"Hey, it's me, what, Michael, what's the matter?"

Halfway through the conversation, Ron Meyer suddenly received a call from Ovitz. Meyer turned on the speakerphone of his cell phone...

"Ron, the news that we are going to MCA has been leaked to the media. There will be news in the newspapers tomorrow." Ovitz's voice sounded a little tired and a little excited. He was not very sure about the upcoming opportunity.

Is it a good springboard or a difficult challenge?

"Damn it, these media are really pervasive, how did they get the news? Only the two of us at CAA know about this, right?"

"I suspect that little Edgar (Bronfman) accidentally revealed it. You know this guy, he is still a little immature when it comes to managing a large company with a market value of tens of billions. He needs some experienced people to come.

Help him."

"Hahaha, it's true. Michael, how are you going to respond? Will you be interviewed by the media? Do you want to announce it to the agents at CAA?" Ron Meyer took the opportunity to ask some important questions.

"I don't know that it will take a very long time for CAA's shares to be liquidated. It will take me about 10 months to deal with all this. If there are no other changes, you can go to MCA first on my behalf and help me keep an eye on our business.

That stall over there.”

"Okay, do you need me to see Mr. Bronfman Jr.? He now needs to build a team to deal with the media."

"Yes, that's it Ron, it seems you have entered the role. You first go to New York to meet with Bronfman Jr. and talk to him. Find out what he says. As for MCA, the current boss Lou Wasserman, and Xin

How to deal with Berg... After I go to work on Monday, I will stabilize the internal affairs of CAA and fly to join you."

Ovitz never thought that his core phone number would be leaked. But Ron Meyer also said sorry to Ronald, and he had to book a night flight to New York. During these 10 months

, he will serve as Ovitz's agent at MCA, laying the foundation for the two people's future management careers here.

Meyer left in a hurry, and Ronald was alone in the car, deep in thought. Although Meyer was now a partner with him, if Ronald could not prevent Ovitz from going to MCA to serve as CEO, and at the same time help Meyer obtain the top management of MCA

As for the position, it is not impossible for him to go back and work with Ovitz.

Ronald and his conspiracies will become history in the past and no one will mention it again.

Ronald wrote some numbers on the notebook with a pen. Ovitz's shares in CAA may be worth US$200 million. Once he really leaves his job and goes to MCA, these shares cannot be held at the same time due to legal provisions to avoid the consequences of

Conflict of interest, so must sell.

As for CAA, which is a partnership, the best targets for selling these shares are the current partners within CAA.

Once Ovitz officially starts the sale process, these partnerships, known as the Young Turks, will automatically and spontaneously unite to cut off Ovitz's way back.

…

On the morning of Monday working day, CAA held a regular morning meeting, and Richard and Niceta also attended the meeting.

After the brief morning meeting, Ovitz immediately set off to fly to New York. The agents who were able to participate in this morning meeting all had some level of experience, and many were partners.

After the meeting, they rushed back to their offices as quickly as possible, and then picked up the phone to call their biggest stars. Ovitz's move will profoundly affect the Hollywood agent industry.

"What did he say?" Ronald was already waiting for their call. After receiving the call, his first question was to ask Ovitz what he said.

"He avoided the question and just said, you have read the newspaper, I have read the newspaper, and now let's move on." Richard paraphrased Ovitz's words.

The newspapers Ovitz was referring to were the Los Angeles Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, which are some of the more influential newspapers in the entertainment industry. They all reported on Ovitz's role in promoting Seagram's acquisition of MCA in their weekend pages.

He played a key role in the process, and it was mentioned that he might serve as the CEO of the new company after the merger.

"What was everyone's reaction?" Ronald asked again.

"We are about to rush back and have phone calls with their big-name stars... They are all afraid that International Creative Management (ICM), William Morris (WMA) and United Talent will poach CAA's biggest clients."

Sita said with a smile.

In addition to Stallone, Barbra Streisand, Dustin Hoffman and others who are personally led by Ovitz and Meyer, other celebrity clients will also consider whether they will enjoy CAA if Ovitz leaves.

privileges have been diminished.

After all, the strength that stars represented by CAA can enjoy in salary negotiations with studios is largely due to Ovitz's personal ability.

In addition to Michael Jackson and Tom Cruise, two of CAA's biggest celebrity clients, there are a lot of celebrities who all received calls from their agents this morning, telling them that Ovitz would not leave. Even if he left, they would

It can also ensure that customers’ treatment remains unchanged.

These stars, including Robert Redford, Demi Moore, Kevin Costner, Paul Newman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and others, also received several other offers later.

A call from a brokerage company, inviting them to talk about future film development.

At the same time, CAA's director clients such as Barry Levinson, Ivan Reitman, Martin Scorsese, Oliver Stone, etc. also received calls from CAA's competitors, although their commissions were not high.

High, but in the past fifteen years of competition with CAA, everyone has tasted the power of the packaging strategy of directors and screenwriters bundling stars, and they all want to take advantage of Ovitz's withdrawal from the industry to replicate his successful strategy.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! It is because of Ronald's special status that only Ed Limato, the original agent of William Morris, relied on his familiarity with him.

After making a phone call and asking about the situation, I gave up the idea of ​​poaching.

"Ovitz would never have imagined that there would be such a big chain reaction..." Ronald asked with a smile.

"Haha, he is overconfident. He thinks these young Turks are still the young people who were just starting out and regarded him as their idol." Richard said a rare comment.

It can be said that Ovitz did not express his position at the company's morning meeting. As for whether he should leave CAA or whether he should go to MCA Global? He adopted an attitude of putting it aside and not discussing it.

If he is still the largest shareholder and owner of the largest brokerage company who occupies more than half of the top-grossing stars in Hollywood, then there is nothing wrong with this treatment. The young people below can only dare to be angry but dare not speak out, and remain silent

Complain in your heart.

However, after rumors appeared in the media that he left his job to join Universal MCA, Ovitz did not deny it, which to some extent confirmed the accuracy of the rumors.

Ovitz was unaware of the strong position he had gained in the Hollywood industry over the past two decades. In fact, many of these positions were borrowed from famous directors and stars, not his own.

It is so powerful that all seven major studios look up to it.

And only a truly strong person can delay expressing his position until a later point in time. Ovitz does not have such strong strength, but he did what a truly strong person can do. The consequences for him are that both sides

Everyone was dissatisfied with him.

Of course, he's still chairman of CAA's board of directors, and his relationship with Bronfman Jr. is in its honeymoon stage, but once the seeds of doubt are planted, they will grow if the right opportunity is found.

"Then let us add fuel to the fire and let the young agents at CAA fully understand the situation..."

Just as he was told, Ronald dialed Ed Bastian's phone number and told him that everything was going as planned.

So before it was lunch time in New York, a package was delivered to the New York Times editorial office and addressed to senior reporter and playwright Bernard Weinraub.

"Aha..." Bernard Weinraub happened to be writing about Ovitz and MCA, and this email contained a description of what happened at CAA's regular meeting that morning, and all of CAA's stars who might switch agencies.

The list...

It all came about by such a coincidence that Bernard Weinraub grabbed the phone and called CAA.

"Hey, I'm looking for Mr. Ovitz. I'm a reporter for the New York Times. There are some rumors here about him leaving CAA and going to Universal MCA. I'd like to ask him to respond."

After all, the New York Times is one of the three most influential newspapers in America. Ovitz's secretary did not dare to neglect and transferred the call to Ovitz, who was tens of thousands of feet above the ground.

"No comment..."

"Then 'You have read the newspaper, I have read the newspaper, now let's move on.' Was this what you said at today's morning meeting?" the reporter asked further.

"No comment..."

"Does this mean that you neither admit nor deny this rumor?"

"No comment!"

Ovitz refused further comment, so reporter Bernard began to use his imagination. Of course, reporters need to have factual basis to write this kind of manuscript, and he will write all factual things into paragraphs, and he will

For guessing, some guiding words such as "it is said", "accepted in the industry", etc. will be added.

Ovitz's departure from Creative Artists would not only cause ripples in the film, television and music industries, but in many ways could also have a significant impact on the talent agency industry, which CAA has dominated for at least a decade.

"

This will show the importance of this news figure in the industry, and allow viewers who are unfamiliar with the entertainment industry to have an intuitive impact on the importance of this rumor.

Another example is this paragraph: "Mr. Ovitz is a powerful dealmaker in Hollywood who has previously publicly denied any interest in running MCA..."

Ovitz did indeed reject Panasonic's invitation a few years ago because he did not want to succumb to Lou Wasserman and Sheinberg. When the reporter wrote this, there was actually no problem.

"Moreover, despite his wealth, Mr. Ovitz aspired to be in the same league as his friends, such as Michael D. Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Company, and Barry Diller, former chairman of Fox Corp.

financial level.”

There is no problem with reporting based on public facts. Everyone knows that Eisner, the chairman of Disney, and Barry Diller, the former chairman of Fox, are both worth more than Ovitz. Eisner, according to Disney

annual report, after cashing in stock options, revenue in 1993 was close to US$200 million, and Barry Diller founded Fox after leaving Fox in 1992

QVC Network, and trying to acquire Paramount. Both of their personal wealth should be less than $1 billion, but it is more than Ovitz.

Anyone could deduce based on common sense that Ovitz must not be as rich as these two friends of his. Perhaps he would not be so tough when they were playing golf together.

"There were several reasons why Mr. Ovitz might have wanted to leave Creative Arts. He felt uneasy, and caring for and nurturing movie stars, no matter how lucrative, was not particularly appealing to the middle-aged Ovitz.

"It can be irritating to deal with an emotional actor like Dustin Hoffman, or an indecisive person like Warren Beatty, or a difficult person like Barbara Streisand."

In the whole article, reporter Bernard felt most proud of this paragraph. He used maybe, think, maybe... to perfectly avoid the responsibility of spreading rumors. Then he cited several very famous Hollywood stars.

As an example, their character weaknesses are also great. As we all know, they happen to be several CAA clients for whom Ovitz himself serves as an agent.

As for what conclusions readers will draw, for example, these stars, whose weird tempers made Ovitz intolerable, so much so that he wanted to sell the company to Universal MCA, that is all the readers' own associations, and it is not the same as his.

It doesn't matter.

Of course, the title of this article was the one he spent the most time on:
To be continued...