The Agent Dance: ICM Goes Poaching?
Flush with new capital (which, apparently, they didn't spend on Christmas gifts this year, according to a reader: "ICM got 100 million dollars and all we got was this lousy keychain," pictured above), a suddenly bold ICM might be bobbing for agents in CAA's shark tank. Says Page Six:
NOW that half of ICM has been bought by Ben Cohn and Suhil Rivdi, there's some money running through the talent agency's Los Angeles offices. And the first thing the CEO Jeff Berg is doing is trying to lure some hot new agents to the firm to bolster up the client roster. We hear Berg is set on Creative Artists Agency's Josh Lieberman, whose impressive stable of stars includes Jessica Biel, Meg Ryan, Warren Beatty, Julianne Moore, Anne Hathaway, Colin Farrell, Eva Mendes and Zach Braff. Our insider says: "They have offered Josh double his [multimillion-dollar] salary."
If they're really after Lieberman and able to steal him from CAA's crib in the middle of the night, maybe they can figure out a way to leave Colin Farrell and Eva Mendes behind. And as long as we're spreading rumors, we've heard a nutty one that ICM might want to use that cash to buy Endeavor, but that could be nothing more than wistful musings about wanting to pick up Ari Emanuel as an intimidator for their touch football team.