Word: caa
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Maybe none of the above, and certainly ICM's Berg is a little disingenuous in his outrage. There is some truth to CAA's contention that if it helps keep a major studio alive, that will ultimately accrue to the benefit of everyone working in Hollywood. But when Berg went to the press, Ovitz was stung. Since both men are people of such consequence, their fearful peers are careful not to take sides, even anonymously. "It was a bold move on Mike's part," says the currently successful head of a studio, "and a logical move on Jeff's part...
...sides of the negotiating table, real and potential conflicts of interest are chronic and rampant -- so much so that the wheeler-dealers have a hard time taking outsiders' ethical qualms seriously. "The only way to avoid the appearance of potential conflict of interest in this business," says CAA's & president, Ron Meyer, "is to represent only one client. And then, of course, you'd have no business and no clout and no one would care...
What makes Mike run? For starters, he surely wants to cleanse himself of agenting's residual Sweet Smell of Success-era taint. In the old-fashioned show business pecking order, according to a veteran producer at one of the studios, agents were "one step above child molester." Ovitz and CAA have given their trade glamour and stature of a kind that was unimaginable a generation ago, but they still can't order a movie or TV show into production; they are still only middle people, not buyers. On the other hand, Ovitz has turned down the top job at Columbia...
...fact, Ovitz is as close to a visionary as Hollywood gets. And in great measure he is powerful because he is so good at what he does. "Studios like him," says one studio lieutenant, unnecessarily withholding his identity, "because he is honest, straightforward and reliable." CAA is a disciplined, very closely managed organization -- some would say oppressively so. CAA agents must collaborate on projects and share information for the good of the clients and the agency; at ICM it tends to be every agent for himself. Ovitz is a devotee of the ancient Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu, whose...
...fear of Ovitz and CAA in Hollywood is intense and practically universal, though perhaps not wholly warranted. The hot screenwriter Joe Eszterhas says Ovitz threatened to ruin him when he switched to ICM 3 1/2 years ago, but his writing fees have kept climbing. CAA client Michael Douglas appeared in his Basic Instinct, and CAA tried to get its clients cast in Eszterhas' forthcoming Sliver. In late 1991 Wall Street Journal reporter Richard Turner co-wrote a devastating article about Ovitz's overenthusiastic involvement in a penny-ante company pushing QSound, an unsuccessful audio technology. Ovitz apparently sputtered...