While Hollywood’s big three talent firms face pandemic upheaval, a billionaire Trump backer is shelling out $25 million to partially finance a new venture, one of multiple new boutique firms.
On Aug. 23, CAA co-chairmen Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane, along with president Richard Lovett, convened a hastily assembled all-hands Zoom call with at least one priority in mind: damage control. That day, four top CAA agents — Jack Whigham and Dave Bugliari, both co-heads of motion picture talent, and Michael Cooper and Mick Sullivan — informed the trio they were exiting immediately for a new venture. “They were blindsided,” one source tellsThe CAA agents weren’t alone.
The moves come at a time when the uberagent model created by Michael Ovitz and the CAA founders appears to be at a tipping point as the pandemic accelerates shifts that are underway in response to the streaming revolution. As the whole business is squeezed, agents are fighting for a smaller piece of a smaller pie, making management a potentially more lucrative career choice. Many point to the lack of room at the top, particularly at CAA and WME, as another key reason for the departures.
Those questions can begin with the former agents themselves: One agency insider says that new managers had never even heard of Cohen, let alone met him, prior to this weekend. More fuel to the potential fire is that Bugliari is married to ardent anti-Trumper Alyssa Milano.
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