Talent Agencies

Hollywood's most competitive business is getting even more dog-eat-dog. On most days, client-and-dealmaker defections at talent agencies are as commonplace in showbiz as plastic surgery and private jets. But in the last few weeks, the swaps have grown so frequent and significant that many in the industry have been startled by all the big moves, which some say are a reaction to an overall contraction in the movie business.

"Is this really happening?" Nicholas McCarthy asked as he stepped carefully along an icy sidewalk toward the theater. An evening full of red carpets and party people was fading. It was almost midnight on the first Friday at the Sundance Film Festival. His moment had come at last. After more than a decade of pursuing his Hollywood dream, McCarthy, 41, was on his way to the premiere of his first feature film, "The Pact. " His wife, Alexandra, walked beside him. He held her hand.

When Creative Artists Agency Chairman Michael Ovitz was named Coca-Cola's pop-culture guru recently, it set off a wave of jokes about other possible talent agency marriages. International Creative Management, one of CAA's rivals, could represent 7-Up. Another rival might take on Valvoline. Hardly a company, it seemed, escaped parody. Ovitz's ambitious consulting pact with Coke marks the first time that a talent agency has been hired to shape a consumer product giant's image.

DJs are all the rage these days. These digital-era rock stars are spinning to the top of the charts in record numbers and booking worldwide tours in massive stadiums. Their fans are as rabid as the most fervent Bieberbot, and their wages can be hundreds of thousands of dollars per night. Hollywood -- hype's most reliable bellwether -- has been listening and eight weeks ago spawned an exclusive, boutique club that worships at the DJ's altar. It's called Agency, and one night a week -- Tuesdays -- it hosts an invitation-only house music night DJed by an unannounced DJ, often with a very big name.

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.

The newest management firm in Hollywood has no name. But it has snagged some of the biggest names in entertainment. Continuing a long tradition of entrepreneurial spinoffs by representatives of actors, directors and writers, a collection of six talent managers announced Wednesday that they had come together to create their own business.

Tremors rocked the entertainment industry over the weekend as one Hollywood talent agency was sold, another prepared to go out of business and a third announced a management buyout. The William Morris Agency purchased Triad Artists, whose clients include actor Bruce Willis and country music star Vince Gill, for an undisclosed sum. At the same time, several top executives have left InterTalent in anticipation of the company's demise.

Just three weeks after shepherding the merger of two top Hollywood talent agencies, William Morris Agency Chairman Jim Wiatt is leaving -- a sign that Endeavor is firmly in control of the combined entity. Speculation focused Friday on whether Wiatt was pushed out by members of the new William Morris Endeavor Entertainment board.

The city attorney's office targeted two San Fernando Valley talent companies Tuesday that allegedly took advantage of parents trying to break their children into show business, Deputy City Atty. Mark Lambert said.

Beverly Hills talent firm Endeavor Agency will expand its offices by moving to a nearby building on Wilshire Boulevard as part of deal valued at more than $38 million, according to real estate sources. Endeavor, which represents stars such as Vin Diesel, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, will take more than 70,000 square feet at 9601 Wilshire Blvd. in a 15-year lease, people familiar with the negotiations said.

International Creative Management's leaders announced Friday a management buyout of the talent agency from private equity firm Rizvi Traverse Management, which acquired controlling interest six years ago. The high-stakes move is designed to give top agents at ICM, which represents such stars as Al Pacino, Jodie Foster and Ellen DeGeneres, a financial interest in the business and empower a younger generation, led by ICM's 43-year-old president, Chris...

A partner at Creative Artists Agency publicly acknowledged Tuesday that the entertainment and sports powerhouse has been in discussions with private equity funds about an investment in the firm. In remarks made during the Financial Times' Business of Luxury Summit in Beverly Hills, one of CAA's managing partners, Bryan Lourd, confirmed published reports that the agency was meeting with outside firms, which he declined to identify. According to the New York Times, the agency is in discussions with private-equity and buyout giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. and investment firm TPG Capital.

An advocacy group that has been demanding greater government protections for adult film performers plans to file a complaint Thursday with state regulators against nine Los Angeles-area porn talent agencies.

Michael S. Rosenfeld, a talent agent and producer who was one of the founding partners of Creative Artists Agency, has died. He was 75. Rosenfeld died Thursday of respiratory failure at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center after a long illness, the agency announced. "He enjoyed an exemplary career as a talent agent," the agency said in a statement. "He played an important role in the growth and success of CAA, and prided himself on starting the agency's literary department." In 1975, Rosenfeld and four other successful middle-management executives with the William Morris Agency left to form Creative Artists Agency, which would become a talent agency powerhouse.

Fashion's symbiotic relationship with the entertainment industry came into a little clearer focus this week with the announcement that Star Avenue Capital had acquired a majority interest in Los Angeles jeans maker J Brand. Star, based in Century City, is part of a partnership that includes New York private equity firm Irving Place Capital and Century City talent agency powerhouse Creative Artists Agency. This is the first deal for Star, which was founded last year. Star will be able to provide resources to help the 5-year-old denim company grow.

A long and winding legal battle that raised uncomfortable questions about Hollywood's treatment of middle-aged and older TV writers was settled Friday, a decade after a class-action lawsuit alleged they were the victims of widespread age discrimination. Under the settlement, 17 major networks and production studios, along with seven talent agencies, agreed to pay $70 million to thousands of writers to resolve 19 claims. A group of 165 writers alleged that the networks, studios and talent agencies unfairly squeezed out writers older than 40 in their efforts to capture younger audiences, denying them employment on dramas and situation comedies.

One of Hollywood's oldest talent agencies wants to play in the sports arena. The Gersh Agency on Wednesday announced it is acquiring the Beverly Hills sports management firm Steve Feldman & Associates to represent athletes on the field and in Hollywood. Creative Artists Agency, United Talent Agency and the William Morris Agency represent dozens of well-known sports figures. Tennis player Anna Kournikova, skateboarder Tony Hawk and golfer Michelle Wie all have signed with Hollywood agents.

Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, the U.S. commander of Operation Desert Storm, has signed a representation deal with International Creative Management, one of the country's leading talent agencies. The signing was confirmed late Monday by ICM President Jim Wiatt. Schwarzkopf was signed by ICM partner Marvin Josephson in New York on Monday, Wiatt said. Wiatt said that ICM will represent Schwarzkopf in all professional activities outside the military.

After more than a week of speculation, entertainment public relations and marketing firms BNC and PMK/HBH on Tuesday made it official and said they were consolidating operations. The merger, to take effect in January, combines PMK/HBH, one of Hollywood's biggest celebrity public relations agencies, with BNC, a firm that has specialized in corporate clients. Both firms are owned by advertising agency giant Interpublic Group. The new agency will be called PMK-BNC. But the move is already beginning to stir things up. After an internal memo announcing the pending deal circulated last week, a handful of senior executives announced that they would leave the company, taking key clients with them.

Over a May 15 lunch at the Beverly Wilshire hotel, William Morris Agency Chairman Jim Wiatt received sobering advice from his close friends, entertainment attorney Skip Brittenham and former Viacom Inc. executive Tom Freston. The more than century-old talent agency was on the cusp of merging with hotshot rival Endeavor, and it was becoming clear that there would be no place at the table for Wiatt.