Creative Artists Agency’s sale to François-Henri Pinault for $7 billion is shaping up to be the true Hollywood blockbuster of the year, with the potential to redefine deal-making in a town where talent agencies are quickly consolidating their power over the rest of the industry. But the acquisition is reportedly turning into a troubled production, with talk of disgruntled rank-and-file CAA agents who are unhappy that top brass is making out like bandits while they are left holding comparatively little.
Current and former staffers are threatening to make a stink over internal negotiations in which they could only reap a paltry 10 to 15 percent of their equity, with the remainder being rolled into new entity, while senior executives are poised to rake in a sizzling $200 million, according to a Financial Times report.
“People are extremely mad. This is equity you’ve earned,” one source told the FT.
“We made them all this money, and they are faking that they care on the picket lines, protesting the greed of the studio bosses, and meantime they are taking people’s prime earning years and now we can’t monetize our equity,” another separately told The Daily Beast..
Details of the acquisition are still being hammered out, according to the reports.
CAA represents many of the biggest celebrities in the industry, including Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Scarlett Johansson, and Nicole Kidman. The left-wing agency has prominent ties to major Democrat politicians, recently scoring a deal to represent Barack and Michelle Obama’s Hollywood production company.
Top CAA executives including Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane rank among Hollywood’s most prominent Democrat donors, having given generously to the campaigns of Joe Biden and California Gov. Gavin Newson (D).
Lourd and Huvane are believed to be among the executives who could share in the $200 million windfall, along with some prominent agents.
But CAA has also come under fire following accusations by actresses including Rose McGowan and Courtney Love that the agency sent actresses to meet Harvey Weinstein while knowing about the mogul’s history of sexual assault and misconduct.
In response, CAA spearheaded the Time’s Up organization, which was supposed to help defend women from sexual misconduct in the workplace. But Time’s Up leadership collapsed last year during the Andrew Cuomo scandal, when it was revealed a senior Time’s Up official helped the former Democrat New York governor fight a sexual harassment accusation.
French billionaire François-Henri Pinault is the head of fashion conglomerate Kering, the parent company of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Valentino. He is married to actress Salma Hayek, another CAA client.
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