Word: ovitz
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...corner office on the top floor is the soft-spoken 46-year-old from whom the swirl of glamour and adrenaline and influence derives. Michael Ovitz, CAA's co-founder and chairman, does not on first glimpse look like the most powerful man in show business. His scratchy voice and gap-toothed grin are real, even warm. This is the guy who sends streams of cold sweat down elegantly coiffed necks? This guy with the rosy complexion and slight stoop, who gives the impression that he has all the time in the world to hear about your weekend? Who keeps...
This is the guy. How powerful is Mike Ovitz? He's so powerful that when the heads of two film studios and one of his own senior employees were asked last week what they thought of him, all three men sang his praises but insisted on anonymity, for fear that Mike might be upset that they had said anything at all -- and then had second second thoughts, calling Ovitz to confess pre- emptively that they had talked to a reporter...
...Mike Ovitz so powerful? Very simple: most of the really big movie stars are represented by him and his agency, including Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton, Bill Murray, Al Pacino, Barbra Streisand and Robin Williams. They also represent most of the top directors, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and John Hughes. And most of the top screenwriters. The only weak spot, according to one of those reticent studio chiefs, is in music; there, CAA's client roster is peopled by such nobodies as Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson and Madonna...
...business acumen and showman's instincts. "He is the least cynical man I know," says Peter Chernin, now head of Fox's film division. "He has antennae for the kind of cynicism that says, 'We don't like this, but the idiots out there will.' " Says Michael Ovitz, head of the Creative Artists Agency: "In this business there are good analytical, practical and creative minds, but very few who combine all three. Barry can read a balance sheet, read a script, and forward-think...
...able to offer Coke the services of top filmmakers as collaborators on its ads. Film directors Rob Reiner (When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men) and Richard Donner (Superman, Lethal Weapon), for example, were among those producing the new Coke commercials. "What we do every day," explains Ovitz, "is listen to ideas, encourage them, nurture them. This is no different. Instead of creating a story that is TV or feature-film length, we shifted to stories that are 30 seconds or 60 seconds long." As for what Coca- Cola paid CAA for its work, no one is saying. Jokes...