Creative Artists’ Meyer Expected to Head MCA : Hollywood: Seagram’s Edgar Bronfman Jr. reportedly tabs president and co-founder of CAA to lead conglomerate.

Seagram Co. is expected today to name Creative Artists Agency President Ron Meyer to run entertainment conglomerate MCA Inc., providing the answer to one of Hollywood’s biggest guessing games in years.

Sources familiar with the situation said Seagram Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman Jr. plans to name Meyer president and chief operating officer of MCA, effective next month. That job is now held by MCA President Sidney J. Sheinberg, who has been making plans to form an independent entertainment company backed by MCA.

Ironically, the job Meyer is taking is one Hollywood had once assumed would be filled by his longtime partner at CAA, Michael Ovitz, whom many consider the most powerful executive in Hollywood. The entertainment world was in a frenzy when Ovitz, a friend and adviser to Bronfman, came close to striking a deal with Seagram worth an estimated $250 million. But talks broke down on the morning of June 5, the day Seagram formally assumed control of MCA.

The appointment ends months of speculation about who will run MCA. The rumor mill started the day liquor and beverage giant Seagram announced it was buying 80% of the company for $5.7 billion from Japanese electronics manufacturer Matsushita Electric Industrial.

The terms of Meyer’s deal are unknown. It is likely to be highly lucrative, although not in the ballpark with the kind of terms Ovitz was discussing. Meyer is likely to reap tens of millions of dollars by selling his minority stake in CAA.

Meyer could not be reached for comment. Representatives of CAA and Seagram declined to comment.

MCA is the parent firm of Universal Pictures, MCA Music and Universal Studios. The company currently boasts the nation’s top movie at the box office in “Apollo 13,” released the hit movie “Casper” and later this month will release the problem-plagued “Waterworld.”

Last month, Hollywood was assuming that Meyer would soon be running a company, although everyone figured it would be CAA upon Ovitz’s departure. One of the biggest surprises about today’s announcement is that Meyer’s negotiations with Bronfman remained a secret for so long, unlike the frenzy surrounding the Ovitz talks.

As one of the agents who left the William Morris Agency 20 years ago to form CAA, Meyer, 50, has long been one of Hollywood’s top talent representatives, with such clients as Sylvester Stallone, Michael Douglas, Tom Cruise, Whoopi Goldberg and Demi Moore.

An ex-Marine and high school dropout, Meyer is well liked throughout Hollywood, even by executives at agencies frequently at war with CAA. His appointment is expected to be greeted warmly in Hollywood, where many of his friends call him “Ronnie.” He also has a reputation for a calm, laid-back personality, and is exceptionally casual, rarely wearing a tie and often dressing for work in jeans, sweaters and tennis shoes.

Despite his popularity, Meyer’s appointment could draw criticism from rival agencies wary that Ovitz had a hand in Meyer’s hiring. Two years ago, rival agencies raised similar questions when former CAA agent Michael Marcus was named to run MGM Pictures. Seagram investors also may question Meyer’s lack of operational experience and whether he can run a company that is much more than a movie operation, his specialty, and whose profits have been lagging.

MCA is expanding its theme park operations, is continuing to build its music business globally and has serious problems in its television unit, where it lags behind such program suppliers as Warner Bros., Walt Disney and Sony Corp.

Although well known in Hollywood, Meyer is virtually unknown to the public at large, unlike Ovitz, whose face graced the cover of Newsweek last month.

But Meyer’s role at CAA, where he is second in command, has become increasingly important as Ovitz expanded his own role at the agency to include such things as designing ads for Coca-Cola and consulting with regional phone companies on an interactive video venture.

One of Meyer’s biggest recent coups was negotiating a whopping $20-million payday for Stallone to star in an undetermined film for Savoy Pictures, and a $12.5-million deal for Demi Moore to play a stripper in a film being made by Turner Broadcasting System’s Castle Rock unit.

Bronfman is expected to eventually assume the chairman’s job at MCA himself, sources say. That title currently is held by longtime Hollywood figure Lew R. Wasserman, who is expected to take on a chairman emeritus role at the company.

Left unanswered, however, is the question of who will have the title of chief executive at MCA and whether Meyer will eventually fill that post as well. The title is currently held by Wasserman, 82. But historically Sheinberg, 60, has run the company’s day-to-day operations even though he did not hold a CEO title. In any event, people close to Bronfman expect him to take a very hands-on role, as he has with other Seagram units, when it comes to such things as making deals.

Several other questions remain. One is whether Meyer will lure any of his CAA colleagues to MCA. Another is what becomes of MCA’s various division chiefs. Still another is what happens to Meyer’s minority ownership in CAA. One possibility is that his departure will allow CAA’s talented younger agents to gain an ownership position in the agency. In addition to Ovitz, who has a controlling interest in CAA, agent Bill Haber is a partner.

One major change for Meyer will be moving from a seller of talent services to a buyer.

One irony is that Meyer’s recent deals for Stallone and Moore sent shudders through the studio executives suites, which are worried about keeping picture costs under control. Now Meyer will likely soon find himself worrying about the escalating costs of talent.

The Meyer deal becomes Bronfman’s second major coup in the past month. Earlier, he struck a deal for MCA to distribute internationally films produced through DreamWorks SKG, the new studio formed by former Walt Disney Chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg, music mogul David Geffen and director Steven Spielberg.

Based in Montreal but run from New York, Seagram was best known before buying control of MCA for such products as Chivas Regal scotch whiskey, Tropicana fruit juices and Martell cognac.

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Profile: Ron Meyer

* Age: 50

* Born: Los Angeles

* Residence: Malibu

* Education: High school dropout, a former Marine

* Career highlights: President, Creative Artists Agency, Hollywood’s most powerful talent agency, which he co-founded in 1975 with Michael S. Ovitz, Bill Haber and two other agents from the William Morris Agency, where he was a television agent.

* Clients: Michael Douglas, Tom Cruise, Jessica Lange, Whoopi Goldberg, Barbra Streisand, Michael Keaton, Sylvester Stallone, Demi Moore.

* Family: Married to former model Kelly Chapman, with whom he has a 1 1/2-year-old daughter. He has two teen-age daughters from a previous marriage.