Word: caa
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Ovitz prospered by matching such talent with CAA screenwriters and peddling the stars and stories to studios. But assembling the elements for such hits as Ghostbusters and Rain Man only whetted Ovitz's appetite for even greater power packages. His first real taste of corporate matchmaking came last year when Sony, impressed by his unrivaled Hollywood contacts, tapped him as a consultant for its $3.4 billion acquisition of Columbia Pictures...
...after the Columbia deal, Matsushita sought out Ovitz to lead the company's search for a major acquisition. The Japanese company first sent a group of top executives to meet with Ovitz in Hawaii, where they talked about everything from world politics to prospective merger partners. A team of CAA experts then prepared a list three possible targets. The Japanese company rejected one studio, Orion, as too small. Another candidate, Paramount, was dismissed because some of its holdings, ranging from publishing (Simon & Schuster) to sports (the New York Knicks), didn't fit into Matsushita's strategy. Ovitz recommended MCA, which...
...days of making do are long gone. In the fall CAA will move into a new 65,000-sq.-ft. headquarters building in Beverly Hills designed by architect I.M. Pei. Ovitz, who lives in tony Brentwood with his wife Judy and their three children, often attends Los Angeles Lakers games, where he can keep an eye on one of his newest clients, star guard Magic Johnson. Every morning at dawn, he practices aikido, a Japanese form of self-defense that turns the attacker's momentum against him. Says he: "We're painted as aggressive, which is true to a point...
Ovitz, who reputedly earns more than $3 million a year, rewards his 65 gung- ho agents with outsize salaries and a share of the agency profits. In exchange, he demands loyalty and discipline. CAA even has an unspoken dress code. Says Ovitz: "When we hire agents, we spend most of the time examining how they'd fit in. We agonize over our personnel...
Critics say the agency's clout has become excessive. Says a top studio executive: "CAA packages are a prefab, take-it-or-leave-it way of making movies. Some pictures get made that maybe shouldn't be made." Ovitz has had his share of feuds, most notably with David Puttnam, who lost his job as chairman of Columbia Pictures last year after alienating much of the Hollywood establishment. Insiders say the abrasive Puttnam's most expensive gaffe may have been his brusque treatment of Ovitz and CAA client Bill Murray. Recalling a spat with Ovitz, agent Bernie Brillstein explains...