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I’m hearing that 4 agents got the ax today — Glenn Bickel, Tracey Murray and Catherine Stellin in CAA’s TV lit department, as well as TV talent agent Steve Tellez.
Bloodbath Today In CAA Marketing Group
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Just chiming in on more love for Steve Tellez. A class act amid the assholes. Hope he moves on to bigger and better.
I know three of the CAA agents let go; I can understand the others, but not Tracey. Very strange. What is CAA doing???
A somebody who has worked with Steve Tellez both as a client of the agency and as a buyer, I can tell you that he is one of the best agents around — smart, honest, tireless.
The studies say more men are losing their jobs because the industries hardest hit are male based. I would say it’s because men make more money, therefore they are the first to go. Women are cheaper to keep around.
Sad but true. (I’m a woman)
To Helenofpeel.
The women of WMA know this very well. They are all suffering greatly.
More layoffs may be presently happening to men, but that is because men have the good jobs to begin with. The jobs women have are largely part-time, and/or lesser paying jobs with no health care, pension etc. Moreover, the gender pay gap continues with women making 78-80 cents less on the dollar. And, women remain responsible for all the domestic responsibilities and childcare as well as working. Per NY Times, unemployed men spend their time watching tv and sleeping, letting their partners do all the work. Why would any woman ever ever ever want to get married. Women, please demand your equal share.
The ignorant haters can twist the facts all they want, but the bottom line is the bottom line.
Women need to start their own studio and agency. Men have made a pathetic mess of this biz, and of the economy at large. There are never any movies/tv to watch anyway because it’s all dumb male dominated crap. Even late night talk shows are unwatchable and tapped out with the endless parade of dull guys in suits. Women are the majority and make the majority household economic decisions. It is a built in demo and wildly powerful and incredibly under serviced.
Well, this confirms, as a Jr. Agent from a boutique agency who was recently shown the door, I stand no chance…
Thank God I still have my collection of ties. I finally will get to utilize my merit badge in knot tying — fashioning a noose.
Del Coro:
I was using this information.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-edward-m-kennedy-/recession-takes-a-toll-on_b_98184.html
Also, it may not be true of the whole country but it is definitely true of Hollywood. When ICM merged with Broder, the agents let go were proportionately female.
Therefore, please note YOU = EPIC FAIL
C’mon Steve Tellez?!
He was the last guy to point at and say “CAA hasn’t completly lost their soul”. He had way more value than they understood. With so many people rooting for them to fail they should take a great agent like Steve and make him a poster child not let him go.
If they were bringing in money, they wouldn’t be gone, right? Who are their clients?
How long before the TV lit folks land at ICM? ICM makes no bones about wanting to dominate in writers and writer-directors and CAA just let go some solid talent.
Well, I guess Bickel was expendable since they’ve moved to the Death Star. When I met him 18 or 19 years ago, tongue implanted firmly in cheek, he said, “I’m just a TV agent. All I did was build this building.”
I’m sure he can build another one.
Actually, CAA has a lot more humanity than you give them credit for. If you walk around that place for the most part, all the agents smile and say hello, especially the partners. They are a class act.
I am not an agent or do I want to be – but what kind of money / overhead was this group likely costing CAA?
Everyone keeps saying how nice these people are. Who cares? The only important thing is whether they’re getting their clients work and thus keeping the lights on at the agency. Being sweet and cuddly doesn’t mean shit in the real world. This isn’t high school anymore in case you hadn’t realized.
These are difficult posts to read, Nikki. Television is about relationships over many years and both Glenn Bickel and Steve Tellez are really excellent people and this is sad news. We’re in a very difficult economic time and but for the grace of god go many of us to work each day.
“sony cuts 300″…..”caa bloodbath cuts 4″…your bias against caa is so corrupt in everything you write…whatsa matter they dont suck up to you enough…..its a shonda
“Stupid is as Stupid does…”
Big ups to Catherine Stellin!
And Jr Agent from a small shop – nobody else may have noticed, but I heard your cry for your help. Don’t go Brooks Hatlen on us quite yet.
Back in the day when I was a newbie assistant trying to do whatever I could to stand out from the pack so that I could get into the Agent Trainee Program at CAA, I made an error of judgment in persuading a client (an Oscar winner whom I had done alot of grunt work for and whom I thought I had a good rapport with) to vouch for me so that I could get into the program. Although the client smiled to my face (over the phone), agreed to make the call and in fact did make the call, she apparently later felt used and unecessarily put-upon and she complained to her agent, who was then the head of the TV Talent Dept., Steve Tellez.
Steve called me into his office, told me why I was there and why his instinct was to fire me.
Then he proceeded to explain to me how I had messed up, why it was a mistake, and that I should never do anything like that again. And, armed with a lesson of the day, he sent me back to my desk.
Knowing all that I know about the industry now, I truly can’t believe he didn’t fire me AND that he would go so far as to impart a valuable lesson to me.
I have never forgotten that day, Steve. And I thank you for your intellect and compassion. CAA is monumentally stupid for letting someone like you go.
Steve Tellez is not only a great and wonderful man, but kept me working for the last ten years. He more than did his job well, he did it with class.
I wish him well, and may follow him wherever it may be.
Yep, Yep and Helen of Peel,
Mark my words,the women of WMA will suffer in silence no longer. When those 5 ladies come forward, they will stop the alleged merger in its tracks. If you thought taxes and egos were in the way, try a class action suit.
I love that the legacy that Jim, Dave, Irv and John will leave, is debt to 5 female agents.
Here’s what we are getting from the comments…Steve Tellez was jerry mcguire. Glenn was well-liked. Catherine was mostly unknown.
I will chime in on Tracy–she was once my agent. I thought her “shark-sense” would work for me. It did not. She is an inept shark, with dull teeth and no heart.
She’s terrible. A worthwhile cut. While no one wants to see anyone suffer, she’s bad at her job, will fold like a napkin at the slightest breeze of conflict, has no integrity with her clients. Tracy is that agent that has no barometer or opinion of what she herself thinks, outside of her dull and apparently numb sense of approximating what will sell. Talking to her about art is like talking to a Dalmation about Dali.
Which I suppose would be ok, if she could sell.
After I left her, and was show-running, she offered up a writer I was so-so on (and I could’ve been sold), she told me, “no worries. We have tons of other writers.”
I know its a business. But the best agents are true believers. And Tracy Murray hasn’t conveyed that she believes in anything.
Might that Oscar winner who felt put-upon be Sissy Spacek?
y’all are missing the point, at least on the TV side. there are less shows being put on the air. there are less packages for agencies to pick up. there are many shows that do get picked up with small or non-existent package fees. therefore these agencies have to cut costs because they will be booking less revenue. and since we know tv packages have carried many of these agencies for years, there will be signficant downsizing across the board.
the existential question that any middleman needs to ask in our business is whether or not the 400-750k a year job as an agent is going the way of the 400k a year A and R job in the music biz. i can tell you those don’t exist any more–my friends who had them run record labels and make 100k a year if they are lucky.
the business is changing. you all sound like a bunch of music exec types circa 2003. WAKE UP