This Is Why Candor Is Rare in Hollywood

It’s the first rule for talent agents: Aim the spotlight on your clients, not yourself.

David Wirtschafter, president of William Morris Agency, learned that lesson the hard way this week, after an 11,000-word profile of him in the New Yorker prompted two actress clients to quit and set off a wave of gleeful nitpicking among his rivals.

First to depart was Sarah Michelle Gellar, she of TV’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” fame. Apparently angry over Wirtschafter’s description of her as being “nothing at all” before the horror movie “The Grudge,” Gellar ditched the agency Tuesday.

Then on Thursday, Oscar winner Halle Berry -- whose career, according to the article, needed “burnishing” after the bomb “Catwoman”-- dismissed the agency as well.

By Friday, seemingly everyone in Hollywood had a copy of an apologetic e-mail Wirtschafter sent late Thursday announcing Berry’s departure to his William Morris colleagues.

“As you know, I am the subject of a story in the New Yorker that has caused some problems,” he wrote. “I had personal reasons for doing the article and I recognize that these became blurred with my professional life.

“I never intended to harm any of our colleagues or our clients by participating in this story,” he continued. “While I can elaborate on the fine points of how I was portrayed and what I said, I did participate in this and want to apologize for any hurt that has stemmed from it.”

At the top agencies around town that compete with William Morris, meanwhile, there was gloating all around. One agent at a rival agency, asked by e-mail whether he was pursuing the “Catwoman” star, answered simply, “Meow!!”

Representatives for Berry and Gellar declined to comment Friday.

Wirtschafter issued an additional statement to The Times on Friday, saying, “I have the highest regard for our artists; and any comment that caused them harm violates the trust between clients and agents and was a mistake on my part.”

New Yorker staff writer Tad Friend first approached the notoriously press-shy agent nearly two years ago, and eventually persuaded him to provide broad access. Among other things, Friend spent more than two weeks in the William Morris offices.

The resulting article paints the agency as vital and aggressive, despite its sometimes fuddy-duddy reputation. Wirtschafter describes that per- ception in the piece: “In the minds of our competitors, we’re still a lot of old Jews dropping dead in our offices.”

The article also contains what, in the world of talent representation at least, passes for a bombshell. Wirtschafter is quoted calling one client -- the singer Alicia Keys -- “my favorite.” For agents, who spend much of their time nursing the huge-but-frail egos of A-list stars, such declarations are a no-no.

“Relationships with clients are the hardest to define, and they can be the most perishable,” said an agent at another firm.

Because few stars commit to long-term contracts, agency-hopping has become commonplace among those seeking better terms or simply more attention.

Berry herself defected to William Morris from Creative Artists Agency in 2003.

Other recent examples include actress-singer Jennifer Lopez, who left Endeavor Agency in January. Previously, she had been at International Creative Management, which she left in October 2002 for Endeavor, then hopscotched to CAA, then went back to Endeavor. She is now back at ICM.

The New Yorker article comes just three months after an executive shuffle at William Morris that saw Wirtschafter promoted to president and led to the exodus of three powerful longtime agents: Sam Haskell, the agency’s TV chief; Richard Rosenberg, who built the company’s successful music and concert division; and Chief Operating Officer Steve Kram, who helped push the agency’s international initiatives.

The three had clashed with Chief Executive Jim Wiatt over priorities and management style.

Colleagues of Wirtschafter were rallying around him Friday -- though all of them requested anonymity.

One described him as someone who “has no ego” who agreed to participate in the article only because the New Yorker was a magazine he had admired all his life.

“It was the magazine that was given to him by his parents when he graduated” from college, said this colleague, who lamented that competitors were seizing on the piece “to destroy one of the few honest people in the agency business.”

Another colleague agreed. “This is a business that’s notorious for liars. And here you have a guy whose biggest fault is that he was honest. He’s being crucified for telling the truth.”