Paul Prokop, a senior vice president at New Line Cinema, has been promoted to exec VP of production finance for New Line's film and television units as well as for Fine Line Features.

At the same time, Julie Shapiro has been brought in from Rysher Entertainment to become VP of business and legal affairs for New Line's TV activities. She will negotiate all talent, pilot, series, made-for and syndication agreements for programs produced and distributed by the company.

"Julie has earned her reputation as one of the brightest business affairs executives working in television," said Bob Friedman, president of New Line Television and co-chairman of worldwide marketing. "Her experience lends itself to various distribution outlets, including network, syndication and cable."

For 3-1/2 years at Rysher, Shapiro held the same title she will now assume at New Line. While at Rysher, she helped usher onto the small screen the CBS series "Nash Bridges," HBO's "Oz" and the firstrun syndicated series "SOF: Special Ops Force."

Since joining the company fresh from the U. of Scranton in 1990, Prokop has worked on every one of the company's productions, including "The Mask," "Seven," "Dumb and Dumber," "Rush Hour" and "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me."

Prokop began as an accounting clerk and rose through the ranks to senior VP in 1995.

"Paul handles his enormous responsibilities with a professionalism that is unparalleled," said Carla Fry, New Line's president of physical production. "Our films would not run as smoothly and efficiently without his expertise backing every one of them."