UPDATE: Over the years I knew and interviewed Phil Gersh, the late founder of The Gersh Agency and long the dean of Hollywood agents, and he was a model of integrity even in the cutthroat business of Hollywood talent and literary representation. Because of this, reps at other agents long admired him. However, in my opinion, the bloodlines at The Gersh Agency have now thinned to the point where the only reason that certain members of the Gersh family are still running their second-tier agency is because they also belong to the lucky sperm club. On Monday, Deadline had solid information that the Gersh Agency was buying the small motion picture lit agency Hohman Maybank Lieb. We went to Gersh to confirm, on or off the record, and their flack assured us on the phone and by email, “Nothing happening”.  That was a lie when a “No Comment” would have sufficed. I’m now told by insiders, principals at Gersh and Hohman Maybank Lieb that day secretly wrote up the press release about the acquisition and held it until today when it was released right after we scooped the story. This afternoon, the flack as well as Bob and David Gersh have made all sorts of excuses to Deadline, including that there had been a “misunderstanding” between agency and flack, and/or between flack and Deadline. But in Hollywood where reps conclude mega-deals based on just a handshake, what’s to misunderstand that The Gersh Agency isn’t run by Phil anymore?

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