Suspense Builds As Eisner Looks For Studio Chief.

BEING a top-level executive is no fun these days -- especially if you're Michael Eisner.

The chairman of Walt Disney Co. has not only had to deal with trying to increase the company's stock, he's had to face the embarrassment of seeing "Pearl Harbor" sputter at the box office -- then watch archrival Jeffrey Katzenberg's "Shrek" out-distance Eisner's "Atlantis."

Worst of all, he's now got egg on his face following the abrupt decision of Disney Studios chairman Peter Schneider to leave his post.

As you probably know, Schneider decided to jump ship in late June after only 17 months of running Disney's movie and TV production, claiming he wanted to head back to his first love, the theater.

Now the only thing anybody wants to talk about in a summer-sluggish Hollywood is; Who will get the job?

While nobody really knows Eisner's thinking except his top deputies -- and a Disney rep said the company had no comment -- a handful of names have surfaced, both inside and outside the company.

Three top movie executives are mentioned internally: Disney motion picture group chairman Dick Cook, one of the longest-serving staffers in Disney history and a deft infighter who climbed through the ranks; animation president Tom Schumacher, a protege of Schneider's whose roots are in the theater, where he produced the Tony Award-winning "The Lion King", and movie division president Nina Jacobson.

Cook is the only one of the three whose name is being given real weight by odds-makers. But there is a major question mark over each exec.

Cook may be a loyalist, but his roots are in distribution rather than production. Schumacher's closeness to Schneider may imperil him, and nobody thinks he really wants the job anyway. And Jacobson is too new to her solo presidency (a job she used to share with Todd Garner) to be considered seriously for the job of running the whole studio.

All of which means that a smattering of outsiders have begun to look promising.

Names floated include Bill Mechanic, the recently departed chairman of 20th Century Fox and a former Disney exec; and Rob Friedman, currently the No. 2 official under move division chairman Sherry Lansing at Paramount.

Mechanic is one of the most respected executives in town, but he's been busy cobbling together financing for a new production company, and it is believed he has no interest in going back to corporate life.

As for Friedman, he spent most of his career in marketing at Warner Bros., where he developed a reputation for turning even dross to box office gold. His run at Paramount has been equally successful, with mega-hits from "Mission: Impossible 2" to this summer's "Tomb Raider." Wooing him away could prove difficult -- especially when his new boss would be the very hands-on Eisner, who recently has gone so far as to demand director- and cast-approval on his company's films.

So far, sources say Eisner is biding his time.