Job Options Slim; Guesses Are Plentiful

The man not long ago regarded as the most powerful figure in Hollywood is without a job today. And what’s more surprising is that many in the industry believe Michael Ovitz will have a tough time finding a new one.

After ruling the movie industry as a super-agent for more than a decade, Ovitz suddenly is not even a player. At least not at this moment.

Many in the industry were wondering Thursday whether Ovitz, who said he is leaving after an unsuccessful 14 months as president of the Walt Disney Co., had lost his chance to achieve his dream of running a major entertainment empire.

“I think it’s going to be very difficult for him,” said a major entertainment investor. “I don’t know what his options are and I really can’t think of a corporate entity who will hire him.”

Ovitz’s main problem is that he failed to prove himself as a corporate executive. He didn’t make a smooth transition from being a talent agent brilliant at negotiating huge deals for some of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars and directors to being an effective manager of a multibillion-dollar public company.

He can point to no particular accomplishment during his stint at Disney. Moreover, he made enemies throughout the company by continuing to operate in the imperious style he developed as head of Creative Artists Agency.

“There was a conceit--the arrogance of ‘treat me as someone important’--and it made people angry,” said one top Disney executive.

To be sure, Ovitz remains a formidable figure based on his accomplishments as a founder of Creative Artists. He revolutionized the agency business and transcended the traditional role of an agent by brokering major corporate transactions.

And he walks away from Disney with sufficient wealth--sources say a settlement worth $90 million--that he would never have to work another day in his life.

But nobody who knows Ovitz can picture the man whose career is so entwined with the pursuit of power in Hollywood to be content away from its seductive orbit.

No doubt he will have opportunities. It’s long been speculated that Ovitz would leave Disney for the top job at Sony Corp. of America, the post formerly held by Michael Schulhof. And that could happen, given his close relationship with Tokyo-based Sony head Nobuyuki Idei. Sources say Idei approached Ovitz months ago, but that Ovitz has qualms about going there because he would be subjected to the same uncomfortable public scrutiny he was under at Disney.

Many who know him say Ovitz, who is going to take a respite and figure out what to do next, is more likely to start his own business so he can once again be in control of his destiny.

Ovitz also has developed strong personal relationships over the years with some of the world’s richest and most powerful people, who could conceivably back him in any number of entrepreneurial ventures. Ovitz indicated to some associates Thursday that he may explore such opportunities both inside and outside the entertainment business.

“He’s clearly a smart guy, a motivated guy and a guy who has connections and could get anybody on the phone,” said an industry source.

“If I had to guess,” said one entertainment executive who has worked with Ovitz, “I’d say someone who so values control as much as he does and saw how out of control he was at a public company will end up back in his own business underneath the eyeline of the press.”

In the meantime, it appears the departing Disney president has limited options at other major entertainment concerns.

There are no top positions available at Time Warner, 20th Century Fox or Paramount Pictures. Nor is Universal Studios Inc. a possibility given that last year Ovitz lost out on a top job after overplaying his hand in serious negotiations with Seagram’s owner Edgar Bronfman Jr. Ovitz’s longtime friend and former Creative Artists partner Ron Meyer, from whom he is now estranged, went to Universal instead as president.

Ovitz met earlier this week with Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone on Disney business, raising speculation that he might work at Viacom. Redstone has never hired a replacement for former chief executive Frank Biondi, whom he fired in January, but industry observers are skeptical that Ovitz would be the right fit.

As one source suggested: “Working for Sumner and working for [Disney Chief Executive Michael] Eisner is the same thing,” given the controlling, hands-on nature of the two executives. When Redstone fired Biondi, he said he wanted to be even more directly in charge.

Ovitz also made a social call to Westinghouse chief Michael Jordan, who oversees CBS, but some doubt that Ovitz would be put in charge of a network again after ruffling the feathers of many key executives at Disney’s ABC.

Some believe that Ovitz will wind up at Sony, possibly even as a part owner. One scenario that resurfaced Thursday is that Ovitz and his powerful investment banking friend Herbert Allen Jr. would try to put together a deal to acquire part or all of Sony’s entertainment assets.

“It would be the irony of ironies if he ends up at Sony,” said one insider there. “This is the guy who helped convince Sony to buy Columbia Pictures for $2.7 billion more than it was worth.”

Sources throughout the entertainment industry agreed Thursday that Ovitz continues to surprise Hollywood.

Regarding the latest chapter in the professional life of Hollywood’s favorite obsession, one executive said: “If you made this movie, people would probably say it’s improbable and impossible.”