Clash of the Titans

Beverly Hills doesn't look like a combat zone. Rodeo Drive screams money, not mayhem. But sweetie, kiss-kiss, get out your designer flak jacket, because there's a war going on in Hollywood, and Wilshire Boulevard is ground zero. Taking up a position at one end is Michael Ovitz, the former uber-agent who repped Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks before quitting for a short-lived tenure as president of Disney. Four miserable years later, he's back from exile, offering his services as a manager and raiding clients from Creative Artists Agency, the firm just a mile away that he co-founded 23 years ago. Last week, after Robin Williams signed on with Ovitz's new Artists Management Group, seven other actors and directors were told by the Young Turks running CAA to make a choice: Ovitz or us!

In Hollywood, agents and managers live in a symbiotic world, working together to cater to star egos and pocketbooks. So the seven clients with ties to both CAA and Ovitz's new AMG were appalled at their predicament. The rest of the town was enthralled. THE GREAT CAA-OVITZ WAR: WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON?, blared the Hollywood Reporter. Would Madonna make the leap? (Maybe, maybe not.) Would Spielberg? (Absolutely not, he said, since CAA packaged his hit Saving Private Ryan.) But of the seven who got the ultimatum, director Martin Scorsese and actors Marisa Tomei and Mimi Rogers have joined the Ovitz roster. CAA may yet lose the four others--director Sydney Pollack and actors Claire Danes, Minnie Driver and Lauren Holly--to Ovitz.

This all might seem like a schoolyard squabble (He's mine! No, he's mine!), but there are bigger stakes involved. Ovitz, once Hollywood's most powerful agent, is trying to cobble together a one-stop "virtual studio" for stars--effectively usurping the roles of agent, manager and studio chief. Round 1 is building the talent bank: Ovitz first captured two of young Hollywood's brightest stars, Leonardo DiCaprio and Cameron Diaz, by bringing over their managers, Rick Yorn and his sister-in-law Julie Silverman Yorn. Ovitz then started going after CAA's list of bankable celebs. Yet he has also merged with Gotham Group--a go-go firm of top animators--begun negotiations for a start-up record company, hired an Internet whiz and snooped around for a small TV-production firm.

In the process he is muddying the traditional Hollywood distinction between agents (who solicit work and negotiate agreements for clients) and managers (who technically can't negotiate agreements but perform hand-holding services and often get producing credits on their clients' projects). Cyclone Mike's moves are shaking up studios too, because they see him gaining leverage to dictate projects for the likes of Leo. "It's a war--and not just against CAA but against the studios," says a studio boss.

Richard Lovett, the president of CAA, who started out in the mail room under Ovitz and continued to dine with him at industry hangouts like the Grill even after Ovitz lost his job at Disney, tried to work out a coexistence agreement with his former boss. In December, when AMG took shape, Lovett claims, Ovitz promised not to raid CAA. But it was always an uneasy truce. As early as September, Ovitz had started calling CAA artists, reportedly telling them they didn't need agents at all. Then he went after their agents too. Two weeks ago, veteran CAA agent Michael Menchel didn't show up for work. A day later, he called to say he was leaving--with his client Robin Williams.

That was the last straw. CAA issued its ultimatum. Says Lovett: "We don't hate Ovitz. He's not the devil. It's a simple business decision. He's now a competitor." Last week CAA's other co-founder, Ron Meyer, who is now chief at Universal, made a point of driving across town for a 10-minute pep talk to his former colleagues. "You did the right thing," he said, assuring them that he would "drive a taxicab" rather than hurt his baby.

Although everyone in Hollywood is buzzing about the battle, few stars or studio executives are willing to speak openly for fear that the once omnipotent Ovitz will actually succeed in his grand plans. DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen, who has knocked heads with Ovitz in the past, said "Pass!" when asked to comment. Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, cornered at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, squirmed. "Michael Ovitz is a very smart guy, and let's leave it at that," he said. "I like Mike. I like Mike," said actor Alec Baldwin, running off before his mouth did. Maybe all that's left to say is: Congrats to Arnold Schwarzenegger for buying that military humvee before the first shots were fired.