Michael S. Ovitz (b. December 14 1946, Los Angeles, California) is a former talent agent and Hollywood powerhouse who served as the head of the Creative Artists Agency from 1975 to 1995. After graduating from UCLA with a degree in theater, film and television, Ovitz began his career at the William Morris Agency, but left with four other agents in 1975 to found Creative Artists Agency. While at CAA, he was responsible for pioneering the practice of "packaging" writers, directors, and actors for motion pictures. This practice led to CAA and its clients holding significant negotiating leverage over the major studios. Various industry critics, such as entertainment-securities attorney John Cones in his recent book, Hollywood Wars , maintain that the practice of packaging is an illegal tie-in prohibited by federal and state antitrust laws. Ovitz is also well-known for negotiating David Letterman's move from NBC to CBS, chronicled in the book The Late Shift: Letterman, Leno, and the Network Battle for the Night by Bill Carter, as well as for discovering the action star Steven Seagal. He was also featured in the tell-all book You'll Never Nanny in this Town Again by Suzanne Hansen and in DisneyWar by James B. Stewart. In 1995, he resigned from CAA to become president of the Walt Disney Company under chairman Michael Eisner. Sixteen months after taking office, he was dismissed by Disney's board of directors and received $38 million in cash and $100 million in stock as a severance package. This, along with the failure of his subsequent venture, the Artist Management Group, led him to claim that his downfall had been engineered by a Hollywood cabal he referred to as the "gay mafia". Ovitz sold AMG to Jeff Kwatinetz for an estimated $12 million, which was merged into his talent agency The Firm. Today, Ovitz is a private investor who continues to informally advise the careers of luminaries such as Martin Scorsese, David Letterman and Tom Clancy. He is also a passionate basketball fan and art collector . (more)
Type: person
Genres: entertainment, judaism, business, religious, movies
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Artist Management Group:
Artist Management Group (AMG) was a pioneering artist's representation company founded by former CAA head Michael Ovitz, Rick Yorn, and Julie Yorn. Jeff Kwatinetz of The Firm acquired Ovitz' share and merged the two firms in 2002. AMG was a pioneerin
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DisneyWar:
DisneyWar is an exposé of Michael Eisner's 20-year tenure at the The Walt Disney Company by James B. Stewart. The book chronicles the careers and interactions of executives at Disney, including Card Walker, Ron W. Miller, Roy E. Disney, Frank Wells,
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The Firm, Inc.:
The Firm is an artist and talent management company located in Beverly Hills, California in the United States. Founded in 1997 by Jeff Kwatinetz (pronounced QUAT-nits) and partner Michael Green (who has since left the company), The Firm also has had,
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The Walt Disney Company:
The Walt Disney Company ( ) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. Founded on October 16, 1923 by the brothers Walt and Roy Disney as an animation studio, it has become one of the biggest Hollywood studios, and owner
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Steven Seagal:
Steven Seagal (born April 10 1951) is an American action movie actor, producer, writer, director, martial artist, singer-songwriter, spiritualist and activist. He belongs to a generation of movie action hero actors (including Sylvester Stallone, Arno
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Michael Eisner:
Michael Eisner (born March 7, 1942) was CEO of The Walt Disney Company from September 22, 1984 to September 30, 2005.
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William Morris Agency:
William Morris Agency, founded in 1898 as a vaudeville booking broker, is a Hollywood talent agency that represents many well-known performers and filmmakers. With annual revenues estimated to be between $275 and $300 million, WMA has four offices in
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Creative Artists Agency:
Creative Artists Agency (CAA) is a talent and literary agency which represents a vast array of actors, musicians, writers, directors, and athletes, as well as a variety of companies and their products.
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Gay Mafia:
The Gay Mafia or Velvet Mafia is a term to describe the amalgamation of gay lobby and rights groups in politics and the media. The "Gay Mafia" and "Velvet Mafia" are typically associated with the upper echelons of the fashion and entertainment indust
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Basketball:
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five active players each try to score points against one another by propelling a ball through a 10 feet (3 m) high hoop (the goal) under organized rules. Basketball is one of the most popular and widel
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