The Art Of The Poach: Fallout Edition, Part 2
William Morris is bleeding clients like a hemophiliac 17th century French monarch at a paper-cut convention. Early in the week, Sarah Michelle Gellar dropped the agency over the New Yorker profile of "unorthodox" WMA president Dave Wirtschafter, and yesterday, Halle Berry punted them curbward. According to Variety, Berry didn't love Wirtschafter's disclosure about some of her movie deals in the article, like this one for Perfect Stranger:
"She will be treated as an investor in the film for the difference," Wirtschafter is quoted as saying, "and for every dollar she invests she would get a dollar-fifty out of the gross until she recoups a hundred and fifty per cent [sic] of her investment."
Berry hasn't hooked up with another agency yet, so expect the other big shops in town to offer to kill their parents in front of her to prove the kind of bloodlust they'll employ in servicing her career. Parents of CAA and ICM agents should seriously consider an extended vacation abroad until Berry signs and the danger has passed.
Prediction: A poach-hungry agent will whisper the following in director Gary Fleder's ear: "Forty-seven-and-a-half writers? Dude, if I were your bitch, you'd be worth at least sixty-and-three-quarters writers."