Creative Artists Agency

Two of Hollywood's most powerful talent agents, Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane, breezed into the trial of private detective Anthony Pellicano on Wednesday for barely 10 minutes total of testimony. "This is going to be boring," Lourd quipped to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom before his five minutes on the stand. In a way, he was right.

Rick Nicita, a longtime Hollywood agent whose clients include Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, is leaving the agency business after 42 years to become a movie executive. A managing partner at Creative Artists Agency, where he spent nearly three decades, Nicita has been named co-chairman and chief operating officer of Morgan Creek Productions, a movie company founded by James Robinson that in recent years has struggled to produce hits.

THIS sleek glass-and-steel structure is as striking as any to go up in the Southland recently. It solves a number of spatial problems elegantly, speaks to the buildings around it and has a more-sustainable-than-average design. Driving by, you see a long glass-curtain wall and metal panels coated to look like aluminum that echo the nearby Century Plaza Towers.

A small explosion erupted Tuesday afternoon in the new headquarters of talent firm Creative Artists Agency, leaving nine people with minor injuries. The incident, reported at 2:40 p.m., occurred while Southern California Gas Co. employees were working on a gas line in the first-floor kitchen of the CAA offices. The 12-story building, occupied by CAA in mid-January, is at 2000 Avenue of the Stars.

Lee Gabler, co-chairman and partner at Creative Artists Agency, is leaving the firm and could announce his departure as early as today, people familiar with the situation said. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the agency has not made a formal announcement. Gabler was traveling in Brazil and unavailable for comment. Gabler has been increasingly critical of the agency's growing size and large expenditures.

LIKE body fat percentages and box office grosses, area codes are one more metric by which Southern Californians define themselves. The broad stereotypes (and are there any other kinds when you're lumping millions of people together?) include the old-school, loft-dwelling 213; the knit-cap-wearing, hipster-vegan 323; the moneyed, three-picture-deal 310; and the oft-maligned, suburban punch line of the 818. Which brings us to the 424.

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.

Ray Kurtzman, 79, an entertainment lawyer who was one of the original 20 employees when Creative Artists Agency was launched in the 1970s, died Monday at his Beverly Hills home of complications from Alzheimer's disease, the agency announced. Michael Ovitz hired Kurtzman from the William Morris Agency in 1978, three years after founding CAA with Morris dissidents Ron Meyer, Bill Haber, Mike Rosenfeld and Rowland Perkins.

Joost, an Internet television service backed by global media players, said Tuesday that talent firm Creative Artists Agency would help it lure big-name Hollywood programming. Joost, which was founded by Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom, who also started Web telephone company Skype Technologies, has signed up name-brand programming and top advertisers for its service, although it remains in test mode.