Word: clout
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...Republicans, on the other hand, should be blamed for what were obviously highly partisan votes. Their block vote for Tower displayed a lack of concern about whether the nominee was appropriate for the Cabinet position. They seemed primarily concerned with salvaging Bush's rapidly disintegrating political clout rather than considering the case's merits...
...Hollywood, they say, any bureaucrat can give the thumbs-down to a film proposal, but the ones with real clout are those who can flash a thumbs-up and make it happen. That power used to be the exclusive preserve of the studio moguls. Not anymore. While studios still control the financing, today the man with the golden thumb is Michael Ovitz, an agent and martial-arts buff who works in quiet but irresistible ways. Nearly everyone in show business agrees that Ovitz, 42, president of Creative Artists Agency, is probably the most powerful figure in Hollywood. Some think...
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...
Colleagues say that if anyone has the bureaucratic clout and political skill to follow through on recommendations it is Verba, a former Government Department chair and associate dean for undergraduate education...
...PIANO LESSON. This stunning work by dramatist August Wilson, at Chicago's Goodman Theater, combines the emotional clout of his Pulitzer-prizewinning ( Fences with the haunting lyricism of his Joe Turner's Come and Gone...