Sam Gores

In the brash, bare-knuckled world of Hollywood talent agents, Sam Gores is an anomaly. Competitors of Paradigm's chairman laud him as a gentleman, and actually mean it. Unlike agents obsessed with headlines and their place on the latest power list, Gores would rather do business out of the limelight. "He is the most un-agent-like agent in the business because he's a human being first," said actor and longtime Paradigm client Laurence Fishburne.

Universal Pictures is in talks to sell its specialty film label Focus Features to investor brothers Alec and Tom Gores, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions, which are still in an early stage, call into question whether the film studio will hold on to its independent film division as it is swallowed by cable giant Comcast Corp. next year. The Gores, who separately run their own private equity firms, have ambitions to build an entertainment empire by cobbling together film libraries and other media assets.

Universal Pictures is in talks to sell its specialty film label Focus Features to investor brothers Alec and Tom Gores, according to people familiar with the matter. The discussions, which are still in an early stage, call into question whether the film studio will hold on to its independent film division as it is swallowed by cable giant Comcast Corp. next year. The Gores, who separately run their own private equity firms, have ambitions to build an entertainment empire by cobbling together film libraries and other media assets.

In the brash, bare-knuckled world of Hollywood talent agents, Sam Gores is an anomaly. Competitors of Paradigm's chairman laud him as a gentleman, and actually mean it. Unlike agents obsessed with headlines and their place on the latest power list, Gores would rather do business out of the limelight. "He is the most un-agent-like agent in the business because he's a human being first," said actor and longtime Paradigm client Laurence Fishburne.

Ken Stovitz is returning to the agency business after six years as a producer. Stovitz, who formerly was a longtime agent at Creative Artists Agency until leaving to become a partner at Will Smith's production company, has joined Paradigm as a senior agent. At the Beverly Hills based agency, Stovitz will serve on Paradigm's five-person management committee, which oversees day-to-day operations. Chief Executive Sam Gores also sits on the committee. During his tenure at Smith's Overbrook Entertainment, the company produced such movies as "Hancock" and "Seven Pounds," as well as "The Karate Kid," which starred Jaden Smith, the son of Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.

Hollywood talent agency Paradigm, continuing its expansion into music, said Wednesday that it had bought Nashville-based Christian music booking firm Third Coast Artists Agency. The deal is the latest move by Beverly Hills-based Paradigm to increase its presence in the music sector through a series of low-key acquisitions. In the last five years, Paradigm has acquired Monterey Peninsula Artists and Little Big Man Booking, specialty talent boutiques with a niche in music.

Once again Walt Disney Co. has pushed back the deadline for bidders making offers to acquire the specialty label Miramax Films, to Monday, according to people with knowledge of the situation. As the deadline approaches, one prospective bidder has dropped out: Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder, whose RedZone Capital investment firm decided not to submit an offer after reviewing documents and having discussions with Disney executives, two people close to the process said. That leaves Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who sold the company to Disney in 1993, as among the remaining potential bidders.

Kelsey Grammer, whose TV fame began on "Cheers," has reason to toast his good fortune. A little more than two years ago, during the final season of the NBC sitcom named after his character Frasier, the Emmy-winning actor bought a Beverly Hills-area home for $17.5 million. He has now sold it for about $25 million. Grammer, and his wife, former model Camille Donatacci, have a home in Malibu. He bought the four-bedroom, 6,600-square-foot house on 5 acres in the hills in 1998 for $4.5 million.

Walt Disney Co. has received three bids for the specialty label Miramax Films, said people close to the situation who did not want to be identified because the offers were confidential, and now has to make a decision whether to sell the asset or hold on to it. If Disney ends up selling Miramax, it would mark the end of the studio's 17-year ownership of the label, known for championing independent films that often garnered awards on the film festival...

Is Hollywood loyalty an oxymoron? It's a question being pondered this week throughout the industry by those who were stunned that Arnold Schwarzenegger had terminated his longtime agent after a 15-year run that catapulted the Austrian bodybuilder into arguably the biggest star in the world.

Alec Gores, the Los Angeles technology turnaround artist who hopes to make a bid for Global Crossing Ltd. as early as this week, has never tackled anything as big or complex as the company responsible for the fourth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history. His Gores Technology Group prefers to take control of troubled divisions of large corporations, and his biggest deals to date include buying Learning Co. from Mattel Inc. and the VeriFone unit of Hewlett-Packard Co.

If you thought President Obama moved quickly, that's nothing compared with the first 50 days of the Ross administration. In less than eight weeks, Rich Ross has swiftly stamped his imprimatur on Walt Disney Studios. The novice movie chairman and his boss, Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Bob Iger, want to create a new business model for Hollywood to address the sweeping changes that are roiling the entertainment industry, including slumping DVD sales and the growing role the Internet plays in movie marketing.