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Now that Ovitz and Meyer are out, CAA faces the same fretful future that Disney did a year ago: no formal line of succession. Rumors have swirled about defections of CAA's top managers and their celebrity clients. Barbra Streisand and Steven Seagal were whispered as ready to bolt the agency for rival ICM; Kevin Costner, it was said, had decided not to have any agent. That's what Tim Allen is doing, relying on his manager and attorney, and he's a triple win ner in TV, movies and best- selling books--all at Disney.
Is this the dawn of the Post-Agent Era? If Ovitz can defect to a movie company, will the balance of power tilt back to the studios? "You'll see a frenzy to lock up talent," predicts analyst Bibb, noting Meyer's MCA signing of his ex-client Sly Stallone to a $60 million, three- picture deal. "This will be a re-enactment of the contract-player system of the '40s ." And the titanic studio struggles. Already Ovitz and Meyer are separately wooing Brad Grey, co-owner of the Brillstein-Grey management firm, perhaps to boost their respective TV divisions.
According to an insider, CAA is being restructured along law-firm lines, possibly with senior and junior partners. Says actor-director Warren Beatty of the team: "They're smart, they're young; there's no reason to feel they can't do better. I think it was a good time for Ronny and Mike to proceed to a different area." On the matter of succession, Bernie Brillstein, Grey's partner, foresees a slow shakeout: "Eventually, a No. 1 will emerge, the way Ovitz did from a group of five equal partners."
Ovitz may become the lion king of Disney. But that would require the death or transfiguration of Eisner, and you can bet the chairman isn't planning on either one. Besides, there's plenty of work to do. Disney is expected to be among the bidders if Thorn EMI puts its record unit on the block. Disney could also be in the running for a Southern California football franchise, an online service or new cable channels. "The asset base is extraordinary," raves Ovitz of the new, beefier Disney. "And this company is so big that the whole issue of my autonomy is sort of irrelevant."
So is power mongering another expectation that Ovitz means to deflate? "Part of the reason I did this," he says, "is that it was time for me to make a change in what I was doing." He had played the MCA deal as if Michael Ovitz were one of his top clients, deserving of a huge, history-making deal. Maybe this student of Zen tactics was demonstrating the art of war one final time on a job he didn't really want.
But somewhere above Aspen, Ovitz de cided he wanted to be coaxed into a new job, nearly as much as Eisner wanted to pick up the biggest, shiniest spangle in Hollywood. To make one or two men very happy, all it took was "Please."
--Reported by Sam Allis/Boston, Andrea Sachs/New York and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles