Hautest Agency
Creative Artist Agency
While Ari Emanuel’s WME may be the agency making the most headlines, the power house that is CAA earns a spot on our haute list as the best agency in general. See for yourself: Google CAA + WME. The top results are almost all stories of big-name stars leaving WME for CAA…or returning to CAA, as the case may be. Robert De Niro just made the switch, as did Ryan Seacrest. In Vanity Fair’s top Hollywood earners list, 18 of the top 40 were repped by CAA, while WME only has 14 of those artists under its umbrella.
The agency is led by six aggressive Hollywood big shots: Richard Lovett (president), Kevin Huvane (managing partner), Steve Lafferty (head of television), Rob Light (managing partner and head of music), Bryan Lourd (managing partner), and David O’Conner (managing partner), but Lovett and Lourd are the main honchos. It is an intensely private firm run by men whose minions strive to keep the company name out of the media, and the company website lists nothing more than contact info. However, CAA has the star-power clientele to be able to do whatever it very well pleases.
Hautest Law Firm
Bloom Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman & Goodman, LLP
This law firm isn’t one that will keep the stars out of trouble (or out of jail, as the case may be), but they are just as important. They focus on employment contracts with studios and networks, advise on taxes and real estate purchases, and generally keep the business-side of things running smoothly. And in the case of Bloom, Hergott, et al., they keep it running smoothly for the top writers, actors, talent agents, and pretty much anyone else who makes Hollywood-sized deals in this town. For example, the firm’s Leigh Brecheen is the woman behind Conan O’Brien’s entertainment contracts. The firm also represents the likes of Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp, Britney Spears, Jerry Bruckheimer, Imagine Entertainment, Nicolas Cage, M. Night Shyamalan, Russell Crowe, and many other top directors, actors, and producers in the business.
Hautest Film Festival
Sundance
Every January, Sundance Film Festival draws in thousands of independent movie lovers as well as a smattering of stars who take roles in the films to exercise their acting abilities. The festival is part of the Sundance Institute, which was founded in the 1981 by Robert Redford, who had a goal of creating an environment that would foster independence, discovery, and new voices in American film. The festival is considered the premier showcase for American and international independent film, although in recent years, it had embarked on a more commercial path.
But then John Cooper was named director of the festival in March last year. In this role, he is responsible for anything and everything dealing with the festival, from the artistic approach to picking out the films and determining the overall tone. The theme of the 2010 show was “Sundance Reminded,” because “it’s kind of our artwork,” explains Cooper. “I wanted to remind ours team why we were there in the first place, and also remind the audiences. Lots of people thought we were all about sales and the marketplace, and yeah, we do like sales at the film festival, and we do like filmmakers to make their money back for the films they created, but at the same time, the event itself isn’t based on selecting films to sell, it’s about selecting the films that are the best, the most original—the most original stories, and the most original ways those stories are told on film.”
More from John Cooper’s interview with Haute Living can be seen on our website: .
The Next Haute Players
Brian Roberts and Stephen Burke
Roberts and Burke are CEO and COO of Comcast, respectively. So when (if? Lawmakers are currently weighing in) the deal for Comcast to take over NBC Universal goes through, Roberts and Burke are in a position to become two of the hautest names in Hollywood. The $30-billion deal was announced in December, and media watchdogs are up in arms. If it closes, NBC Universal, (including TV channels NBC, CNBC, USA, and Bravo; the Universal Pictures movie studio; and Universal Studios theme parks) would be under the control of the nation’s largest cable TV operator. So it’s also no wonder it would put the men who control Comcast in a position to control Hollywood.
