Dart heads the PR firm 42 West (formerly called the Dart Group) and reps some of the biggest names in the film business including Meryl Streep and Woody Allen.

The USC grad spent 23 years working for Pat Kingsley at PMK, working side by side with the PR doyenne while orchestrating campaigns for films like The English Patient and A Beautiful Mind and repping A-list film personalities like Tom Hanks and Mike Nichols. Dart rose to become a part-owner of PMK, which was sold to Interpublic in 1999; two years later she helped merge the firm with rival PR outfit Huvane Baum Halls to form PMK/HBH. Most observers assumed Kingsley would soon step down and Dart would take over. But in 2004, to the surprise of just about everyone in Hollywood, Kingsley called Dart into her office and fired her. It had little to do with her performance. (She'd been riding high with the success of Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and the Wes Anderson-directed The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou) Instead, the septuagenarian Kingsley wanted to show Dart—and everyone else—that she was still in charge and had no plans to allow her underling to take over. Dart started the Dart Group, which has since been renamed 42West shortly thereafter. In the wake of her dismissal from PMK, many of her clients promised that they'd follow her. They largely have, as she still boasts one of the most impressive client lists in town, perhaps because unlike most publicists—and certainly unlike Pat Kingsley—Dart has a reputation for being a pleasant human being. [Image via Getty]