Word: bronfmans
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What does $250 million buy these days? Lots of things, but not Michael Ovitz. That wad was not enough for Seagram's CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. to lure Ovitz from Creative Artists Agency, the talent shop he built into Hollywood's prime power brokerage, to become chairman of MCA, the show-biz conglomerate (movies, music, TV shows, theme parks) that Seagram's purchased last week. Thus ended the hottest nonevent since Comet Kohoutek. Except that this one had bigger stars ready to collide. And the meteor showers may be felt for years...
Since the bust-up of the MCA deal is a Hollywood story, it must also be about relationships. It was about Ovitz's friendship with Bronfman, which was tested by Ovitz's demands for more money and power. It was about the family atmosphere, nurturing and disciplined, in which the lords of CAA raise their younger employees. It was also about the agency's awesome client roster: the Costners and Cruises, Redfords and Streisands, Keanus and Winonas, Spielbergs and Zemeckises. These are people who don't like to feel deserted by their 10-percenters...
...Bronfman says he will put off looking for a new studio chief while he learns more about the company. And Ovitz, according to a CAA representative, is "working his little fanny off." Some industry insiders think Ovitz's real goal is to be the next chairman of Time Warner. And if that, why not the boss of Viacom? Or Supreme Commander of the Galaxy? And would anyone be surprised if the discussions between Ovitz and Bronfman were to start again? After all, they still have a relationship...
Michael Ovitz isn't going anywhere. Negotiations for the Creative Artists Agency chairman to head MCA collapsed as Seagram completed its $5.7 billion purchase of 80% of the entertainment giant. Disputes between Ovitz and Seagram ceo Edgar Bronfman Jr. over executive autonomy and a compensation package worth more than $200 million are speculated to have caused the impasse...
Maybe that doesn't matter to Bronfman: he hears his own voice sayin' it's all right. In this respect, Edgar Jr. is like the hero of one of his own movies. There is a scene in The Border where Jack Nicholson is asked why he is trying to accomplish a feat most people think is crazy. His reply: "I guess I gotta feel good about something I do." --Reported by Bernard Baumohl/New York, Patrick E. Cole and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles and Edward W. Desmond/Tokyo