William Morris Agency

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has retained the William Morris Agency to represent her in all areas, focusing on books, lecture appearances, philanthropic initiatives and new business projects in media, sports and communications. Rice, a former Stanford University provost, served as national security advisor during President George W. Bush's first term.

Russell Arms Actor who started on 'Your Hit Parade' Russell Arms, 92, a singer and actor who was a regular vocalist on the popular TV musical program "Your Hit Parade" from 1952 to 1957, died Monday at his home in Hamilton, Ill., where he had retired with his wife, Mary Lynne. The Lamporte-St. Clair Funeral Home in Hamilton confirmed his death but did not give the cause. Along with other regular cast members Gisele MacKenzie, Snooky Lanson and Dorothy Collins, Arms performed what were billed as the seven most popular songs in the country every Saturday night on the NBC show.

State Sen. Kevin Murray (D-Culver City) will join William Morris Agency when he leaves office in November because of term limits. Murray will be an executive for the agency's consulting department, where he will cut deals for existing clients and work to lure new business with government-related entities in need of representation. William Morris represents corporations such as General Motors and MySpace.

Los Angeles developer and landlord CIM Group spent $47.8 million for two Beverly Hills office buildings that were once part of the former William Morris Agency headquarters. CIM Group, which is the largest commercial property owner in Hollywood, bought 150 and 151 S. El Camino Drive. The three-story buildings with a combined total of more than 116,000 square feet of office space occupy two blocks just south of Wilshire Boulevard and the so-called Golden Triangle heart of downtown Beverly Hills, said broker Bob Safai of Madison Partners.

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.

Film agent David Goldman joined International Creative Management, adding to a recent exodus from the William Morris Agency's film department. Goldman, 34, said director Renny Harlin ("Die Hard 2") will join him at ICM. The agent declined to say whether other Morris clients had agreed to join him. He has worked closely with rock star Billy Idol, director Dwight Little, and actor Brandon Lee, among others. Goldman is the fifth Morris film agent to join ICM in the last two weeks.

Judy Scott-Fox, 56, veteran literary agent for the William Morris Agency. Born in Devon, England, she studied literature and began her career working for the English satirical magazine Private Eye. Later she managed the office for the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore revue in New York called "Beyond the Fringe." In 1965, Ms. Scott-Fox opened the U.S. office of the London-based Gregson & Wigan Agency.

William Morris Agency laid off 10 agents on Wednesday as part of an ongoing effort to shake up its lagging motion picture division. The moves are the most sweeping actions yet taken by new company chief Jim Wiatt, the former co-chairman of rival International Creative Management. Wiatt was brought in by Morris in August with a clear mandate to improve the agency's film business.

William Morris Agency said Tuesday that it has signed two deals to develop and distribute computer multimedia software on a pay-per-use and try-before-you-buy basis. William Morris, one of Hollywood's top talent agencies, struck a deal with Simon & Schuster, the publishing wing of Viacom Inc., and took an equity stake in Wave Interactive Network, an affiliate of Wave Systems Corp.

Michelle Wie, who turns 16 in about six weeks, could be turning pro before then. Although her father, B.J. Wie, said Friday that a final decision had not been made, there were growing indications that the golfing phenomenon was close to signing a contract with the William Morris Agency, which would end her amateur career. According to an insider, the agency offered Wie a large guarantee and also cut its commission to nothing. "There's a lot of speculation," said B.J.

Former William Morris Agency Chief Executive James Wiatt has listed his mansion in Pacific Palisades for sale at $16.5 million. The 11,544-square-foot house built in 2007 features a sweeping staircase, high ceilings, a paneled library/bar and a master bedroom suite with dual bathrooms, a marble fireplace and a patio. There are five bedrooms, 12 full bathrooms and five half-bathrooms. The nearly one-acre property includes a swimming pool, cabanas and a guest house. Public records show the property was purchased in 2004 for $3.2 million.

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.

If you had seen Tatiana Reyes in the water at Zuma Beach last week, gliding smoothly toward the shore, you couldn't have guessed she was nearly killed in a crippling explosion while serving in Iraq. She looked like she could have been one of the surfing instructors. If you had seen a smiling Richard Pineda stand up cleanly on wave after wave, with confidence and uncanny balance, you couldn't have imagined he needs a GPS device to remember how to get back home after an outing. The concept sounds counterintuitive at first: You take veterans recovering from brain trauma and other injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan and, for therapy, you put them on surfboards for the first time in their lives, lead them into the chilly, crashing surf and wish them luck.

There's a lot less William Morris Agency left to merge with Endeavor. The 111-year-old talent agency Monday laid off more than 120 people, or about 15% of its staff, in preparation for its pending merger with competitor Endeavor. About 40 of the affected employees were agents, and the rest were support staff. The layoffs, which have been expected since the two companies agreed to join forces late last month, hit the motion picture and television talent and literary departments the hardest.

When one of the young film agents at the William Morris Agency left a lunch meeting the other day, he bumped into agency chief Jim Wiatt out in the hallway. As the story is told around the agency, when he asked Wiatt if he wanted to step inside and say hello to the troops, Wiatt quipped: "Why should I? You guys are all going to be fired anyway." It was clearly meant as a joke, and Wiatt denies he ever said it at all. But judging from the funereal atmosphere at William Morris in the days following last week's formal announcement that Hollywood's oldest talent agency was merging with Endeavor, there is little doubt about who'll be the winner and who'll be the loser as the new company establishes itself as a new entity.

Talent agencies William Morris and Endeavor are expected to vote today on a merger creating a new giant in Hollywood at a time when the longtime role and power of the firms that represent actors, directors and writers are coming under severe strain.

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge on Thursday backed the William Morris Agency's refusal to hand over to Paramount Pictures confidential contracts on its producer clients. But the judge also appeared to pave the way for Paramount to obtain profit-participation statements on a smaller list of clients. "I'm not interested in contracts or what could have been renegotiated," said Judge Harvey Schneider.

Issues of control are bogging down a possible merger between two major Hollywood talent agencies. William Morris Agency and Endeavor have been in merger discussions for weeks, setting the stage for a new Hollywood powerhouse that would wield considerable clout in film, television, music and publishing.

Hollywood talent agencies pride themselves on placing their star clients into the biggest movies and TV shows. Now, add YouTube to the list. William Morris Agency, one of the largest talent firms, is in talks for a deal that would funnel its clients -- both actors and consumer brands -- into videos created for the Internet giant.