Word: michaell
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...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 he may be a bit too powerful...
...Michael who? Most people outside Hollywood would not recognize his name, but that's the way he likes it. The Ovitz team's credo: Don't talk about us, talk about our clients. The 675 names on the agency's roster include actors ranging from Paul Newman to Bette Midler, directors from Ron Howard to Martin Scorsese and musicians from Michael Jackson to Madonna. While CAA's chief rivals -- International Creative Management and William Morris -- may boast longer lists of stars, the 14-year-old CAA has snatched most of the brightest lights in the business. Says longtime agent Irving...
...Ovitz not only pampers them but also teaches them to become more self-sufficient. Says actress Sally Field, a CAA client: "We used to be totally helpless, talking about what lessons to take or how thin we'd got our thighs while we waited for the phone to ring. Michael encouraged me to pick up the phone and develop my own projects. He told me, 'Be your own studio...
...Krantz, Danielle Steel and Jackie Collins. That collaboration has produced some 100 hours of network mini-series. Now Ovitz hopes to work an even richer literary vein. In December Janklow announced a surprise merger with longtime ICM literary agent Lynn Nesbit, whose clients include Tom Wolfe, Ann Beattie and Michael Crichton. According to sources close to the negotiations, the publishing coup was arranged by the invisible hand of Michael Ovitz...
...people can help pull him out of the political fire. During the campaign, he scored big points with his tough stance on capital punishment. He supported it on the stump, in the debates, and through anticrime TV ads trumpeting his belief in the death penalty. The ads harped on Michael Dukakis' opposition to capital punishment, a position Dukakis was not shy about proclaiming anyway. The death penalty is a useful issue for any politician who believes that voltage wins votes. It works in a campaign, but on a different level, many Americans have clearly not come to terms with legalized...