As far as newly appointed Paramount Pictures chairman Brad Grey is concerned, there's no reason that a successful TV executive shouldn't thrive as a film executive.

In making his first executive appointment, Grey might have caught much of Hollywood off guard last week when word first leaked that he intended to draft Gail Berman, president of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Co., to serve as his creative lieutenant at Paramount.

But in the course of officially announcing Berman's appointment as president of Paramount Pictures on Wednesday, Grey explained the logic of his choice, saying: "Gail is uniquely suited for this change. The truth is she's in the business of telling stories. She's done it in drama like '24,' and she's done it in comedy. She's done it in a profound way, and since the movie business is also about telling stories, Gail's talents are self-evident."

In his former life as a manager, Grey dealt with Berman through the various stops in her career -- first at Sandollar Television, then at Regency Television and finally at Fox -- and he noted: "I've seen her in action. She knows how to forward an idea better than any executive I've ever seen -- she's really helpful when it comes to script. She has extraordinary taste and great relationships with talent."

For her part, Berman also minimized the differences between her old post and the new challenge she faces, observing that "they are two different jobs with a similar set of skills involved in each job." She noted that she had "the good fortune to have worked with artists who have crossed over between films and TV" and who now move back and forth between the two.

She cited such film-to-TV crossovers as Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (executive producers of "24" and "Arrested Development"), Paul Attanasio and Bryan Singer (exec producers of "House") and Arnon Milchan, for whose Regency Television she developed "Malcolm in the Middle."

Berman will step into her new job at Paramount in May, once she completes a transition period at Fox, where she has spent the past five years as head of programming.

She will replace Donald De Line, who had completed just 14 months of a three-year contract and who is negotiating an end to his tenure at the studio.

Berman, who will report to Grey, will be charged with overseeing Paramount's annual slate of films -- from acquiring and developing properties to budgeting, casting and producing films.

While the negotiations with Grey moved quickly during the past few weeks, Berman said she hadn't had time to visit the Paramount lot yet. She declined to discuss specific plans for building a new executive team, though she mentioned that the one person at the studio she knows socially is Alli Shearmur, the exec vp production who is expected to take over the post of co-president of production along with Brad Weston, who is co-president of Dimension Films.

"We really haven't spoken about that yet," Berman said of her discussions with Grey about the studio's executive lineup, "as much as we've spoken about building a team of people that can move forward altogether under his leadership."

Grey's decision to bring in Berman meant an early end to De Line's tenure as Paramount president; ironically, De Line will leave just at a point where the first films in the slate that he assembled, along with former Paramount chairman Sherry Lansing, are approaching release. Those films include such potentially commercial titles as "The Longest Yard" and "War of the Worlds."

In the studio's formal announcement of Berman's appointment, Grey went out of his way to thank "Donald De Line for the great work he has given Paramount. Donald is an exceptionally talented producer and executive who brought a great energy and enthusiasm to the studio."

While Grey would not discuss the status of settlement negotiations with De Line, he did say, "I'm happy to say we will be collaborating on some movies with him in the future."

De Line was unavailable for comment, but sources suggested that he is not expected to sign an overall production deal with Paramount, though he might take a producer's role on several Paramount films.

While Berman said her initial concentration will be on the movies Paramount produces, Grey added that he also expects she will be involved with creative issues at the other Viacom film units: MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies.

At Fox, where Berman oversaw the network's program development, scheduling, marketing and business affairs functions, she said she plans "to help through the transition and the pilot process" before she leaves. But she added that newly named Fox entertainment president Peter Liguori already has begun meeting with the staff and that by May, he would be in place while she would be moving on.

"I leave the network in an incredibly good place," Berman said. "I've accomplished so much there, and I'm proud of the people I leave behind. There are more incredible programmers and developers there than at any network."