Power plays and Panda Express
Century City is under attack. In a "300"-like assault, two silk-shirted waves of flashy Hollywood agents have infiltrated the Westside's most famous -- and famously nondescript -- office-park neighborhood, hitherto best known for a mall (the Westfield) and a hotel (the Century Plaza).
The invaders consist of two rival armies. The Creative Artists Agency minions were the first to land, having moved into their gargantuan new headquarters at 2000 Avenue of the Stars in January. Then, on Feb. 20, International Creative Management staked its claim to the territory, moving into three floors of the MGM Tower.
Although both agencies traded in their previous Wilshire Boulevard/Beverly Hills headquarters primarily for reasons of space, the moves are also symbolic. CAA is now physically severed from a controversial ghost from the past: co-founder Michael Ovitz, who owns the agency's former headquarters. ICM has left behind vestiges of its history as well -- like the file cabinets Ari Emanuel pillaged in the middle of the night when he left to form the rival agency Endeavor.
And naturally, being agents, there are power plays. At CAA, harrumphing was heard over the fact that one of the best offices went to a hockey agent (imagine!). Office-size envy is less of a problem at ICM, although assistants have been grumbling about a lack of privacy (their desks don't have partitions).
But that's small change compared with the tactical maneuvers required for eating lunch. Imagine, if you will, Armani-uniformed agents standing in line with soccer moms at the Westfield mall's food court or balancing plastic trays loaded up with beer-battered chicken or Fuddruckers fries. "With all the suits and sunglasses, it feels like "The Matrix: The Food Court," joked manager-producer J.C. Spink ("A History of Violence").
And with such brazenly public dining come perils. "You can't really talk business because you've got CAA right there. And they've got us," said an ICM agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity (silence is the agency policy when dealing with the press). "I've heard people at CAA having their conversations -- you can hear everything."
To practitioners of a business built around power lunches, no hardship has been more disagreeable than Century City's restaurant anemia. "It's atrocious," one agent said of the local culinary portfolio, which includes the blandly named Gulfstream, Breeze, Harper's and Houston's.
- Talent Agency ICM to Move to Century City May 31, 2006
- Why Angelenos Should View Art as Central to Their Quality of Life Feb 11, 1996
- They're talking the walk Jan 13, 2007
