Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1322 CAA’s people are scattered

"Why would I let such a bad actress join my crew? She doesn't respect my beliefs..."

Tom Cruise was the first victim of Ovitz's new deal. An actress represented by CAA wanted to be packaged into his new project, no matter what the role was.

The actress, the daughter of a studio executive who just wanted to be in a movie, was betrayed when she made some inappropriate comments about Cruise's Scientology beliefs.

Tom Cruise immediately took the opportunity to go to Ovitz's office to ask for an explanation. He was very serious about his belief in Scientology.

"It's just a misunderstanding, Tom, I promise. I'll ask her to apologize to you..." Ovitz had to appease one of his most important male stars first.

"I need respect, Ovitz, respect. Last time I was on the set, someone said something bad about the Scientology microphone, and guess what happened? The producer himself announced that all my future shots would be with the Scientology microphone..."

"I will ensure that you receive the same treatment in all future CAA projects. I personally guarantee this..."

Ovitz quickly made a promise here. If the star suddenly came up with a strange request, it would be difficult to refuse or agree. This opportunity was just the right way to show his respect for Tom Cruise at the lowest cost.

"This is extremely unprofessional and inconsistent with the professionalism that CAA advocates..." Tom Cruise was almost done with his outburst and picked up the coffee on the table and took a sip.

"Yeah, I'm reaffirming CAA's principles and foundations with them, putting the interests of clients first and CAA first. I think you will soon feel the return of this basic value..."

"That's good, otherwise I'll have to reconsider my partnership with CAA."

"Hey, Tom, look at me. We've been working happily together since you made your debut, right? You asked Paula to bring you a list of film directors you wanted to work with, and we've almost fulfilled them for you in the past ten years.

Give me some confidence, Paula, maybe I've been a little lazy, but I've never let you down, have I?"

"I believe in you. I believe you won't let me down in the future."

"Don't worry, I will strengthen your team. Also, would you like to consider adding a broker? Or, some of our clients will consider changing brokers after working with them for a long time..."

"..." Tom Cruise remained silent. He had not expected this trick. He had come here to complain, but he had not expected Ovitz to take the opportunity to persuade him to change his agent.

"Think about it, we have a lot of young people here, full of energy..."

"..." Tom Cruise suddenly had an idea, "Any recommendations?"

"Ha, Tom, Tom, I have a lot of people here who will jump for joy when they hear that they can provide you with services... What do you need? We can start with your needs..."

"I want to strengthen my public relations work, and it would be best if I have some connections on the East Coast..." Tom Cruise stated his conditions according to his favorite candidate.

"Well, public relations is very important. The most competitive person here is Kevin Huwen... I'll arrange a meeting for you."

"But what about me?"

Tom Cruise was very satisfied with Kevin Hoover, an ally of Niceta's faction who had once been Ronald's temporary agent and could be considered half his own. Therefore, he did not raise the issue of the candidate, lest Ovitz continue to add his candidates and deliberately bring up the matter of Paula Wagner.

"I understand, I understand. She was the first agent to see your potential. Leave everything to me. I will do everything for you properly without you having to show up at all. Paula is a professional agent. She will understand."

……

"You want me to give up my role as Tom Cruise's agent?" Paula Wagner loudly retorted to Ovitz who came over to announce the decision to her, "Don't forget, you were all unwilling to sign this big boy back then, and I gambled my own career and signed him..."

"This is what your client thinks, I am just here to tell you the decision. In the brokerage business, if someone else has to tell you that your client doesn't want you to be their agent, shouldn't you think about your own problems?
This is an irreversible decision. Kevin Hooven will take over your position as Tom Cruise's agent. All handover work must be completed before the end of today's get off work. By the way, although you and Niceta are husband and wife, you can no longer interfere with Cruise's work in the future..."

"You are blackmailing me. I will call Tom and ask him to retract his decision..."

"Come on. Do you think I would make a mistake like this? You can hit me as much as you want and see what Tom says."

"Hello, Tom..." Wagner couldn't wait to call Tom Cruise.

"Hello, this is Tom. I'm not here right now. If you have any questions, you can contact my agent Paula..." It was his recorded call.

The message forwarded from Paula herself seemed to be mocking herself.

"This is a scam. Are you trying to launch a surprise attack while Tom is not on the phone?"

"I've already told you to hand over all your documents before the end of this afternoon. You can't take anything out of this office.

If you don't comply, I will ask security to ask you to leave. Being fired is not a good experience for your next job. You don't want me to tell the truth to your next employer over the phone, do you? Paula..."

"You want to fire me?" Paula pointed at Ovitz and cursed, her fingers shaking.

"If you continue to be uncooperative like this."

"Fuck you, you wish, I quit!"

Paula Wagner cursed and threw the documents on the table all over the place. Then she angrily swept several photos on the table, including photos of her, Niceta, the children, Ronald's family, and the photo of her and the young Tom Cruise, into a paper box, then turned around and left, slamming the door loudly.

……

"How is it?" After Paula Wagner left the CAA building, she went straight to Ronald's mansion, where Tom Cruise was waiting for her.

"It went better than I expected. I resigned." Paula Wagner had thrown the excitement and anger on her face into the Pacific Ocean, and was smiling calmly.

"Very good, Kevin Hooven is about to take over Tom's business. Rick (Nicita) will negotiate some compensation with you..."

"It doesn't matter. I just want to do a good job in my new role for Tom..."

"Hahaha, I didn't expect your acting skills are so good Paula." Tom Cruise laughed beside him. What originally required some twists and turns was completed smoothly with Ovitz's unconscious cooperation.

"Oh, now I truly understand how difficult it is for an actor. When I saw you, Tom, performing on the set, it was effortless for you to act opposite Jack Nicholson. But when I got angry, I was afraid that Ovitz would see through me, and even my fingers were shaking..." Paula Wagner took the opportunity to flatter Tom Cruise.

Although her new job is no longer an agent, she still has to work closely with Tom Cruise.

"I think if Paula wasn't a better and more promising producer, she might be able to be an actress, and maybe even act opposite Tom..." Ronald instructed the servant to open a bottle of champagne and toasted with the two of them.

"By the way, what is the name of your new company?" Ronald still wanted to sign a cooperative filming agreement with them.

"It's called C/W Films..." Tom Cruise took a sip of champagne and showed a charming smile. His neat and white teeth really made him very charming. When Ronald joked about asking Paula to act with him just now, Paula Wagner's eyes were bent with laughter.

"Cruise/Wagner Films, very good, very good..." Ronald was very satisfied with this concise name. When the news was announced, wouldn't Ovitz be so angry that his mouth was twisted?
"Ha, you've already started celebrating..." Wagner's husband, Rick Nicita, and Ronald's agent, Richard, arrived late. They had just received a severance package for Paula Wagner from Ovitz.

"Any news updates?" Ronald asked them.

"The conditions were very good, with compensation for the confidentiality agreement and a severance pay equivalent to two years' income. Ovitz couldn't wait for Paula to leave and didn't give her any chance to regret."

"Ahahaha..." Paula Wagner was very happy. This money allowed her to concentrate on working for the new C/W Pictures without any worries.

"You can pay for the takeaway later..." Ronald also smiled at Paula.

"Uncle Ronald, Uncle Tom..." Zachary, the five-year-old son of Niceta and Paula, was running around Ronald's house when he found a videotape of "Top Gun". He ran out to show his treasure, "Look, your names are on it..."

……

"We also want to adopt Paula Wagner's model, but I don't have a husband who is a partner at CAA, so can you keep my position and allow my partner to start a production company? My client Chris also wants to repeat this business model..."

Of course, the news of the establishment of Cruise/Wagner Pictures quickly spread throughout Hollywood and also sparked a heated discussion within CAA.

Many brokers went to discuss with Ovitz whether they could adopt this model to run their own and their clients' businesses.

Unlike other talent agencies, every client at CAA is shared by three or more agents, so the share each agent gets is much less than that of other talent agencies.

Coupled with the work ethic advocated by Ovitz, which requires always working overtime and always answering client calls, the young people at CAA generally work much longer hours than traditional Hollywood agents. Even after get off work, they have to answer client calls 24 hours a day, otherwise they will face pressure from other agent colleagues to snatch their business.

The long working hours and low income actually make CAA's young agents complain. However, CAA has gradually obtained the agency contracts of nearly half of Hollywood stars in recent years, which makes them have no confidence to oppose this working model.

After all, even if you have a very close relationship with your clients, like Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise, if you leave CAA, your ability will be greatly reduced. Many roles that you could get through the package model at CAA may not be available to you if you leave CAA.

But Paula Wagner's move suddenly lit a lamp that illuminated a different path for these relatively successful young agents, a group of agents known as young Turks.

After leaving the job, you won’t get more compensation from the agency contract, but you can set up your own studio or production company with the client, right?

Which star in Hollywood today doesn't want to do this? With their own production company, they can not only take more initiative in negotiations with the seven major studios, but also get the profits of production as a producer.

In fact, there are many agents in CAA who are tied together through various close relationships. In fact, everyone can imitate Wagner's model, one ties up the stars in the agency, and the other cooperates with the stars in the production business. This two-pronged approach is both a double insurance and can earn two salaries.

"Paula was the one who discovered Tom Cruise and worked for him for nearly eleven years. Can you and Chris maintain such a relationship? Besides, Paula and Rick are husband and wife. You and your partner...Excuse me, this kind of relationship is not recognized by the American court, right?"

Ovitz was extremely anxious. This was the third agent who had approached him today to discuss a similar cooperation model.

In recent years, he has mainly been negotiating with the studios, exerting pressure, and discussing package agreements, and the time he spends with clients has actually been reduced.

These young Turks are now the main agents of the most important stars under CAA. With their status as founders and the prestige brought by their superiors in Hollywood, they can suppress these people and prevent them from uniting, and they can also enjoy the good customer relationships brought by their dedicated service to customers every day.

But this incident at C/W Films has dealt a heavy blow to the very foundation of the employee relationship that he most wants to maintain.

The Young Turks discovered that Ovitz was not as powerful as he had boasted or as they had imagined for years.

It turns out that as long as you build a good relationship with the customers, coax them into trusting you, you can also cooperate with them in a different capacity.

In Hollywood, whoever controls the stars controls the production funds. Whoever controls the power to select scripts and negotiate on behalf of the stars also controls the stars.

These people suddenly realized that the most powerful group of people in CAA are themselves!

"Do your job, David. You will have this day, and when that day comes, I won't stop you. But now, think more about how to promote more package deals. After all, we have signed a big director like Spielberg, and we all know that a director can bring countless opportunities to actors..."

Ovitz was already very angry inside, but on the surface he had to pretend that he had discussed it with Paula Wagner and others.

Once the ambitions of these young Turks are aroused, how similar will it be to the situation when he founded CAA in anger after being treated unfairly by William Morris (he forgot that there were four partners)?

It only took me a dozen years to go from having only a few telephones and second-hand desks to becoming the largest agency in Hollywood. These people now have much more resources than I did back then.

"Come on, Michael..." The young agent is no longer blinded by these illusory illusions of power.

"Spielberg didn't sign a profit-sharing contract. He just negotiated with the studio through CAA. We can't get many good roles from him."

"What!"

Ovitz was shocked. Who leaked this secret? This was his big move to suppress the internal faction of Niceta and others. He paid a huge price, not taking any commission, but only a fixed fee every year, to win Spielberg. His goal was to use Spielberg's reputation to suppress internal opponents.

If this secret were to be revealed now and became a secret known to everyone in the company, the power system centered on him that he had established over the years by various means to swallow up the shares of the other three founders would be in danger of collapse.

"Who is it? Who leaked this top-secret information?"

(End of this chapter)