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While Law & Order: SVU star Mariska Hargitay is in the midst of negotiating her return for the upcoming 13th season of the show, she is suing talent agency WME over commissions for Seasons 11 and 12. The agency, which was created in mid-2009 by the merger of WMA and Endeavor, recently filed demand for arbitration to receive commissions for Hargitay’s services on those two seasons. In a lawsuit, filed today in New York and obtained by TMZ, Hargitay claims that the agency has no legal claim to that money. Hargitay became a client of WMA in 2002 and left in May 2009 for Paradigm, following her WMA agent Erwin More. (Hargitay is currently at CAA, where she signed recently.) In the complaint, the actress claims that the only representation agreement she had with WMA was for one year, and it expired in 2004.
WMA continued to represent her but, according to the suit, Hargitay terminated the agency in May 2009, shortly before its merger with Endeavor and “after WMA management refused to assist her in negotiating for those seasons (11 and 12).” “WMA bases its claims on the long-expired WMA agreement — to which it was no party, and which was never assigned to it — and a purported implied or oral contract which it contends arose between WMA and Ms. Hargitay,” the complaint says. There is a lot of money at stake: Under Hargitay’s contract for Seasons 11 and 12, she was paid around $400,000 per episode, including backend and other additional compensation.
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Go get ‘em, Marishka!
Mariska is one the most beloved and honored actresses in the television biz. You DON’T mess with Mariska!
Ari and Rick are very cheap and extremely greedy good luck Mariska.
You go Mariska! They have been doing that to a lot of past clients, myself included.
Are times tough over there or what?
Another Actor thinking they did it on there own. I hope WME beats the crap out of her.
She doesn’t think she did it on her own… just that THEY didn’t do it with her…
Go Girl! I hope you trounce them!
They repped her in 09 and she left with Erwin and went to Paradigm. The deal was being discussed while she was still at WMA prior to it becoming WME. Sorry but she owes them. Not to mention she was also disloyal to Erwin. She’s at CAA and what are they doing for her. Oh that’s right she is on the show that was booked while she was at WMA/WME. She could argue that she doesn’t want to pay WME on the renegotiation but she’s gonna pay them. MH now you know how Erin must feel after he worked so hard for you. He thought of you as family. What did they promise you? To be a movie star at 50!
God I hate agents.
LOL!!! who dosen’t.
“He thought of you as family”
If I had a dollar everytime an agent said that about a client they dropped, I would be as rich as Bill Gates.Please take that disloyal nonsense an blow it out your ass.
Hey sd,
Mariska never claimed that she did it on her own. She fired them in 2009 and they are claiming that she owes them for contracts negotiated and executed after the termination. WMA attempted and failed in the negotiation, which sometimes happens, but you cannot lay claim for failure. She as a business person could have continued negotiations after the fact or her new agent could have as well. She was hired on at SVU before WMA, it wasn’t something they did for her. And my question to you is, why are you so angry at someone you don’t know about details you know nothing about. William Morris tends to bully in the entertainment industry because of their size, and quite frankly the question should be asked, why they are pushing for this now? It’s two years after the fact.
hilarious! “she fired them because they failed???” uh, duh, she fired them because her agent jumped ship. do the math: he was negotiating for her at WME and then closed the deal at Paradigm. It’s not rocket science people: WME gets 10% of what the deal was when she fired them and Paradigm gets 10% of the DIFFERENCE between her old salary and the salary negotiated in the new deal. Actors! They all beg for agents who make 10% of what they make and then when they “make it,” they don’t wanna pay 10% anymore. Pathetic!
Carly, obviously there are different sites reporting this differently, hence the reason I said they(WMA) failed to get her a better and newly negotiated contract, again, one source saying WMA failed to get her a better a deal. This isn’t the only source. And it’s hilarious that you think you know what’s really going on. Again, people are skirting the story. Why is it that WMA is coming after her now?
i love Mariska!
Another agent who thinks he did it on his own. Yawn…….
You are a moron. No agent thinks they did it on
their own, but the clients need us and that’s just
the way it is. She owes them the money. Period,
end of story. She will lose in court. Done deal.
I don’t think that anyone needs you as an agent, since your claim to fame is calling people morons and no person in art, acting, or music needs an agent if they are willing to do it themselves. Most are capable.
Ari and his WME robots need to stop making these kind of posts. Shame on you. You are supposed to be the protectors of talent. Instead you put your entourage dreams before ours and then squeeze out the pennies you don’t deserve just to make your ego feel better – so that you can say we needed you. I hope Mariska takes you to the cleaners and you learn a lesson.
Studios/producers hire talent, not agents. Most agents give themselves way too much credit…
Why should she pay when they let go of her agent? They obviously didn’t value her money when they made that decision. They should be the bigger people and step down.
They will never back down. The wouldn’t be WME if they backed down. Doesn’t matter if they got rid of Erwin. She and he were at WMA at the time. She can not and will not win unless they decide they want her to have her lunch money, Let’s face it, it’s not easy for old actresses in Hollywood. She should save the legal fees she’s gonna have to pay. This suit is an easy $150,000.00 It costs WME nothing to fight and win. It’s just sport to them. God I love Agents, big strong powerful ones. The one’s the have Presidents at there home for fundraisers. You know like Ari last week. They are the best! It’s a great life. Now if he were a manager we would not be having this debate. They can get screwed by an actor at at given time because they can not procure employment. Doesn’t matter how hard those poor suckers work. Agents are too smart and to important in this business to hate. If you matter they treat you well. You gotta love them. Like chocolate chip cookies.
Her signed contract with WMA may have expired in 2004, but she continued to engage them to represent her in her negotiations with the show, therefore they are entitled to the commissions based on the fees she earned thanks to their efforts on her behalf. While she was indeed free to leave the agency, she was not free to engage another agency to negotiate the terms of a contract initiated by her prior agents and to whom she was still contractually obligated (since they had negotiated the terms). It is not that she didn’t pay her commissions. She just didn’t pay them to the appropriate parties in the appropriate amounts. She owes 10% of the fees she earned under the contract negotiated by WMA to them, and should have only commissioned CAA for the portion of her fee they improved on over and above how much she had been paid in her last contract. She needs to have CAA return the money she overpaid to them and pay WMA.
“…implied or oral contract…”? Didn’t the lawyers learn in Business Law 101 that any oral/implied contract over a nominal amount ($500 when I was in school) is worthless in court?
Mariska’s suit should be thrown out. It’s an attempt to circumvent the legal process. If WMA thinks they have a claim against her, they have the right to bring an action against her. In this case, they are asking for arbitration of their contractual claims. They still have to prove their claims. But they shouldn’t be denied their day in court. Mariska should have to show up like anybody else and tell her side of the story.
She paid them on the deal for how ever many years and is now not going to pay them? Love ya MH but you need to pay up. cost of doing business.
I love the bravado from the agents commenting on this “She will lose in court. Done deal.” Yeah, like an agent knows the first %^&* thing about the law. Or about anything, for that matter. Agents are just blowhards, and I think WME is just trying to take advantage of someone who didn’t feel like getting pushed around. Go Mariska.
God, there’s a lot of money in crap TV.
Mariska has no legal standing. Read her Complaint. It’s ridiculous. Hopefully she can get the $$ back from CAA that is legally owed to WME. If not, her next lawsuit will be against CAA and she’ll be forced to seek representation from UTA or some other locale.
Obviously none of us on this site know the details of the original contract. Mariska was with SVU before WMA, so does this mean that she can’t turnover her contact to them because it was hers first? No. She negotiated with them first, so from the way some of you are trying to explain your thoughts, WMA shouldn’t be compensated at all, because she already negotiated her stay and future. Clearly, if WMA failed to negotiate terms for the new season(s), there is no clause saying that Mariska or an agent acting on her behalf cannot go in and negotiate a new contract. The word here is new. If this were the case, Mariska would no longer be on the show. I myself have dealt with WMA, not to this scale, but it had to do with an expired contracts and copyright laws. Needless to say, my attorney, who was the same attorney that the Jimi Hendrix estate used for the settlement for the family, clearly saw the loopholes and everything was thrown out. Again, remember, WMA could not and/or would not negotiate new terms for her SVU contract, which means she has the right to terminate according to that clause, go in and negotiate without them or with an acting agent. WMA failed, and someone else succeeded. Again, why is that WMA(E) has waited until now to do something? If the all powerful William Morris was on top of their game, which you would think that they would be, they would have, should have, could have filed two years ago upon the re- and newly negotiated terms. But they didn’t and that will come up as well. WMA has the burden of proof and so far, no one on this page or anywhere else has seen proof of their claim. The details are in the contract and wording and the judge will decide. I myself, would like to laugh at William Morris again.