Word: caa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Flack at Hollywood talent agency CAA...
...star Sylvester Stallone for a share of screenplay credit. Several years later he butted heads with studio executives over the ending of the courtroom drama Jagged Edge. His greatest confrontation came in 1989, when he decided to leave the Creative Artists Agency for rival ICM and, according to Eszterhas, CAA honcho Michael Ovitz threatened to have his "foot soldiers who go up and down Wilshire Boulevard each day . . . blow your brains...
Although Ovitz denied making such statements, correspondence between the two men detailing their respective versions of the episode was faxed all over Hollywood, boosting Eszterhas to the almost mythic stature he relishes to this day. "Every time I'm in a limo and it passes the CAA building," says Eszterhas, "there is this right hand that sneaks out of the back window with this middle finger uplifted. I've done that religiously, and I get a great kick...
...energetically spreading the idea that Ovitz isn't minding the store. Says Block about CAA's extracurricular businesses: "Smart clients question what's the value-added service when senior agents are busy with outside deals, and they get shunted to junior agents." His boss Jeff Berg echoes that point: "My core business is managing the careers of talented people." This may be the major risk in Ovitz's expansive strategy; CAA clients could start to feel neglected and then restless, even if their fears were unjustified...
...CAA seems to be rising to the bait. "Those are the kind of guys," says one CAA executive of his ICM counterparts, "who steal scripts from one another's desks." The Ovitzites say Berg is ranting and raving to make himself seem like Mike's equal -- an idea they find absolutely absurd. "I will not be intimidated by the threat of failure," says Ovitz, with uncharacteristic heat, "or coerced by that kind of talk. I will do what I have...