Company Town: Ovitz Joins Disney : Can 2 Top Players Work Together?

They are both authoritarian, behind-the-scenes figures in an industry awash in egos.

Both men are alternately admired and feared by competitors. Both are emotional and driven to succeed. Both are seen as brilliant visionaries. Both can be charming, yet tough as nails.

And soon, Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz will be working alongside each other at the head of the Walt Disney Co. empire.

For years, Eisner and Ovitz have been at the very top of the Hollywood pecking order. Now Eisner, the 53-year-old mogul who built Disney into a modern powerhouse, and Ovitz, the 48-year-old super-agent whose Creative Artists Agency drove the era of the deal, have joined forces, and the town may never be the same.

The two men often get together during skiing vacations in Aspen and family outings in Malibu. When Eisner had to undergo an emergency quadruple-bypass operation in July, 1994, it was Ovitz who rushed to his bedside at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

And when Ovitz’s wife, Judy, was hurt in a fall from a horse several years ago, the Eisners were there to lend support.

Now the future of the biggest entertainment company in the world is riding on whether these two supercharged executives can turn their friendship into a powerful business partnership. The question that many in the entertainment industry were asking Monday was whether two strong-willed leaders can work together to shape the expanding Disney conglomerate.

Some contend that Disney is so huge that both men will have no trouble charting its course without clashing. But others warn that the two men are so alike--and accustomed to getting their way--that problems will inevitably surface.

Both command widespread respect in the industry. But at a price.

Ovitz’s critics say he loves to cultivate the perception that he is a figure to be feared.

“People would feel that some kind of retribution would visit them if they got on his wrong side,” one rival agent said.

Part of that image was built on Ovitz’s secretive nature and unique business philosophy, which he described to a Times reporter in 1992 as “a combination of Eastern thought and Western team sports.”

Brokering Mergers

It is a philosophy that has served him well. Ovitz and his founding partners at CAA pulled together an amazing array of talent, including Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg.

In addition, Ovitz has transcended the traditional role of a Hollywood agent by brokering some of the industry’s biggest mergers and by taking CAA into such uncharted areas as advertising and an alliance with major telephone companies.

Still, Ovitz has often dismissed talk of who was the most powerful in Hollywood.

“Power is really a misleading word,” he told The Times. “It creates a resentment that shouldn’t be there. It totally gets in the way. I don’t think I’m any more or less powerful than a dozen people in this town.”

But, image aside, there was no question that Ovitz, despite his boyish, gaptoothed smile, steamrollered the opposition.

Like the time CAA signed director Tim Burton (“Batman,” “Beetlejuice”) right out from under the nose of the rival William Morris Agency. Ovitz had done his homework, inviting the director--who had studied art--to come to his Brentwood home, which was filled with Picassos, Dubuffets, Schnabels, Lichtensteins and African antiquities.

Ovitz, the only talent agent who has a seat on the board of New York’s Museum of Modern Art, soon signed Burton, prompting a Morris executive to complain publicly.

Ovitz depended on his partner at CAA, Ron Meyer, to play the good cop to his bad cop. Similarly, Eisner relied on the late Frank Wells, whose position Ovitz will now assume, to play a similar role at Disney.

Now the question is whether two “bad cops” can effectively charm the industry.

“I don’t think it’s an Eisner/Wells relationship,” said one industry insider about Monday’s announcement. “It’s an Eisner/Eisner relationship.

David Geffen, who has publicly warred with Eisner in the past, nevertheless called Eisner and Ovitz “smart executives with extraordinary ambition.”

“You wouldn’t call either one of them personality driven,” Geffen said. “They’re both secretive, strategic, ruthless managers. These are people you don’t want to cross.”

Both Eisner and Ovitz, critics say, have a “take-no-prisoners” attitude.

“They are both focused and driven,” said music industry consultant Joe Smith, who lives next door to Ovitz’s weekend home on Broad Beach in Malibu.

“I think Eisner is more emotional than Ovitz,” Smith added. “Ovitz is more buttoned-down. It’s the nature of the job. As an agent, he has had to walk both sides of the road at all times. Eisner is an advocate for a company and anyone who crossed his way, whether it was Warners or anybody else, he’d send depth charges after them.

“I think they’ve known each other for 25 years,” Smith added. “When Michael [Ovitz] started the agency, Eisner was buying programs at ABC and Paramount. They really got along well. They never seemed to clash.”

“Their friendship has been inseparable for years,” said one source on the Disney lot. “They do everything together. Their families are friends, their wives are friends, their kids are friends.”

Charity Events

Over the years, as both men grew in power, Eisner would often bring his wife, Jane, and their children to Ovitz’s beach house to play ball and spend time with Ovitz, his wife and their three children.

When Sen. Bill Bradley (D-N.J.) was thinking of running for President, neighbor Smith recalled, Eisner and Ovitz came to his aid, Eisner holding a fund-raiser and Ovitz seeing that he was coached in speechmaking.

Their names are often seen in society columns that report on charity events.

“They have both been enormously important to the UCLA School of Medicine,” said Dr. Mitchel D. Covel, chairman of the Aesculapians Ball, which raised money for the school. “Ovitz was a premed student at UCLA at one time, then he saw the light and went into the entertainment business.”

Despite the similarities, the two men have followed different paths.

“Mike Ovitz created the image of the kid from the [San Fernando] Valley who decided to make himself into something, studied it and went after it,” said one talent agent. “He started to dress differently. He made himself into a corporate animal.”

But Eisner’s background is more urbane. Raised on Manhattan’s Park Avenue, Eisner is the son of a prominent New York lawyer.

In Hollywood, he cuts a charming, almost boyish, figure. Still, he has few close friends in the entertainment world, say those who know him.

At Disney, a company with many rules, Eisner demands loyalty--not unlike Ovitz at CAA.

Eisner, in choosing Ovitz, was looking for a partner to replace Wells, who died last year in a helicopter crash. While Ovitz is clearly the heir apparent at Disney, his eventual ascension is no sure bet. For one thing, Eisner at 53 is only five years Ovitz’s senior.

Disney was thrust into turmoil after Wells’ death and the subsequent heart problems suffered by Eisner. While in the hospital, Eisner reportedly drew up a list of candidates who could replace him. Whether Ovitz’s name was on that list is not known. But Ovitz could be jumping to Disney, some speculate, because he believes he could one day step into Eisner’s shoes.

After recovering, Eisner decided that longtime studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg, a man who had clashed repeatedly with Ovitz over escalating star salaries, would not be the right person for Wells’ No. 2 job.

“Eisner hasn’t had a consigliere since Frank Wells died,” said one Hollywood insider. “Ovitz can fill that job.”

Disney was plunged into turmoil after Katzenberg resigned and joined Spielberg and Geffen to form DreamWorks SKG, with ambitious plans to make movies, TV programs and music. Katzenberg has warred with Eisner ever since.

Ovitz now assumes the role of Wells, but it is still jarring to think of Ovitz--possibly the most powerful man in Hollywood--working for Eisner.

According to one agent: “Just the idea of Eisner demanding that Ovitz come into his office saying, ‘Mike, I need you right away,’ is kind of mind-boggling.”

Robert Welkos is a Times staff writer. Brennan is a free-lance writer and regular contributor to The Times.