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UPDATE: Word is she's going to Kevin Huvane at CAA. "Maybe he can put her in his close friend Joe Francis' next Girls Gone Wild video," my source snarked.
EXCLUSIVE: CAA has always represented her in the music area. But now Miley Cyrus is taking meetings with agencies about her TV and film and endorsements representation. Is this fair to UTA? Of course not. But I hear the decision was made by Miley's mother Trish Cyrus who is her de facto manager. No word on whether father Billy Ray Cyrus, also a UTA client, will exit as well.
UTA had just closed the deal for Cyrus to return for the final season of Hannah Montana on The Disney Channel. UTA also packaged around Miley her next movie project The Last Song at Disney. The agency reps Nicholas Sparks, who wrote both the book and screenplay, as well as director Julie Ann Robinson and producers Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot.
It was about a year ago that I reported when the star of that billion dollar Disney franchise Hannah Montana traded in Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty (which helps transform mostly child actors, singers and models into A-list stars) for United Talent to follow her long-term talent agent Mitchell Gossett, formerly the ex-VP of CESD's theatrical division. He also brought along Billy Ray. Gossett had reportedly been involved with Miley since she and her father demonstrated their father-daughter chemistry to Disney's Gary Marsh; that led to deals in 4 areas at the Walt Disney Co: TV, film, consumer products and recording.
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To hell with UTA, I’m glad she left, I hate that place.
UTA is like the starter house amongst the major agencies. I’m sure they aren’t exactly surprised at her decision.
I’ve got $20 on CAA scooping her up by Friday.
those old cliches have something to them — ‘what comes around, goes around.’ in this case, mitch gossett gets his well-deserved comeuppance. no one can blame him for being slimy (that you cannot help), but the way he left CESD without telling his clients, their managers or returning numerous phone calls was just plain unprofessional and sleazy. anyone who knows anything about this business knew that mitch would get his soon enough — who thought it would be this soon?
Wyly Miley Says Goodbye-ee
Great scoop!
“Is this fair to UTA? Of course not.”
If the term of her contract was up, what’s not fair about it? Those are the terms under which talent and reps work. I know I, for one, don’t feel it’s “unfair” for anyone to want to move on, for whatever reasons, so long as they’ve fulfilled the requirements of whatever mutually agreed to contract was in effect to that point.
Whoops!
RE: the line about “Miley’s mother Trish Cyrus who is her de facto manager”
I thought that Jason Morey, son of Jim Morey (ex-Gallin Morey Associates, now Morey Management Group) was Miley’s manager? I am sure her parents are in the mix and helping make certain personal decisions, but…
I think Jen Gibgot is hot. Have any of you met her in person?
There’s no loyalty in Cheesytown.
The stars we deserve: a stage-managed teenage warbler and her bland, soulless pseudo country hack dad.
Get these people off the stage with a hook. Please. I had the misfortune of seeing a few minutes of the ‘movie’, and it made the disposable junk of elvis and doris day look like CITIZEN KANE by comparison.
The death star welcomes them.
come on over to WME
You gotta think there has to be some good reason for it. not like she’s being lured away by WME’s amazing logo.
I never understand it when people change agents when everything is going so well…bad karma. But then, having your mom as your manager is probably not the healthiest thing in the world. My sympathies to her former agent who seemed to have done everything right.
Miley and her family are probably p.o.’d about UTA forcing that lame movie package on her.
Nikki, you seem to always be an apologist for UTA, even when they were losing all of their top comedy talent. You may like them, but they screw up, too. In this case, they were not being upfront with the family and trying to shove her into projects like the one announced this week at Fox.
That movie package is going to make her more money and relationships.
Silly silly girl.
SLIMEY AND UTA ARE INTERCHANGEABLE.
menoposual mom guiding tween star’s career…can we just call this the Dina Lohan Syndrome?
jason morey is her music manager. his dad jim is billy’s music manager, fyi
You know, for my money it just doesn’t get any better than when Billy Ray Cyrus sings “Achy Breaky Heart.” I celebrate the man’s entire catalog.
Gee, another amazing act of ‘loyalty’ in this business.
It’s always amazing, that ladder of success, and what Miss Miley has to look forward to on the way back down. It won’t be long now.
Susan Boyle pay attention.
What is loyalty? That thing an agent, studio/network exec or lawyer is to show. Actors? I’m doing it for my career… Actors get dropped when a) they suck for whatever reason, b) they stopped making money – and usually over a long time or c) they are such headcases it hits LTS category. But ACTORS? They get to drop U if they want to go to more parties, think they can act better than they can or don’t hit their marks on the job opps that their reps get them. So wakeup one and all – this is the reality we all face everyday in this Town.
Not that she has has to worry but Miley’s tween fans are getting older and outgrowing her. She doesn’t translate well with adult audiences so after her run with Disney, she’ll go the way of the Olsen Twins / Hilary Duff (rich but in obscurity – which isn’t too shabby at all).
the commenters on this board sound so out of touch! whether or not you think she has talent, your daughters do – and they probably buy a lot more movie tickets (not to mention merchandise) than you do. her fans are hardly outgrowing her – have you noticed that she doesn’t exactly look like a tween anymore? i give kevin huvane credit for recognizing the appeal she has with viewers and at the box office. he’ll do an amazing job guiding her to the next phase of her career.
She should be getting $250k+ (probably $500k) per episode for Hannah Montana, if you look at what stars get on other shows that are not nearly as profitable. She’s not even close to that.
If any of you are truly surprised by this move… what are you doing in this town?
The morality of it can be argued til the cows come home, but the truth is… this was coming ever since the opening weekend of her last movie. if you think Huvane hasn’t been trying to get her for the last couple months you’re pretty naive.
As long as UTA gets paid for the deals that they did arrange, then BFD if she decides to switch agencies.
Nikki, you are off on your interpretation this time. The Mitch is playing you, trying to victimize the client. It’s what he does every time someone dumps him.
It is fair to UTA? Absolutely. UTA is getting exactly what they deserved for hiring Mitchell and raiding the smaller agency’s client list.
Gossett is also getting what he deserves. Most working kids in Tinseltown have left him at one time or another. He is despised. The guy agents like he plays fantasy football. It’s all a big game with imaginary players and he must win at all costs. Not a great philosophy when working with actual humans, much less children.
What really happened here? Word on the street is:
Miley is repped at CESD 5 years ago, primarily by Margot Klar, not Gossett.
Miley is hired for Hannah, after 1 1/2 years in casting. She is hired because she a. has a famous dad, b. has a show exec living down the street who pushes for her, c. the first choice turned it down due to educational issues, d. her parents are hicks and will do whatever Disney tells them to do, e. she is inexpensive, and f. Disney has run out of time.
CESD does a deal for Miley that gives away the rights to her name along with everything else, and gives her less than $10,000/ep. Remember: she had no credits outside of a freebie co-star on her dad’s old show, and this is a Disney cable show on an AFTRA contract.
There is no grooming or development at either CESD or UTA. The girl has probably never taken an acting class. Few real auditions. She has been in a Disney bubble for her entire career.
Agent Margot leaves CESD after realizing that she will get no credit for the Hannah Montana deal, or anything else. The Mitch takes credit for all his staff’s work. He is a big talker, not a big worker and I’d be surprised if he got the same kind of staff support at UTA to CYA. Margot’s contract is up so she goes into management.
Mitchell leaves CESD and screws multiple clients in the process, including the no-names that he picked up from his numerous cash-under-the-table travels to Texas for “scouting”. Some kids follow him to UTA thinking they will make it big at the big agency. CESD replaces him with an assistant named Pedro from Abrams.
Miley follows Gossett to UTA as his trophy client. She makes NO money for UTA except for the deal Nic Sparks that they packaged (Read: handed to her on a platter, if she would pay to produce).
The Mitch’s expert handling of 16 year old Cyrus at UTA resulted in the Miley & Mandy show on youtube, Vanity Fair photos, lingerie photos on the net, the Chinese racist debacle and her reputation for extracurricular, not-so-Disney activities. Note that he also handles youngster Taylor Momsen, who is also presenting herself as a 25 year old. Nice job.
There have been rumors about the Cyrus’ dumping Gossett for the last year. Nothing has happened for her minus the Sparks deal. The HM movie would have been brokered years before in the original series deal, and it was finished shooting more than a year ago. Her music is where her money is, and that has been done by people other than UTA.
Last week, UTA announces a deal for Cyrus to do another season of Hannah Montana. She will be the first Disney princess to do that. Both Raven Simone and Hilary Duff wisely walked away from Disney at this juncture. Judging from Cyrus’ multiple attempts to wiggle out of the Disney mold, did she really want to do another contract with Disney? That’s a mismatch if there ever was one. There are only two reasons to do that:
Money
and
Lack of any other opportunity.
Disney’s desire to do this deal is puzzling. Miley has been a problem. Her original fans are no longer interested. She jumped the shark and it is no longer cool to say you are a fan, unless you are 6 years old–not tween, 6. Is this just one last effort to squeeze milk from the cash cow?
Note to Disney: think of something original. We’ve had every incarnation of Hannah, which was really just a tweak of Lizzie Maguire. Now we’re going to have Hannah AND it’s clone, Sonny with a Chance? Plus two more series about boys in a band, JONAS and Viper? Is this the only story you guys have to tell? Please go back to the drawing board and talk to some real life kids.
Maybe Trish Cyrus isn’t the bad guy here. Maybe the Cyrus family finally wised up and decided to take control of their child and her career before she turns into Britney.
I hope Miley is making the right decision to leave her current agency. Maybe Trish is pretty smart, she did just get Miley a great deal with Max Azria http://vainstyle.com/?p=2373
To “Ding Dong the Mitch is Dead”…You are a coward for not printing your real name.
To Ding Dong the Mitch is dead.
Oh yes, haha Raven Symone and Hilary Duff did the EXACT thing by wisely walking away from Disney.
Their careers have been SOOOOO successful since then! Hilary Duff, Materiel Girls, Cinderella Story, and the movie with Heather Locklear> yes, I would say they did the exact right thing…………… NOT
There’s some really harsh words being thrown around. Not sure that they are all facts. Margo did cover Miley but Mitchells relationship with Billy Ray was long standing. She was just doing her job under his direction. Margo also left CESD after they didnt renew her contract with her terms.
I tend to agree that there are many ashes scattered around from all of the bridges burnt and correct me if I’m wrong but the actions of the 16 year old girl in the press and the photos, etc.. are the result of a parent approving things for their minor daughter. However you want to slam Mitch, you can’t deny the names that he discovered. Most people in this business want to take credit and steal away developed clients. One of the few redeeming characteristics is that he actually found them in the middle of nowhere and brought them here. The guy did his job. A joy to deal with? That’s anotherpost
We have friends rep’d by mitchell.
uta has a horrible way of communicating and going after the wins for their clients.
they always try and force deals down their clients throats. it’s sad. he lost demi right before she exploded, my hope is that is learns and comes back to being a caring human agent.
it’s sad. but if someone isn’t doing their job in any field in the planet they get fired.
Hollywood has gotten to Tish’s head. Betrayal. UGHH
Oh well. It’s not a matter of if they are going to leave.. its when.
Mitch is a good guy. Best of luck to him.
People can be really mean.
no one should ever enjoy the pain or hardship of another. Why would you do that as if your above that yourself!
It’s simple, in business if someone isn’t doing their job, then they get fired, or if someone wants to go another direction that’s their choice.
people leave their agents all the time! no big deal. I’m sure UTA with massive clients will be fine!
Geri
Mitch is one of the most caring agents in the industry. wanting money for yourself and your clients does not make someone a bad agent. ambition and hunger are not negative attributes. ive known mitch a long time and he is a great agent. so miley left, and the next super star will be his find as well. I promise all of you. I know him much better than all of you I assure you.
Nicely put, Mitchell. And yes, you are a nice guy.