Comments (11)

• I get the whole CAA-2 thing, but the more intriguing story is if other agencies are born out of the chaos of the merger. Which agents? Do others follow suit like Wu (either leave or get canned) and got to “2nd tier” shops? And the biggest, most intriguing question of all: do the clients follow?

  Comment by F. — Thursday April 2, 2009 @ 10:41am PST  Reply to this post

• Nothing kills enterprise, collaboration, creativity, vision, and overall well-being like a bunch of lawyers.

  Comment by Get rid of lawyers — Thursday April 2, 2009 @ 10:53am PST  Reply to this post

• I think the whole idea is a bad thing….But that’s just my cheap two cents. I dont really see WMA “hugging it out, Bitch!” About as subtle and graceful as W. dancing in Africa.

  Comment by tyroscribe — Thursday April 2, 2009 @ 10:53am PST  Reply to this post

• Dear “Get rid of Lawyers”,

  Please refrain from bashing lawyers unless and until you have a better understanding of what we do. It may seem evil and creativity killing to ignoramuses like you but almost everything we do has a purpose. Some lawyers are bad just like you’d find in any other profession, but for the most part we’re here to protect our clients from taking actions that could put them in legal jeopardy and make sure that their contracts protect them to the fullest extent that we are able to do so.

  We go to school for years to get our doctorates. We (those of us who enter the entertainment field) then spend a good deal of time fixing mistakes, oversights and errors made by our clients’ other representatives (agents, managers, publicists, etc…)and fighting the good fight to make sure that the studios and production companies give our clients as much creative freedom as possible.

  I’m tired of all of the lawyer bashing. Try living without the transactional entertainment lawyers and you’ll see just bad things would get for all of the creatives in the industry.

  Sincerely,

  Angry Lawyer

  Comment by Angry Lawyer — Thursday April 2, 2009 @ 12:03pm PST  Reply to this post

• Perfect time for those that have the drive and guts to cut loose and do their thing. The agencies need the shake-up. The sharks will still continue to feed on the weak. A lot of quality talent will be out there for the picking…

  Comment by hollywood joe — Thursday April 2, 2009 @ 12:09pm PST  Reply to this post

• I don’t think in this environment it will be that easy to start up the next InterTalent or Endeavor. WMA and Endeavor will still have commission rights for the Agent’s business for a while and in this climate, where are a bunch of Agents going to raise millions of dollars to start a business that is not exactly in a growth stage? No one is that dumb to back that venture. This isn’t Entourage……….

  Comment by TBA — Thursday April 2, 2009 @ 2:07pm PST  Reply to this post

• think this would be a travesty for the industry!!!!!!!!!!

  Comment by susan — Thursday April 2, 2009 @ 4:36pm PST  Reply to this post

• Who are the lawyers for WMA? And the lawyers for Endeavor? That will tell a tale and then some.

  Jim Wiatt.

  Here’s how it works. At the moment you’re being railroaded into the deal, theoretically being pushed into a point of no return, because it’s gone so far that no matter what happens – between the rape of the “due diligence” by Endeavor and their lawyer(s;) and the perception problem that WMA isn’t running the show and controlling the deal – WMA will therefore inevitably lose clients now even if a deal isn’t made.

  Endeavor knows this.

  This is the position they want you in. On the defense as the helpless, hapless conductor on the runaway train that they are engineering.

  You’ll be selling the agency (and yourself) a bill of goods while marginalizing everybody that you’ve worked
  with for years while at the same time destabilizing a client base that ENDEAVOR SIMPLY DOES NOT HAVE!

  The music; the books; the reality TV base’ the legacy contracts; the theatre; the news and commentary – they’re selling YOU an Ovitz-era mirage. DEPARTMENTALLY SCRUTINIZE THIS IMMEDIATELY FOREGOING LIST. The “synergy” is being gamed to skew in the wrong direction through possibly true-to-type manufacturing design. And you KNOW what I mean…

  WMA has just as many movie stars as they do who can get a movie made. Limato himself has as many.

  Look at the dwindling amount of time that’s available for television packaging in prime time. That trend is just going to continue affecting quotes from the top on down. Unless Endeavor can come up with more hours in the day it’s pretty obvious why they’re looking desperate to make this deal…

  Abruptly stop the Trojan horse talks and move on. The more you talk the more damage you’re doing.

  WMA is a great company! You’ve done great things with it!

  Think about WHY the four partners made it the first item of business when they commenced negotiations.

  Look in the mirror and admit it to yourself and your colleagues who entrusted you with William Morris in the first place.

  They get in, they will velvet cold cock you and many, many others, and push you out the door,(six months tops;) or make you function in a dinosaur pen a sufficient amount of time to give you a Rolex “loving cup” F.U. sayonara.

  And you know this – that’s the bewildering thing about all of this.

  It will go down in even worse and more humiliating ways because you made it so difficult to make the deal. You will feel the enormity of what you have done to yourself and to the agency as soon as the dotted line is signed.

  Do you really wish to be remembered as the guy that bumbled WMA into the deal that permanently dismantled an institution?

  It’s not slapping you in the face with a cold fish to remind you that there are many, many reasons why Mike Ovitz is hated and a pariah.

  Not the least of which – no one will admit this – despite that his Japanese consulting deals provided some cash in an earlier OTHER tough time that the agencies got through – he permanently disassembled one of the great intrinsically AMERICAN instititions – the Hollywood film business – as AMERICAN as the automobile industry -and he did so with outrageously sinister and duplicitous tactics. As always. Taking care of himself first above all else.

  Are you with me so far?

  Look up. Do not let them force you to your knees to look down. Or up at them while you’re forced to service Emanuela. Sinderfella. Rapeandtella. Salmonella.

  Do you really think that some of the things that have been said about you on this Comments section isn’t THEM?!

  You’re supposed to be dazzled by the buzz for Sascha Baron Cohen and a new “Sex and the City” movie right? Smoke and mirrors to disguise the TV/receivables REALITIES and probably not going to improve ever again. The media landscape is permanently diffuse. Fractionalized. Possibly never coming back. YOU ACTUALLY MADE MOVES THAT ADDRESSED THESE FACTS – AND THEY DIDN’T!

  Put the right team together to streamline and neaten up the place with a cohesive and proactive forward thinking game plan and prospectus.

  A lot of William Morris’ bad press is completely unwarranted…you’re on the cutting edge with the “green” building…and you just want to give it to him?

  Think about HOW Endeavor got started.

  Cartons and car trunks in the middle of the night.

  TWICE.

  Says it all.

  If you feel like you’re getting tired orchestrate a great succession plan – but retire on your own terms not on somebody else’s. Emanuel feels like he and he alone is the logical heir to the great legacy of jewish agenting. This is his animating behavioral model codified in calculating “look at us” press.

  He isn’t.

  My feeling is that you will get the respect and admiration of your colleagues and your peers for staring down this matter realistically in the final analysis.

  Maybe you’re not the “hottest” agent in town. But you have more class than most people here are willing to admit.

  But Jimmy -

  you need a new haircut…

  And thanks for that scarf.

  I never forget a genuine gesture.

  Question though : why is Variety “asleep at the wheel” on this one?

  Comment by Break a leg! — Thursday April 2, 2009 @ 7:20pm PST  Reply to this post

• Wow, what a fascinating comment from “Break a leg!” Interesting stuff. Sad that so many careers hang on personality, but hey, that’s show biz.

  But I really wanted to comment on Angry Lawyer. My lawyer can be glacial, my lawyer can almost up-end deals, my lawyer can make other lawyers unsure if they want to do deals with him because he’s a bastard – but then, when some step is tripped or some greenlight goes, he’ll call the studio and say, “Yeah, in the deal, it actually says that all those bonuses and two of the steps weren’t ACTUALLY against the purchase price, so you owe my client an additional $XXX,XXX.”

  To say nothing of, “Yeah, I know you’re going to ignore me, but they’re trying to fuck you on this, so let me see if I can fuck their lawyer without them knowing it so you can be protected just a little bit.”

  While yes, it can feel like the death of creativity and not doing something in the spirit of let’s-put-on-a-show!, but the only reason I’m not living in a fucking box somewhere behind Hollywood Boulevard is because of my lawyer and I know this.

  Comment by Dr. Doctor — Friday April 3, 2009 @ 7:41am PST  Reply to this post

• MEMO TO FILES

  Dr. Doctor, here’s the news on your post. You’re not living in a box because an agent helped you find work and negotiated a great deal for you. Or a manager or producer stuck with you through lean times.
  Your lawyer vets your contracts. That’s the job they’re paid to do. It’s when lawyers act like they’re superstars or “players” that the trouble begins. Bert Fields is the classic example. “An Angry Lawyer” – if you’re such an honest, great person – an exception to the rule – share your real name and your firm. You can pretend it might be good for business. You wanted to portray agents and managers as fuck-ups that don’t have a clue without douchebags like yourself. But if you don’t get paid; get your retainer agreement; your retainer; your 10% on work that other people stimulated; if you haven’t figured out the loophole that you played out as a string to be a noose that you think you can turn into a light lifting heavy billing cash cow – if you can’t piggyback in profligate and predatory fashion – you are nowhere to be found. Say what you will about agents and managers and producers -they all work on spec. Unlike sanctimonious scumbags like yourself. Can lawyers embellish or improve other people’s work and THE ORIGINATING OPPORTUNITY? Massage the boilerplate maybe in a favorable way? I guess. Sure. But some people build houses. And then there’s the guy who remodels kitchens and acts like he invented the slide rule and the level. Both of which he pocketed from his last job “worksite” (old contracts;) and were handed to him by the State Bar on a corrupt silver platter. And you fucking know it.
  Don’t even get me started on the intrinsic dynamic of Conflict of Interest and the opportunistic perfidy that goes on amongst such “legal eagles” in this town.
  That’s WITHOUT hiring organized crime wiretapping unleashing, legitimizing, therefore causing psychopathy. While pretending and looking the other way. That’s some fucking classy high brow team petard you’re hoisting there. Suck on THIS “transaction” will you please? Choke(please,) like you do with everything else, at your billable and treacherously premeditating costly and inefficient leisure. This is my highly educated “field of expertise.” Calling bullshitting creeps and crooks out. You know my hourly rate. Where do I send you your fucking bill?

  Comment by Atticus Finch — Friday April 3, 2009 @ 3:34pm PST  Reply to this post

• “Dr. Doctor” — by the description you give, you’ve got a lousy lawyer. The only “services” you’ve described are either fundamentally easy to provide (i.e., pointing out contractual provisions that are traditional and have nothing to do with legal ability) or are divisive and counter productive (e.g., arguing, playing possum, being slow, etc.). Lawyers like yours are the bane of the industry but only exist because clients don’t know what makes a good one: not being tricky or a “shark” but being smart, having good relationships everywhere you do business and giving really sound advice. You should start interviewing for a new one immediately.

  Comment by Old Studio Lawyer With 20 Years' Experience — Friday April 3, 2009 @ 5:27pm PST  Reply to this post