I would be heir to the throne," said Ms Dart, adding that she felt shellshocked.

But if she was too shocked to fight her own battle, her clients were there to do it for her. She boasts an impressive roster of talent. She is credited with rescuing Hugh Grant after he was arrested with a prostitute on Sunset Boulevard. "I hope Pat and Leslee make up and work it out," said the Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. "It's too good a team. It's like Butch without Sundance."

Mr Weinstein has good reason to be worried. His company is set to release The Aviator, a biopic of Howard Hughes, directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. It is expected to be a strong Oscar contender, but successful Oscar campaigns depend on good publicity, and with the film's lead publicist gone, the campaign suddenly became a lot more difficult.

The same is true for several high-profile clients of Ms Dart.

Wes Anderson, who directed The Royal Tenenbaums and whose next film, The Life Aquatic, is to open in December, said: "This seems to have been perfectly timed to have the worst effect. Leslee's always taken great care of me and my movies. I expect to keep working with Leslee."

Scott Rudin, a producer who has several films vying for Oscar nominations this year, including The Manchurian Candidate, The Village and The Stepford Wives, was even more alarmed. "There is no comparable strategist working on the release of movies to Leslee Dart," he said. "She has handled my movies for 10 years. I would be out the door about 10 seconds after her."

But according to Ms Kingsley, the terms of their agreement are that Ms Dart cannot take any of her clients with her. Analysts speculate that the real reason behind the split is that the company needs to focus more on its corporate clients to boost profits and satisfy its parent company. In recent years, PMK/HBH has developed its business with non-film related clients including Reebok, XBox, Motorola and AOL.

"The movie business is still our core business," Ms Kingsley said. "But we have a corporate division, separate from representation, that's a very strong part of our business, about 35% to 40%, and Leslee is not involved in corporate."