Company Town : AGENCY WARS: The Cutthroat World of the Talent Business : ‘It’s Much Tougher Than It’s Ever Been . . . ‘

In November of 1989, a brash young literary agent named Jeremy Zimmer, who then worked for International Creative Management, told a group of wanna-be filmmakers at an industry seminar that “the big agencies are all like animals, raping and pillaging one another day in and day out.”

The next day, ICM honcho Jeff Berg hurried out a press release apologizing to “our colleagues in the agency business for the misguided and inappropriate remarks. . . . These views do not reflect the philosophy or values of this agency nor, do we believe, any other agency.”

Zimmer, the agency’s one-time fair-haired boy, was fired on the spot, though ICM insisted it was for other reasons. Zimmer’s confidants say he desperately wanted out anyway.

Today, the warring among Hollywood’s top talent agencies has only gotten worse.

The latest salvo was fired this week by ICM, which unexpectedly wooed Madonna over to its camp only four weeks after she had switched from her longtime home at Creative Artists Agency to the William Morris Agency.

It was also one month ago that four top agents at ICM defected in the dark of the night, files in hand, to start their own agency. The next day, an industry insider told The Times, “I got four calls from agents this morning wanting numbers for ICM clients.” The source referred to the impending feeding frenzy as “the buzzards’ ball.”

Marty Bauer, president of United Talent Agency, where Zimmer is a partner today, concedes: “The agency wars have reached alarming proportions. It is much tougher out there than it has ever been. It’s hurting the studios, the quality of our industry’s product and, most importantly, from an agent’s point of view, the careers of artists.”

Other agency veterans concur:

“In my 25 years in the agency business, I’ve never seen it like this--there is such ill will,” says one.

“I’ve never seen such a predatorial climate as it is today,” says another, in response to this week’s defection by Madonna. “The actions, behavior and motivations (of agents) are unlike those of any other business, and the sad thing is it’s the client who ultimately gets hurt because it’s now all about the kill (stealing a client), not the delivery (serving the client).”

Why have things escalated to such a fevered pitch?

The bottom line is that the stakes are much higher than ever because of the huge contracts won by top actors, directors and writers. Agents collect 10% of a client’s fee; for a star like Madonna, that can mean millions of dollars a year to an agency.

How can this affect the quality of the movies we see today?

“There are times when you should advise a client, ‘Don’t take a project.’ But we can’t do that anymore,” admits one prominent agent. “A lot of agents are putting clients in bad movies and packages just to keep them working, and they no longer have a long-term point of view of someone’s career.”

Agents are constantly fearful that if a client is not working, their competitors will take advantage of any lull.

Sources said that while Morris agents were confidently seeking new deals for Madonna and her Maverick Productions, the rock star was being schmoozed by ICM representatives in New York with whom she apparently “bonded.” For 10 days straight, sources said, Madonna did not respond to Morris’ attempts to contact her by phone or fax, until her manager called with the bad news.

There is another consequence of the atmosphere of insecurity in the agencies: “We’re tougher in negotiations because we’re paranoid about being second-guessed by our clients for blowing a deal,” acknowledges one.

“We spend way more time watching our backs and trying to defend ourselves against losing clients than we do getting work for our clients,” another says.

The top four agencies--CAA, ICM, William Morris and UTA--all have suffered increasing defections in recent months. ICM--which represents such stars as Julia Roberts and Arnold Schwarzenegger--has lost actors Hugh Grant, Billy Crystal and Eddie Murphy and director Adrian Lyne to CAA. CAA recently lost director Renny Harlin and actress Goldie Hawn to ICM, and Madonna and Cher to Morris. UTA saw director Barry Sonnenfeld walk out the door to CAA because he was reportedly angry that he passed up “Forrest Gump”--a risky project that had been around for nine years--to do the sequel to his hit “The Addams Family.”

Although the agency business has never really been what you’d call gentlemanly, the veterans will tell you it was a kinder, gentler pursuit once upon a time. A classic Hollywood story goes that when the late Stanley A. Kamen, who headed the motion picture division at William Morris, would get a tip that a competitor’s client was unhappy, he’d warn that person’s agent to remedy the situation or risk losing that star to him.

Such a warning would be highly unusual today, though some say there are still certain agents in town who follow that practice.

It has only been in the last five years that agents have made news as much as their high-profile clients. And client signings, once gossip column items, are now front-page news--bylined stories--in the trade papers Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter.

Six years ago, when Variety covered the Independent Feature Project seminar at which Zimmer made his controversial remarks, it appeared on Page 3.

Dream Music: Word is that British pop star George Michael, who was wrangling this week to escape his long-term deal with Sony Music, is being courted by David Geffen and could end up as the first recording artist on the music roster at DreamWorks.

But speculation that superstar Janet Jackson will exit Virgin Records for DreamWorks is unfounded, sources said Thursday. Jackson, who has a unique contract option that allows her to become a free agent this summer, is likely to stay at Virgin, which sources said has the financial muscle of its parent company, EMI Music, to ward off competitors.

The record business was also abuzz Thursday with rumors that the jobs of James Fifield, the firm’s worldwide chairman, and Charles Koppelman, its North American chief, were in jeopardy. Media accounts of Koppelman and Fifield’s pending demise surfaced last week in Nashville and Britain.

But in a phone call from London, Thorn-EMI Executive Chairman Colin Southgate, whose British conglomerate owns EMI Music, denied he plans to fire either executive.

“I’m fed up to the teeth with all this rubbish in the press,” said Southgate, whose record division’s U.S sales have sunk behind the competing five major record conglomerates. “Sure, we’ve had a market share issue in North America, but we’re doing fine worldwide. Jim and Charles are on my team, and I think they’re doing a fantastically good job. I have complete confidence that they will continue to work closely with (EMI international chairman) Ken Berry and deliver the goods.”

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Times staff writer Chuck Philips contributed to this report.

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Inside Hollywood

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