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Nicole David Exits WME; Top Talent Agent Who Voiced ‘Scooby-Doo’s Velma Eyes Next Chapter

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Monday February 4, 2013 @ 4:33pm PSTTags: Patrick Swayze, Whitney Houston, WMA, WME
Mike Fleming

EXCLUSIVE: Nicole David, a stalwart talent agent for Triad and WMA, is leaving WME. She is not retiring, but hasn’t yet figured out if she will resurface as an agent or a manager, or a producer for that matter. David has been an important figure for women in the industry, rising to prominence at a time when there weren’t that many in top jobs. David and Arnold Rifkin formed Rifkin/David in 1982, and a decade later sold that agency for upwards of $25 million to WMA. She has been at that agency ever since, continuing after its merger with Endeavor. In that time, she helped build the movie careers of talent that included the late Patrick Swayze and Whitney Houston, and her current list includes: Alicia Keys, Elijah Wood, Emma Thompson, Jaden Smith, Julia Andrews, Linda Hunt, Melanie Griffith, Rihanna and Willow Smith.

David started her career in acting and is still a member of The Actors Studio. She also voiced the role of the bespectacled sleuth Velma in the animated Hanna-Barbera series Scooby-Doo. She has also helped launch a lot of careers, giving early jobs to an impressive list of women that includes Stacey Snider, Hylda Queally, Michelle Bohan, Carla Hacken, Tracey Jacobs and Ilene Feldman, to name a few.

David today told the WME staff that she would be leaving, and she will take a nice vacation before she decides on the next career adventure. She has never been much for press or showing off in general, but in that meeting she did give herself some credit, acknowledging she had “done okay for a so-so actress with a high school education.”

For the record, she gave me this statement: “In my 3½ years at William Morris Endeavor, it has been extraordinary to be a part of what Ari, Patrick, and the entire WME family have built. I’m grateful for the experience and I’m very proud of our accomplishments. I look forward to creating new projects and continuing to give this industry that I love the best I have to offer.”

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R.I.P. Former WMA Agent Phil Kellogg

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Wednesday February 8, 2012 @ 3:23pm PSTTags: WMA
Mike Fleming

Phil Kellogg passed away Sunday, just a month shy of his 100th birthday. Kellogg worked at WMA from 1950 to 1978, joining when Berg, Allenberg was acquired by WMA. Kellogg became head of the Picture Department in 1958 after Bert Allenberg passed away, and my, what a client list Kellogg … Read More »

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R.I.P. Owen Laster

By MIKE FLEMING JR | Friday March 11, 2011 @ 6:01am PSTTags: WMA
Mike Fleming

Owen Laster, the former head of the William Morris Agency’s worldwide literary division who spent his entire career at that agency until he retired in 2006, has died of cancer. He was 72. Laster was a classy dealmaker and represented the likes of James Michener, Ralph Ellison, Edward Albee and Gore … Read More »

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R.I.P. Ed Limato

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday July 3, 2010 @ 11:08am PDTTags: Agent Ed Limato, Ari Emanuel, Bryan Lourd, CAA, Chris Silbermann, Denzel Washington, Ed Limato, Hollywood agencies, Hollywood agency, ICM, Jeff Berg, Jim Wiatt, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mike Ovitz, Richard Gere, Steve Martin, talent agency, Talent Agent, William Morris Agency, WMA, WME

limato_chair_300x4003RD 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 … Read More »

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Jackie Chan Leaves CAA For Morris, And Paul Thomas Anderson Lands There, Too

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday April 24, 2008 @ 7:53pm PDTTags: Actors, Agents, CAA, Directors, Jackie Chan, Paul Thomas Endeavor, The Forbidden Kingdom, William Morris Agency, WMA


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I’m told Jackie Chan fired CAA on the day his new movie The Forbidden Kingdom opened #1 last Friday. Today he landed with the William Morris Agency’s Phillip Button. As for the There Will Be Blood director, Paul Thomas Anderson left … Read More »

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Why Is Morris Involved In Financial Fling (With Ashton Kutcher?) Agency Mum…

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday April 3, 2008 @ 4:39pm PDTTags: Actors, Agents, Finance, Regulation, SPAC, Wall Street, WMA

The so-called “SPAC”, raising $500 million in financing on the American Stock Exchange for acquisitions in the entertainment/media/publishing arenas, is a Special Purpose Acquisition Corporation formed under Delaware’s liberal corporate laws on October 24, 2007 and filed with the SEC. (SPACs are investment vehicles with a whole host of SEC requirements … Read More »

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William Morris Suffers Some Client Losses

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Friday March 28, 2008 @ 1:21pm PDTTags: Agents, CAA, David E. Kelley, DH update, Endeavor, Topher Grace, WMA

wma.jpgDavid E. Kelley left WMA this week for Endeavor. Topher Grace exited Morris also for Endeavor recently. Comedy feature writer Ed Solomon recently departed Morris to go to CAA (as did WMA’s director Jim Mangold three months ago…).

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