The Emmys begin at 5 PM PT today... Come for the cynicism... Stay for the subversion... Add your comment... Check out all our coverage... Nikki will be live-snarking. Nellie will be analyzing. Ray will be interrogating. Deadline will be photographing.
Warning: Not for the easily offended or ridiculously naive.
The 62nd Annual Primetime Emmy Awards from the Academy Of Television Arts & Sciences will begin began from the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles... Starts with a filmed piece featuring Jimmy Fallon, Glee's Chris Colfer and Jane Lynch and other cast members, Tina Fey, Kate Gosselin, Joel McHale, even Betty White, and that Lost dude. And who knew Jon Hamm can sing? As I'd already told you, the big opening number featured host Jimmy Fallon coming out alone with an electric guitar and singing/playing "Born to Run." Then he is joined by Randy ... Read More »
The town got its first taste of Miles Fisher when he played an Ari-esque talent agent in the short film spoof Pinkberry: The Movie. Now, Fisher has gotten a real movie job. Fisher is the first actor cast in Final Destination 5, the Steven Quale-directed horror film that is casting up at New Line Cinema. These are the pics where a group of characters narrowly escape death in a gruesome catastrophe, and then most of them get bumped off one by one in grisly fashion. The film is slated for release August 26, 2011 and will be 3D like the last one.
Fisher was drafted by director Dave Green to play the agent in the Pinkberry spoof which was shot for an in-house presentation by WME's lit department. The punchline is that Fisher -- who scored a series of meetings after Deadline posted the short -- is repped by ICM. Here again is Fisher, in talent agent mode:
3RD UPDATE: Ed Limato's clients weigh in on his passing:
Richard Gere: “Ed was my dear friend and agent for 40 years. He was the best of the best. There will never be anyone like him. The mold has been broken. He was probably the most respected agent of our time who loved his clients dearly and would do anything for them. “
Mel Gibson: “It’s said of agents ‘they have no hearts’. Ed was all heart!
He was there for me 30 years. I will miss him.”
Steve Martin: “Ed Limato not only represented important actors in Hollywood, but also represented class and kindness."
Denzel Washington: “Ed was more than an agent. He was like a father to me and a dear friend to me and my entire family.”
2ND UPDATE (now completed): Ed Limato had been ill from lung disease and awaiting a lung transplant that never came. He arrived home from Cedars Sinai this week and fell into a coma. In recent days the icon who'd spent four decades in showbiz guidng the careers of some of its biggest stars was surrounded by everyone he loved: his clients and his friends and his colleagues. The untimely passing of this legendary talent agent at age 73 will cast a pall over Hollywood this holiday weekend. But his reputation as one of the greats will live on.
Most recently, Limato was a senior agent at WME Entertainment but he'd spent a lifetime moving between ICM and William ... Read More »
EXCLUSIVE: Here's a movie spoof you have to watch, even though WME would prefer you didn't. The agency often puts together presentations for its quarterly meetings. The lit department made this short film, and debuted it this morning. They hoped it would not go beyond agency headquarters, but Deadline got it and felt obliged to share. The short was directed by Dave Green, and the Ari-esque agency head is played by Miles Fisher. The WME agents who took part include Dave Wirtschafter, Rob Carlson, Kim Bilek, Simon Faber, Jason Spitz, David Karp and David Lubliner. Plus a Rob Cohen cameo.
By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Friday June 4, 2010 @ 6:58pm PDTTags: Guilds, Producers
LOS ANGELES (June 4, 2010) – The Producers Guild of America (PGA) announced today the national board and delegate 2010 election results, which were approved during the annual General Membership Meeting on the Culver Studios lot. The Guild elected Mark Gordon and Hawk Koch as Co-Presidents. Other newly PGA national board officers include: Vice President of Motion Pictures Gary Lucchesi; Vice President of Television Hayma “Screech” Washington; Treasurer Lauren Shuler Donner; as well as Recording Secretary Gale Anne Hurd, which is an appointed post. Outgoing PGA President Marshall Herskovitz, who served two two-year terms, received special recognition at the meeting for his service to the Guild, and was appointed to the post of President Emeritus.
“We’re extremely honored to have the confidence and support of the Guild membership,”said Gordon and Koch. “During our tenure we hope to continue to build solidarity by encouraging producers to ‘hire from within,’ continue to protect the Producers Code of Credits, and work to improve healthcare benefits.”
The Guild has had Co-Presidents in the past. From 2001 – 2002, following the PGA’s merger with the American Association of Producers, the Guild was overseen by Kathleen Kennedy and Tim Gibbons as Co-Presidents. Gordon and Koch’s election does mark the first time the nominating committee has selected a pair of members to stand for election together.
PGA Co-President Mark Gordon, former PGA national board Vice President of Television, is an award-winning producer with more than 70 motion picture and television projects to his credit. His most recent projects include 2012, which has grossed over $750 million worldwide and THE MESSENGER, which garnered Academy Award® nominations for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay. In television, Gordon serves
Keeping with its 15-year-old tradition, CBS unveiled its fall 2010 schedule during a press breakfast at the CBS headquarters in New York. Pretty big changes all over: A comedy block on Thursday anchored by The Big Bang Theory, Survivor moves to Wednesday, the CSI spinoffs on the move too, to Friday and Sunday. Here is the schedule (new shows in bold).
MONDAY
8:00 HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
8:30 RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
9:00 TWO AND A HALF MEN
9:30 MIKE & MOLLY
10:00 HAWAII FIVE-0
TUESDAY
8:00 NCIS
9:00 NCIS: LA
10:00 THE GOOD WIFE
WEDNESDAY
8:00 SURVIVOR
9:00 CRIMINAL MINDS
10:00 THE DEFENDERS
THURSDAY
8:00 BIG BANG THEORY
8:30 $#! MY DAD SAYS
9:00 CSI
10: THE MENTALIST
FRIDAY
8:00 MEDIUM
9:00 CSI:NY
10:00 BLUE BLOODS
SATURDAY
8:00 CRIMETIME SATURDAY
9:00 CRIMETIME SATURDAY
10:00 48 HOURS
SUNDAY
7:00 60 MINUTES
8:00 THE AMAZING RACE
9:00 UNDERCOVER BOSS
10:00 CSI: MIAMI
TheCriminal Mindsspinoff will launch in midseason.
The new CBS comedies are:
$#*! MY DAD SAYS, based on the popular Twitter feed by Justin Halpern, stars Emmy Award winner William Shatner as Ed Goodson, a forthright and opinionated dad who relishes expressing his unsolicited and often wildly politically incorrect observations to anyone within earshot. Nobody is immune from Ed's rants, including his sons, Henry, a struggling writer-turned-unpaid blogger; and Vince (Will Sasso), the meek half of his husband/wife real estate duo with domineering Kathleen (Nicole Sullivan). When Henry finds he can no longer afford to pay rent to his pretty roommate -- and secret admirer -- Sam (Stephanie Lemelin), Ed reveals a soft spot and invites Henry to move in with him. Henry agrees, knowing that the
NBC UNVEILS 2010-2011 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE 5 NEW COMEDIES, 7 NEW DRAMAS, AND NEW ALTERNATIVE PROGRAM. The new Fall Schedule features all-drama lineups on Mondays and Wednesdays, and all comedies on Thursdays, plus unscripted programming into compatible dramas on Tuesdays and Fridays. The series include new comedies such as “Outsourced," Love Bites," “Perfect Couples," "Friends With Benefits" and “The Paul Reiser Show." The new dramas are “The Cape,” “Harry’s Law,” “Outlaw,” “Undercovers,” “The Event,” “Chase” and “Law & Order: Los Angeles.”
The new series “The Cape,” “Friends With Benefits,” “Perfect Couples,” “Harry’s Law" and “The Paul Reiser Show" will premiere later in the season along with a new version of “The Apprentice” “The Marriage Ref” and the new series “America’s Next Great Restaurant” -- starring chef/restaurateur Bobby Flay.
NBC will also broadcast a 35th anniversary “Saturday Night Live” special that will celebrate the iconic late-night series’ long and eventful run on NBC since 1975. “Parks and Recreation” will return to Thursdays later in the season to give the night more original programming. Sundays beginning March 2011, the competition series "Minute to Win It" returns (8-9 p.m.) followed by "The Celebrity Apprentice" (9-11 p.m.):
EXCLUSIVE: We’re probably years away from the sequel to HBO’s 1996 movie The Late Shift about the recent late-night shakeup at NBC. But, until then, there's another longform TV project about turbulent times in NBC latenight already in the works. Clash of the Titans producer Basil Iwanyk of Thunder Road and Kevin J. Cleary of Content House are developing The King of Late Night, a miniseries based on book The Tonight Show by Robert Metz, which was published by Playboy Press back in 1980. It chronicles the behind-the-scenes drama surrounding the development of the show and its first three hosts, Steve Allen, Jack Paar and Johnny Carson. The producers have done a treatment and are meeting with potential writers and directors for the mini, which is targeted for cable.
“Steve, Jack and Johnny all battled their personal daemons as well as network executives,” Cleary said. “Network executives have been screwing with talent for a long, long time; it hasn’t just been David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien. The only one who actually beat them at their own game was Johnny Carson who got to own the show.
Cleary calls the project “The Rat Pack version of The Late Shift” with a lot of cigarette smoking and martini drinking, something that has been made cool again by AMC’s period drama Mad Men. The King of Late Night draws inspiration from other films made about the 1950s and 1960s TV industry like Quiz Show and Good Night, and Good Luck.
EXCLUSIVE: WME also lost actor Terence Howard yesterday. And recently Cold Case star Kathryn Morris and WME amicably parted ways. As for Sex And The City's Kristin Davis, she'd been with Endeavor and then with William Morris before the merger of those two agencies. I'm told it never sat well with the actress that she became a pawn before the formation of WME Entertainment. You may recall that I reported a year ago how frustrating it was for William Morris to "pump its chest like crazy" over its talent department even though Hollywood knew it had been weakened by agent layoffs and client defections. At one meeting, WMA agents were boasting about having just signed Kristin Davis. The Endeavor agents were seen rolling their eyes, and Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell were overheard saying quietly to the other, "Didn't we fire her?" Davis, whose Sex And The City sequel comes out in May, has yet to sign for the threequel. I hear UTA is banking on negotiating some major coin for her as well as other projects. She is managed by Mosaic’s Dave Fleming.
The hiring of Gersh's high profile but also high strung theater department head and partner John Buzzetti followed today's 9AM-to-1PM WME board meeting where it was also announced that Dave Wirtschafter was relinquishing his co-CEO title. The agent will oversee WME's theatre department and is expected to bring most of his client list, including those who've won the Pulitzer Prize, Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, the Kesserling Prize, and Outer Critics Circle Award. “With a stellar track record for developing young artists, and representation of groundbreaking musicals such as Avenue Q, In the Heights, and Next to Normal, John is responsible for some of today’s most celebrated talent. There is no one better to carry on WME’s commitment to the theatre than John,” stated the WME Board.
“I am incredibly excited to be a part of the legacy and tradition of WME’s theatre department,” said Buzzetti. I am proud to join this new and dynamic company, and look forward to our future success.”
Buzzetti represents clients such as Marsha Norman (‘night, Mother), David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole), John Weidman (Contact), Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime), Jeanine Tesori (Caroline, or Change), Lin- Manuel Miranda (In the Heights), Robert Lopez (Avenue Q), Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), Brian Yorkey (Next to Normal), Warren Leight (Side Man), Adam Rapp (Red Light Winter), ... Read More »
2NDUPDATE: I'm the first to post the entire roster after EW premiered the Top 10 (here as they wrote it, plus I added in some production details) because of a pre-arrangement. That's right, it's time for Universal film executive Franklin Leonard's THE BLACK LIST begun back in 2004. Compiled every year from the suggestions of 311 film executives, each contributes the names of up to ten of their favorite scripts that were written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2009 and will not be released in theaters during this calendar year. This year, scripts had to receive at least five mentions to be included on THE BLACK LIST. It has been said many times, but it’s worth repeating: THE BLACK LIST is not a 'best of' list. It is, at best, a 'most liked' list." But it does catapult dozens of scripts into production and screenwriters out of oblivion. Diablo Cody's Juno, Nancy Oliver's Lars And The Real Girl, Scott Neustader's and Michael Weber's 500 Days Of Summer, are just some of the screenplays which appeared on The Black List and then were made. I've noticed that it's also a "big dick" measuring contest for the Hollywood agencies and their motion picture lit departments. Problem is, some screenwriters think this list ... Read More »
John Ferriter's $25 million lawsuit alleging contractual fraud, wrongful termination, breach of contract, defamation/slander, and so on was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on November 17th against William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and the old William Morris Agency as well as board members Ari Emanuel and Rick Rosen as well as Mark Itkin. It is still inexplicable why Ferriter, the former William Morris board member and EVP and worldwide head of non-scripted TV, filed the 44-page lawsuit months after the merger, and months after WME kept him on despite a long hospital stay. Because it certainly seems that his anger is misdirected, in that his primary problem is with the bosses of the old William Morris Agency, especially Jim Wiatt and Irv Weintraub who were left out of the new company. In that sense, this legal complaint is an interesting window on the behind-the-scenes activity inside the Morris merger with Endeavor. But many see this lawsuit as Ferriter's attempt to pump up his profile and salve his bruised ... Read More »
(See WME internal memo below.) Co-CEO Dave Wirtschafter and other top members of WME (like Patrick Whitesell) met with Alicia Keys Wednesday afternoon, and now I hear she's staying at the agency. This news comes after CAA last week told Hollywood she had left WME and landed there, but then this was denied by the singer and her manager Jeff Robinson. It tuned out that Robinson has been "entertaining the notion", in the words of one of my sources, of different representation for Keys. Meetings were taken, and CAA believed it had signed the superstar singer/musician. But Wirtschafter had been led to believe that no decision had yet been made by Keys or her manager who'd promised him one last meeting where he would be given the opportunity to save the client. So, both agencies thought they had Alicia Keys on their client rosters. Dave's meeting took place Wednesday, and I was slipped a WME email showing just how much preparation went into the agency's presentation: a practice session in the morning, followed by the real thing Wednesday afternoon. (See below).
WME sources are claiming that this is the second time in recent weeks that CAA has jumped the gun like this. They say WME recently signed Almay as a corporate client, but CAA thought it had the account in the bag. (I hear ... Read More »
By Nikki Finke | Thursday September 24, 2009 @ 5:01pm PDTTags: Agents
2ND UPDATE: Well, well, well... I don't think I've ever seen this before. CAA believes tonight that it signed Alicia Keys away from her longtime agent, WME co-CEO Dave Wirtschafter. But WME and Alicia's people say it ain't so. I just got word that Keys' manager Jeff Robinson, with Alicia sitting by his side, issued this statement: "No official decision has been made yet."
Here's what happened behind the scenes: Robinson has been "entertaining the notion", in the words of one of my sources, of different representation for Keys. Meetings were taken, and CAA believed it had signed the superstar singer/musician as of today and began telling Hollywood. But Wirtschafter had been led to believe that no decision had yet been made by Keys or her manager who'd promised him one last meeting where he would be given the opportunity to save the client. So, now you can see why both agencies think they've got Alicia Keys on their client rosters.
No doubt this situation will sort itself out within a few days.
UPDATE: Oy, Dave Wirtschafter didn't even know she'd left for CAA until he heard it from my website.
Previous: I've learned that CAA is telling Hollywood the agency has signed Alicia Keys. This means that WME co-CEO Dave Wirtschafter has lost one of the biggest clients he took with him from William Morris to the new WME Entertainment merged with Endeavor. And Alicia Keys is a monster client: her albums have sold 30 million copies, she's a 12-time Grammy winner, she plays in the world's biggest arenas, and she is finishing up ... Read More »
TUESDAY 12:30AM UPDATE: I've learned that both Jay Leno and the Guild investigating panel asked WGAw President Patric Verrone among others to make the final report public, including full transcripts of the hearing. But Verrone et al refused. So why was the Guild's excuse "confidentiality" since Leno willingly waived his? Or was Verrone more concerned that his own questionable conduct would be exposed?
MONDAY 6:30PM UPDATE: Prompted by my post today, the Writers Guild, West, finally released its trial committee report after refusing to do so because of "confidentiality". So why now? Only because I was releasing some of its findings -- among them that Jay Leno had been unanimously cleared. The WGAw report determined that the Guild owed Leno a public apology because Jay had been "done a disservice and his reputation harmed by these proceedings". I believe that the WGAw was purposely withholding this report because it presented President Patric Verrone in a bad light, which would have been damaging during the Guild elections. I can report that a key person complicit in this was WGAw staffer Neil Sacharow, who in my opinion should be fired. It was Sacharow who phoned me in consternation after seeing my midday advisory that my WGA vs Leno reporting was about to post. (More on the report below).
MONDAY 12:30 PM: Few issues during the November 2007/February 2008 writers strike stirred as much anger and emotion as whether WGA member Jay Leno violated Guild strike rules during his return to hosting ... Read More »
Keep refreshing for updates on this breaking news story...
4:20PM: As my sources predicted (below), Adam Goodman (photo right) will replace John Lesher (photo above) as the new President of the Paramount Film Group reporting to studio boss Brad Grey. In October 2008, Goodman moved from head of production at DreamWorks SKG to Paramount Pictures as President of Production overseeing a creative staff managing current DreamWorks projects and creative relationships as well as new development for Paramount. I guess you could say that one of DreamWorks SKG's legacies was leaving behind an executive to run its former parent company. During and after the 2006 acquisition of DreamWorks SKG by Paramount, he helped steer Transformers, I Love You Man, Hotel for Dogs, Norbit, Blades of Glory, Disturbia, Tropic Thunder and Eagle Eye.
"Adam has proven himself to be a terrific executive with a track record of having shepherded some incredibly successful films," Brad Grey said later in a studio news release finally issued at 5:15PM as Paramount scrambled for hours after my story posted. "We have worked closely with Adam over the last few years and look forward to expanding his duties." Officially now, Paramount is calling this shapeup a "streamlining".
4:20PM: I just heard that Brad Grey asked Brad Weston (photo left) to also transition to a production deal on the lot. "Paramount wants him to be an active producer for them. They feel he has great talent ... Read More »
SATURDAY PM / SUNDAY AM: Warner Bros' The Hangover still rules at the North American box office and looks to sail past $200M domestic, according to even rival studios. (As the saying goes, failure is an orphan, but success has many fathers, so see my previous How 'The Hangover' Got Made.) The R-rated no-stars low-brow laffer from Old School director Todd Phillips made $10.5 million Friday (only -37% from its opening a week ago) and $12.9M Saturday (+24%) from 3,355 dates. With a terrific hold of only -26%, it racked up a $33.4M second weekend for a new cume of $105.3M. Never underestimate the comedy tastes of moviegoers, eh? This is the first film of this summer to stay at No. 1 for 2 consecutive weeks.
Pixar/Disney's blockbuster Up ended its 3rd weekend #2 with $30.5M after scoring another $8.8 million Friday and $13.1 million Saturday and an estimated $8.6M Sunday from 3,886 runs. Pixar movies always keep going, and going, and going... and this is now the 3rd-highest domestic grossing one.
As for The Taking Of Pelham 1 2 3, when I fell asleep Friday night, it was looking to open at No. 2 based on East Coast numbers. But Sony Pictures' adult thriller starring Denzel Washington and John Travolta didn't get as big a late-night kick as expected and fell to No. 3 where it stayed all weekend. Why anyone remade ... Read More »
Both Endeavor and William Morris are finally answering their phones "WME". And WmE2 took out ads at Variety and Huffington Post (where Ari Emanuel blogs the occasional political essay) announcing itself. Then, Monday night, about 350 William Morris and Endeavor agents and senior staff gathered for cocktails and dinner at Ari's house. Here's a point of interest: sources claim to me they saw CAA's Richard Lovett cruise past Emanuel's home and scout out the party. Brandt Joel waved to him.
"There were Vegas guys, Nashville guys, old guys. And Ari's crew has none of that," an Endeavor agent told me. "The Morris guys wanted to hang around with the Endeavor guys, who are all fun and trendy and cool. But it also appeared that a lot of the Morris crowd didn't even know one another. So they were introducing themselves to each other as well as to Endeavor." But, truth be told, most were more eager to see the so-called "Lincoln Bedroom" which is what people call the floor above Ari's elaborate screening room.
An obviously nervous Ari gave an off-the-cuff and rambling speech about how he started in showbiz 22 years ago when Gerry Harrington and Michael Mendelson told him about a career where you could start in the William Morris mailroom and rise up to become an agent, and Emanuel thought, "That's the job for me." And how humbling it was to now look out at the collective group of William Morris and Endeavor making ... Read More »
You'd think Variety would be embarrassed about reporting my WME Entertainment scoops days later and not even giving me credit. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. Worse, it takes two reporters to act so shamefully. (No credit, either, during primetime pilot panic.) Keep up with my merger postings here:
Starting June 1, Hollywood’s newest talent agency will hold a series of staff meetings, interdepartmental meetings, and operational meetings to combine its two tenpercenteries. WMA and Endeavor will start officially sharing office space. There’s even a confab and cocktail party planned at the home of Ari Emanuel, WME's co-CEO along with Patrick Whitesell and Dave Wirtschafter. Speaking of Dave, I've been assured that he is staying with the newly merged agency, and in fact is actively involved. On the other hand, as I previously reported, Irv Weintraub will not be making it to the merger, according to my insiders. As for Jim Wiatt, who's been politely eased out with an Emeritus title (see my previous, William Morris CEO Jim Wiatt Is Exiting New WME Agency Before It Starts) he'll be given an office in the old WMA headquarters for the next six months, and then he's gone. By the way, I've pinned down the timing of when Wiatt found out he was history. On May 15, when his close pals, entertainment lawyer Skip Brittenham and former Viacom mogul Tom Freston, warned, "You have to resign, or you're going to be fired." Wiatt’s first reaction was anger, and then grief. And then it was, “What am I going to get in return?” Around $25 million. Also, as I previously reported, WMA unscripted czar Mark ... Read More »
Apple To Offer ABC & Fox Shows For … 
3RD UPDATE: Hostage-Taking Gunman Killed At … 
Fox Orders Jamie Foxx Sketch Comedy Series … 
Deadline Hires Pete Hammond From LA Times … 
Sony Pic Billboards Offer "Virgin Helpline" … 
Mark Canton Bites Back At Jim Cameron For … 
Icahn Offers $7.50 Per Lionsgate Share; … 
Venice Fest "No Longer Special" Say Critics 
Random House's Strong Half-Year Results … 
'Dancing With The Stars' Cast Includes … 
Michael Riley Named ABC Family President 
MONDAY UPDATE: Sony's 'Takers' Wins … 
EMMY WINNERS ANALYSIS: 'Modern Family' … 
'Modern Family', 'Mad Men', 'Glee', Jim … 
Why Emmys Red Carpet Is "Below B-List" 
EXCLUSIVE: Here's a movie spoof you have to watch, even though WME would prefer you didn't. The agency often puts together presentations for its quarterly meetings. The lit department made this short film, and debuted it this morning. They hoped it would not go beyond agency headquarters, but Deadline got it and felt obliged to share. The short was directed by Dave Green, and the Ari-esque agency head is played by Miles Fisher. The WME agents who took part include Dave Wirtschafter, Rob Carlson, Kim Bilek, Simon Faber, Jason Spitz, David Karp and David Lubliner. Plus a Rob Cohen cameo.
The hiring of Gersh's high profile but also high strung theater department head and partner John Buzzetti followed today's 9AM-to-1PM WME board meeting where it was also announced that Dave Wirtschafter was 
2ND UPDATE: I'm the first to post the entire roster after EW premiered the Top 10 (here as they wrote it, plus I added in some production details) because of a pre-arrangement. That's right, it's time for Universal film executive Franklin Leonard's THE BLACK LIST begun back in 2004. Compiled every year from the suggestions of 311 film executives, each contributes the names of up to ten of their favorite scripts that were written in, or are somehow uniquely associated with, 2009 and will not be released in theaters during this calendar year. This year, scripts had to receive at least five mentions to be included on THE BLACK LIST. It has been said many times, but it’s worth repeating: THE BLACK LIST is not a 'best of' list. It is, at best, a 'most liked' list." But it does catapult dozens of scripts into production and screenwriters out of oblivion. Diablo Cody's Juno, Nancy Oliver's Lars And The Real Girl, Scott Neustader's and Michael Weber's 500 Days Of Summer, are just some of the screenplays which appeared on The Black List and then were made. I've noticed that it's also a "big dick" measuring contest for the Hollywood agencies and their motion picture lit departments. Problem is, some screenwriters think this list ... 
John Ferriter's $25 million lawsuit alleging contractual fraud, wrongful termination, breach of contract, defamation/slander, and so on was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on November 17th against William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and the old William Morris Agency as well as board members Ari Emanuel and Rick Rosen as well as Mark Itkin. It is still inexplicable why Ferriter, the former William Morris board member and EVP and worldwide head of non-scripted TV, filed the 44-page lawsuit months after the merger, and months after WME kept him on despite a long hospital stay. Because it certainly seems that his anger is misdirected, in that his primary problem is with the bosses of the old William Morris Agency, especially Jim Wiatt and Irv Weintraub who were left out of the new company. In that sense, this legal complaint is an interesting window on the behind-the-scenes activity inside the Morris merger with Endeavor. But many see this lawsuit as Ferriter's attempt to pump up his profile and salve his bruised ... 
(See WME internal memo below.) Co-CEO Dave Wirtschafter and other top members of WME (like Patrick Whitesell) met with Alicia Keys Wednesday afternoon, and now I hear she's staying at the agency. This news comes after CAA last week told Hollywood she had left WME and landed there, but then this was denied by the singer and her manager Jeff Robinson. It tuned out that Robinson has been "entertaining the notion", in the words of one of my sources, of different representation for Keys. Meetings were taken, and CAA believed it had signed the superstar singer/musician. But Wirtschafter had been led to believe that no decision had yet been made by Keys or her manager who'd promised him one last meeting where he would be given the opportunity to save the client. So, both agencies thought they had Alicia Keys on their client rosters. Dave's meeting took place Wednesday, and I was slipped a WME email showing just how much preparation went into the agency's presentation: a practice session in the morning, followed by the real thing Wednesday afternoon. (See below).
4:20PM: As my sources predicted (below), Adam Goodman (photo right) will replace John Lesher (photo above) as the new President of the Paramount Film Group reporting to studio boss Brad Grey. In October 2008, Goodman moved from head of production at DreamWorks SKG to Paramount Pictures as President of Production overseeing a creative staff managing current DreamWorks projects and creative relationships as well as new development for Paramount. I guess you could say that one of DreamWorks SKG's legacies was leaving behind an executive to run its former parent company. During and after the 2006 acquisition of DreamWorks SKG by Paramount, he helped steer Transformers, I Love You Man, Hotel for Dogs, Norbit, Blades of Glory, Disturbia, Tropic Thunder and Eagle Eye.
4:20PM: I just heard that Brad Grey asked Brad Weston (photo left) to also transition to a production deal on the lot. "Paramount wants him to be an active producer for them. They feel he has great talent ... 
Both Endeavor and William Morris are finally answering their phones "WME". And WmE2 took out ads at Variety and Huffington Post (where Ari Emanuel blogs the occasional political essay) announcing itself. Then, Monday night, about 350 William Morris and Endeavor agents and senior staff gathered for cocktails and dinner at Ari's house. Here's a point of interest: sources claim to me they saw CAA's Richard Lovett cruise past Emanuel's home and scout out the party. Brandt Joel waved to him.
Jim Wiatt Is Exiting New WME Agency Before It Starts
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