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I'm told that Lorrie Bartlett and Chuck James will be joining ICM as senior agents in the motion picture talent department after working at the Gersh Agency for several years. Their clients include young talent like Academy Award nominee Djimon Hounsou, Megan Fox, Zoe Saldana, Eliza Dushku, Elisha Cuthbert, Mena Suvari, Dennis Haysbert, Kelly Macdonald, Rodrigo Santoro and Jordana Spiro.
ICM Hires 2 Gersh Movie Talent Agents
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Not a good day for Gersh.
Is it money? Why would you leave a smaller functioning agency where you are one of the big cheezes, for a larger dysfunctional one.
Small places need to provide solid pay for these rising stars. There’s a good reason that these guys and Warren Zavala left Gersh. Management can’t keep taking more for themselves. Worthwhile employes deserve to be compensated.
It works both ways though – the lure of working for a smaller, boutique agency like Gersh (which really isn’t THAT small), is that one gets promoted to agent after only 2-3 years, compared with 4, 5, or even 6 years that it takes to get promoted at one of the big 5. And then, even after a company promotes someone to agent, they’re usually still losing money on the employee for the first couple of years because the new agent is still being groomed and shown around town and developing relationships while they “cover” studios or networks. So the trade-off is: get promoted quicker in exchange for lower pay.
I mainly agree with Elliott above but would also add this. For most agents with a commitment to grabbing actors in their (relatively) early years and cultivating them as they grow as actors, the agents also want an infrastructure that will allow them to cultivate a career.
I won’t hate on Gersh b/c I think that as talent agencies goes it’s a decent one and given its size and reach it does have a good client list. However, it’s not a place to be as an agent if you want to hold on to talent as they move up to the higher levels of the food chain.
By going to ICM Bartlett and James are getting more $ but they’re also reducing the likelihood of a larger agency grabbing some of the clients they’ve been cultivating (or at least delaying the fact).
hey elliott: they were both partners, therefore they were both management. so they were, what, stiffing themselves…?
Congrats to them both!
PS: I bet “management” means the name on the door
It’s a great get for ICM, an agency with quite a brilliant young group of agents and execs.
They are both really capable agents and if ICM embraces them, I’m sure they will make some $ for everyone. Mmm, money…
Jeez…moving over to ICM?!
That’s like boarding the Titanic as the lower 3 decks are flooded with ocean water.
“Hey…nice boat…hey, what’s all this water on the lower decks? Hey, why is everyone putting on lifejackets? Why are all the agents jumping overboard?”
career suicide, indeed.
Megan Fox is delicious looking.
hey “a client”: they were given joke titles as partners. At the end of the day the Gershes run the place. Only Leslie Siebert, who is still there, was actually a ‘managing partner’.
Gersh is an amazing agency. It has a team of some of the best and most genuine people.
Sad indeed for them to lose these agents. But they will bounce back quickly.
P.S. Gersh is not a boutique agency. lol
Chuck James trained at ICM and was the Mo Pic co-ordinator in the mid 90’s. Toni Howard refused to promote him over 10 years ago eventhough he was a fantastic piece of manpower. He went to Gersh and created a great business for himself, repping some of the hottest young talent in the business. I hope ICM is paying him a fortune. Sucess is the best revenge.
Good for you Chuck. How long until they lose Diva Howard and make you the head of the department? Not soon enough!
I wish them both luck. I hope they both realize that to survive at ICM they will have to kiss Toni Howards’ ass on a daily basis.
She is the power hungry queen of ICM
I know that no one is loyal in this business, but Barlett started as an assistant at Gersh over a dozen years, it seams odd that she suddenly pics up and leaves. Wasn’t she making decent money there?
What does this mean for Jr. Agents Carlos Gonzalez and Christopher Fiolo? Former assistants to Bartlett and James respectively, they were promoted to appease the egos of their employers. The two of them are underwhelming at best. The loss of Bartlett, and to a lesser extent James, is a huge blow, but the lack of talent among the younger agents is far more worrisome. The company’s only strong agents under the age of 35 are Alexander Yarosh and Randy Goldman from the New York office.
you mean randi goldstein? if you think those 2 are the only good young agents at gersh AND you can’t even spell their names, you obviously have no f-ing clue what you are talking about…
As an X Gersh employee, I can testify that they are seemingly dead in the water with the departures of Lori, Chuck, and Warren Zavala. While Alex Yarosh is doing well, nobody has mentioned Ken Kaplan, also a strong, but not young agent.
The problem at Gersh is not only the exodus of top agents, but their failure at recognizing talent within their own ranks and mismanagement from the top…..(assuming where fingers are pointing)
Maybe senior management is too scared to tell off the dinosaur howard and will have James do it for them
X Gersh is right–Bob is a putz, Leslie is like speaking to a dried up prune married to an emasculated putz, and Lorrie was the smartest and best agent there and Chuck has a great eye for young talent. The NY office is a joke with people like Jason Gutman and I do not think it is possible to have a worse reputation than the underclassed Randy Goldstein. Bill Butler does a piss poor job of managing, stephen hirsh only cares about stehpen hirsh, Rhonda Price is great but crazy and they have a bunch of young moron baby agents running around town. Poor Poor Gersh. They get to sleep in the bed they make for themselves. Alex is probably the only bright light for the company. Shame the group of partners can’t lead. They are like Paradigm now without the deep pockets of Paradigm.
EX – I beg to differ. The NY office is the greatest strength of that whole operation, and Stephen Hirsh and Rhonda Price are both total class acts.
Rhonda Price was originally trained by Susan Smith and ran Susan’s New York Office before Gersh brilliantly snatched her away and gave her the reigns. Rhonda is extremely smart and iconoclastically eccentric- which to an untrained eye will often appear as crazy or insane or some other ridiculous observation by some desperate wannabe sycophant who thinks they are in the know!
Gersh is a well respected agency and with Price at the helm the future will remain stable. It must be said that Phil is definitely missed and the course that Bob and David have steered is off course- Price definitely keeps her peeps from smashing into the very rocky shoals. She is no Phil, but then again Phil was no Rhonda- whom by the way could wolf down Ms. Seibert in one single bite. Leslie may have a nice list- but Rhonda’s clients are FAMILY and blood is thicker than water!
I have clients with Gersh. GREAT agency, and Stephen Hirsh is an amazing agent. I couldn’t be happier…