Will Mengers Need to Adjust Her Style?

Napoleon had just 100 days of glory between Elba and Waterloo.

Sue Mengers may do better in building her second empire.

But the one-time superagent--who came out of retirement three weeks ago to head the William Morris Agency’s weakened movie department--might have to learn some new rules of battle if she plans to dominate Hollywood celebrity circuit as she did in the 1970s.

At the height of her power with what was then the Creative Management Agency, Mengers represented an unmatched roster of Hollywood stars. Her clients included Barbra Streisand, Burt Reynolds, Ryan O’Neal, Cybill Shepherd, Gene Hackman, Cher, Michael Cimino and Peter Bogdanovich.

The Bronx-born Mengers was known for a wit as biting as Billy Wilder’s--and for a steam-roller style that occasionally flattened the toughest producers and studio executives.

But Mengers, now 50, was shaken in 1981 by a falling-out with Streisand over “Yentl” and other matters. Other clients left her, and she retired from what had become International Creative Management in 1986.

William Morris, with some problems of its own, is now betting that Mengers can re-create the magic of a decade ago. The agency, one of Hollywood’s Big Three, earlier this month named Mengers senior vice president, worldwide head of its motion picture and literary division. The post had been vacant since Morris’ own superagent, Stan Kamen, died in 1986, triggering the defection of some important clients, including Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase.

But what will Mengers do in the late 1980s?

Mengers is declining all interviews. The ban will last at least two more weeks, according to one Morris insider, who said the company’s movie agents were asked not to discuss their new chief’s war plans in the interim.

On the outside, however, much of Hollywood is already speculating that Mengers’ warm and intuitive approach may clash with some new realities in a business that is colder and more efficient than the one she left behind.

“Everything moves so fast now. One person just can’t do it,” says James Berkus of Leading Artists Agency, which represents Joel and Ethan Coen (“Raising Arizona”), Charles Grodin, Robert Townsend and others.

Berkus is one of several Hollywood insiders who contend that big agencies like Creative Artists Agency and ICM, and some smaller ones like Leading Artists and newly formed InterTalent, have become sharply more “corporate” in the last few years.

In contrast to Mengers’ past style--a peculiar cross-breed of lone wolf and mother hen--modern-day agents work in packs. They trade information about clients and studios, and some, notably CAA, cultivate a group ethic strong enough to warm the heart of a Japanese plant manager.

There is also the matter of lawyers and managers, who are fast erecting an impenetrable business apparatus around even those stars with fortunes much smaller than Sylvester Stallone’s.

“Sue isn’t going to be able to run rough-shod over those people,” says one longtime agent. “You’ve got to be able to talk to them. And you’d better be able to talk tax consequences and all the rest of it if you want to make a deal.”

Jonathan Krane, chairman of Management Company Entertainment Group Inc., is another who contends that personal managers--even though they can’t legally sign deals for an actor--have become more powerful in shaping a performer’s decisions in recent years.

“It’s the personal manager’s job to give career direction. And career direction in today’s world might mean having the judgment to decide whether to do a movie or a play, or it might actually mean creating the vehicle” for a performer says Krane. His company not only represents clients such as Sally Kellerman and John Travolta, but often produces the films in which they star--potentially diminishing, though not eliminating, the agent’s role.

Of course, the biggest problem facing Mengers is what to do for clients. She is clearly on the prowl, but hasn’t announced any signings.

Despite her unparalleled connections in Hollywood, Mengers presumably won’t find it easy to break an all-star list away from players as tough as CAA’s Michael Ovitz or ICM’s Jeff Berg.

Other Morris agents currently represent some big names, among them Clint Eastwood, Diane Keaton and Bill Cosby. But the agency suffered a recent blow when veteran actors’ agent Ed Limato defected to ICM just as Mengers was coming on board.

Oddly enough, Limato--who took clients Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Gere, Mel Gibson and Nicolas Cage, among others, with him--had been a primary force in recruiting Mengers for Morris. Reached at ICM, Limato strongly denied rumors that he defected because Mengers had been made his superior, or that he was simply following Richard Gere, who had already decided to leave Morris. “The fact is, I needed a lot more support,” he said.

According to some Morris insiders, at any rate, Mengers’ presence has already done much to lift the mood at the agency. “Sue’s here to ring bells,” says one movie agent.

“The young agents love her,” he adds. “They’re finding out she has a facile mind and an incredible sense of humor, some of it unprintable. It’s like talking to Truman Capote. It feels good.”