Hey you, at Sundance:

The United Talent Agency represents the director and four lead actors in “Thumbsucker,” arranged financing for the film and is selling the movie at the Sundance Film Festival. But the agency’s top-to-bottom investment didn’t keep a UTA partner from pulling out his BlackBerry to read and send e-mails throughout a recent screening for a handful of invited guests.

One of Bridget Moynahan’s biggest recent breaks came in “I, Robot,” but the actress’ own publicist spent the better part of the film’s first 30 minutes at a press preview scrolling through and responding to text messages, before she was asked to put the BlackBerry down.

And when Tyra Banks took in “The Lion King” on Broadway last summer, she certainly appeared a lot more interested in her latest e-mails than in “The Circle of Life,” as Banks used her hand-held device for the duration of the musical’s first act. What possibly could have been so urgent? OMG, I think Mufasa’s a goner. L8R.

Hollywood is all about relationships. And one the best new tools to help maintain them -- the hand-held e-mail device -- has become its own show business horror story. Hollywood has become addicted to sending and receiving e-mail at all hours, even in the middle of performances of the very art form to which its members have theoretically dedicated their careers.

Banks said through a publicist that her “Lion King” e-mailing gave her “the ability to attend the play while still being able to field major production issues” on “America’s Next Top Model,” the TV show she produces.

A UTA spokesman said: “A dozen UTA agents busted their asses for over a year to get this film made, and we’re incredibly proud of it.”

The incessant e-mailing will reach its zenith at the Sundance festival, especially during acquisitions screenings, where dozens of buyers for specialized film companies crowd into theaters looking for movies to buy. Rather than sit back and be immersed in some of the best new independent films, these shoppers typically will pull out their hand-helds as soon as the lights go down.

Last year’s first Sundance screening of the Laura Dern drama “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” was not 10 minutes old when executives from Lions Gate Films whipped out their Blackberries, clicking away to see what news the company’s staff could offer from other festival screenings. Just imagine: BTW, this movie stinks, how’s yours?

“It is the bane of a seller’s experience,” says John Sloss, selling 14 movies at this year’s festival. “It’s just disgraceful.”

Show business types have (mostly) learned better cellphone etiquette, although some studio executives still take calls during private screenings. A Times reporter recently reached a studio executive on her mobile phone -- she was in the middle of a screening, she said. Asked if a call back would be better, the executive said, “No. It’s not a good movie anyway.”

In a 2003 screening for four people of “The Missing” at Revolution Studios, an acquaintance of Cate Blanchett’s Australian manager not only didn’t silence his phone but also took a call during the movie and started chatting.

At the 2003 world premiere of “The Hulk,” one invited guest answered his cellphone in the middle of the film. When tapped on the shoulder and asked to put the phone away, he snapped, “Get your hands off of me!” adding an expletive for good measure. Fortunately, violence was limited to the movie itself.

Text messaging is, of course, not unique to Hollywood. Many lawyers spend more time keying in e-mails with their thumbs than they do taking depositions. And anyone who has traveled to Europe will marvel at how quickly (and often) the continent’s teens can use their cellphones to punch out e-mails.

The show business difference is that its e-mail fiends can’t put away their Sidekicks for two hours -- or less -- to witness the creative fruits of their chosen profession. It’s almost understandable that Sundance acquisitions executives need to keep tabs on everything going on in all corners of Park City, Utah. Of course, that’s little consolation to the unfortunate people sitting next to them in the theater.

Life is more than a full-time job for many people inside the industry. But if they can’t detach themselves from e-mail during their own client’s movie, when exactly do they give it a rest? Wow, doing 60 mph down Sunset now; SYL at Skybar.

A DreamWorks executive visiting the writer-director of one of the studio’s upcoming movies started sending e-mails minutes after the filmmaker started reviewing dailies. The director reprimanded the executive, but weeks later, the very executive was sending messages during the premiere of another movie the same director wrote.

While they at least excused themselves from their tables, Mary-Louise Parker and Jeffrey Wright spent more than a few minutes during Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards in a corner, pecking away. We can only imagine what they had to report: Diane Kruger’s dress is LOL ugly.

The way in which Hollywood’s insatiable text messaging is conducted marks yet another indication of the industry’s pervasive “it’s all about me” attitude. Reading and sending messages during a movie or a play makes the unmistakable point that whatever is going on outside the theater -- Maybe we can get a cameo for Jessica Simpson in Will Ferrell’s XLNT comedy -- is far more important than what’s actually happening inside it.

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Times staff writers Patrick Goldstein and Rachel Abramowitz contributed to this report. John Horn can be contacted at john.horn@latimes.com.