Weinsteins Want Miramax Name Back 
'Saw 3D' vs 'Paranormal Activity 2' Battle … 
TV TUG OF WAR: It's Ellen vs Simon, And … 
Robert De Niro Returns To CAA From WME; Jane … 
Fox Wins Studio War For Robert Rodriguez' … 
Weinstein Co Gets "New Lease On Life"? 
Nicole Kidman Hires Angelina's Manager 
So What Are The Hot Films At Sundance? 
Huge $70M Settlement In TV Writers Age … 
TOLDJA! Momoa Chosen 'Conan' Barbarian 
Oscar Campaign Badmouthing Has Begun! 
UPDATE: A very reliable source close to Charlie Sheen just emailed me: "Don't you be surprised if he signs with CAA within the next few weeks." So will that agency get to help negotiate the upcoming Two And A Half Men contract for TV's top paid star?
Previous: Maybe it's the financial crisis, or one marriage too many, or rising hooker rates. But I just learned that Charlie Sheen asked his entire entertainment rep team to cut commissions. That means his agents, his lawyers, his managers, everyone. And this after Sheen yesterday was named the top paid actor in television by TV Guide! (The mag reported that the Two And A Half Men star takes home $875,000 an episode on the CBS sitcom.) I'm told WME said no, and now Sheen is no longer a client and is telling Hollywood he doesn't want an agent right now as he's about to enter into a negotiation for a new deal on CBS' Two And A Half Men.
Loading ...
Like you need WME to handle that deal.
Lawyers and managers are more than enough.
Yeah right, Chucky. We’ve got your number.
Won’t WME commision the renegotiation regardless?
An agency only gets commission on deals that they negotiate. With this being a new deal negotiation, then whoever negotiates this deal, whether it be CAA or Sheen himself or some other entity, is entitled to the commissions. (Obviously Sheen wouldn’t pay himself commission.) Depending on the deal Sheen had with WME, WME should still be entitled to the commission on all residuals paid for the episodes filmed under the deal that they negotiated
Charlie is a class act. Smart, funny, kind.
And talented. They call him the “The Ma-Sheen” because of his extraordinary ability to remember lines.
Jut wish he’d ease up on the 9-11 conspiracy theories… really threatens his credibility.
So Actors are starting to realize that they don’t need agents no more. Take back that 10%, direct and star in another HOT SHOTS and call it a day big man.
There goes one of your top 2% clients WME.
Bring back “Hot Shots”. yes….
MA-CHINE!
He’s an ass…
Actually, hooker rates are “going down” but they always say that.
All Charlie has to do is take THE OLD DEAL and update the dates, $$$ and who-to-send-the-checks-to columns… and he has A NEW DEAL!
Or he could ask his friend Gordon Gekko to negotiate for him.
If negotiations screws up the show might have to be called ONE AND A HALF MEN or TWO MEN or TWO AND A HALF MEN MINUS AN ASSHOLE… depending on what they think of Charlie Sheen.
Nikki:
Did you really have to go there on the hooker rates? Talk about a dead horse. Or, at least, a dead ho.
This is a tough balance, but his teams are collecting passive payments and, if you’re on the creative side like I am, you know that once you’re locked on a gig, the reps move on to other clients. Yes, one could say the richness of his deal was negotiated by his reps. But I don’t see WBTV putting him over the barrel if he goes in there alone.
Maybe WME should’ve told Sheen, “Wait! We’ll put together a kick-ass world-wide domination presentation for you, like we did for Alicia Keys! We’ll make you a partner with The Men’s Wearhouse, and with Vegas brothels… endless possibilities. C’mon, man.”
Smart… Agent’ll just take 10% to get the same result his manager and lawyer could get without them. For someone like Sheen, who’s on a hit show that needs him, an agent’s a waste of money.
I think he was just mad that Denise Richards had to have 50% of all his meetings with WME.
Sheen is a major waste of money. Seriously, talk about much ado over nothing. I hope none of the agents touch him and he can go to CBS, sans lawyer, publicist, agent and manager, and see what comes of it. Take those dollars and replace him with a REAL actor, then take the surplus and spread it around the set.
Sheen is a major waste of money. Seriously, talk about much ado over nothing.
Comment by BriteBlonde1 — October 1, 2009 @ 12:20 pm
Sheen is the anchor of the number one network sitcom AND the number one syndicated sitcom — a property which has already returned HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to the studio which employs him, and is projected to bring in between one and two BILLION by the end of its run.
If that seems to you like “a waste of money” and “much ado about nothing”, you’re not very “brite” — but I’m willing to believe you’re blonde.
Sheen isn’t an economic waste of space, he’s an artistic waste of space and his show is a waste of air time. Seinfeld it is not. It’s watchable but not memorable and for that he earns nearly a million an episode?
Isn’t this an ICM package? He should approach them so he doesn’t get commissioned on it.
CAA is well-known by Top Tier talent as the “Five-percentery”.
Well, with team of agents (10%), managers (15%), Lawyers (10%) and federal and state taxes paid on the whole amount, what he is left with is about 50%.
Cry me a river… $400,000 a week is not enough. He better start saving some for future years when the show goes off the air and no one will want to employ him…
Lawyers are 5% — at best — many of them at 2% (or less) for top talent — just to have the client –
Really, WME is going with the commission excuse again? CMU needs fresh writers to come up with some new material for the spin. WME: over before it began.
Good move, Charlie (no sarcasm). You make a ton of money, and they do nearly nothing for you right now other than to cash their commissions on your huge paychecks you’ve locked in.
Go for it, brother. Nice move, perfect timing.
best,
sterling
Maybe he can go on the road and do lectures about his 9/11 conspiracy theories!
Actually, when you’re talking agents/managers/lawyers/taxes, what they come away with is closer to the 40-45% range than 50. Which is still a ton of money when you’re talking about 875k per. What he’s doing isn’t particularly grateful, but any other agency will take him at whatever b/c it’s free money — he’s going to be getting a million per episode for a show that has to have him, and he doesn’t seem particularly interested in branching out (or maybe he does, and that’s part of this). If he wants to get back into features he needs an agent. Otherwise all he needs is a lawyer to sniff contracts. Hey I feel bad for his agents but if he wasn’t working they wouldn’t take two seconds to drop him. It goes both ways.
This is exactly right. When it comes down to it, all this is the biz part of showbiz. I believe a couple cast members of Everybody Loves Raymond did this for a while, downsized ONLY to a lawyer; then upsized back to an agent once the gig was over after 9 seasons and they needed to get into another show or into features. If Sheen is really only managing offers and his career is relatively simple right now, then a lawyer is all he needs.
Why bother having a manger at all ? Just keep the agent and Lawyers and the PR team, that’s enough.
Two and a Half Brain Cells.
You can see the tea leaves all over this move… Sheen wants film activity that WME hadn’t delivered on to date so his next move is to award that tv commission to the next agency that will do a better job… Guaranteed he has no signed papers and can move his deal anywhere he likes…
At least mention the most relevant point. He is the highest paid actor on television. #1. And, really, he’s on the best multi-camera sitcom on TV. He’s making a wise decision and probably deserves more praise than potshots. Then again, what does he care, he’s the highest paid actor on TV and I believe he said publicly that after 2 1/2 Men, he plans to take some time off.
Just because it’s the highest rated sitcom doesn’t translate to the best multi-camera sitcom. 2.5 Men is mediocre at best.
Maybe with the new money, Charlie can get himself a new wig. Al Pacino from Heat called and wants it back.
Isn’t there a legacy aspect to this kind of deal? Don’t originating agents/managers participate FOREVER? Could someone please share some agent/manager deals 101?! Thank you in advance.
Funny how not liking Ari so much has me rooting for CAA….that’s messed up.
Yeah… the Sheens are funny about their money. You should have seen Martin negotiating a big raise during the WEST WING years…His wife Janet showed up for the meeting with Peter Roth wearing a shirt with dollar signs all over it… hoping to get her expecations across. They act like they are broke, but are totally loaded. Whatever.
Mark Burg put him on the show I think and collects a nice exec prod fee for doing it, and not out of Charlie’s pocket…why should he pay someone to do a no-brain deal?
2 1/2 Men shows how depraved American society has become, that it is funny to laugh about a drunk and a womanizer who in real life has gone through wive’s like fast food, leaving in his wake children of broken marriages.
The show even brought on his ex-wife Denise Richards pretending to be his ex-girl friend who had had a child with another guy in a marriage that turned bad…. well in real life that ex-husband and father is Carlos Estevez (charlie sheen) who is obviously a callous jerk.