Why Did Vince Vaughn Phone-Dump His Reps?
If you're the average superstar, surrounding yourself with a dream-team of handlers is probably the single most important decision you'll make: Any weak link in the commission-claiming chain can result in the kinds of career missteps that result in disastrous tumbles down the Hollywood food chain, where you'll soon find yourself groveling for any elephant-voicing breadcrumbs the studios are still willing to toss your way. (Needless to say, with plenty of strings attached). Vince Vaughn knows this all too well, and he's reportedly disposed of his entire team in one phoned-in management massacre. From the Deadline Hollywood Daily exclusive:
I've confirmed that Vince Vaughn has axed both his manager Eric Gold and his agency United Talent. Someone close to Vince just told me he did it by cell phone.
He's still with his attorney Debbie Klein. He'd been a UTA client since 1993 (three years before his breakout Swingers, which was partly filmed in the apartment of an agency assistant) and a Gold client since 2005's Wedding Crashers. [...]
Vaughn is telling people today that he made the moves because his manager and his agency "didn't get along at all" and it was too much drama in his life.
While the justification of infighting amongst his people is a nice deflection, we're certain that both sides would have readily smoothed over any perceived differences had they known their $20 mil-per-picture client's patronage was on the line. No, we suspect Vaughn's frustrations were over creative strategy, and The Wedding Crashers star opted to burn it all down and start from scratch, rather than subject himself to even one more pitch in which he'd be called upon to play "Leonard Toothfairy, the loutish brother-in-law of the legendary dental pixie."
