UPDATED THROUGHOUT WITH NEW INFO: keep refreshing for the latest...
Maybe, instead of worrying about Earth Day and boasting to everyone how he took the Santa Monica bus to work today, Jim Berkus should be focusing all his attention on making sure his United Talent Agency doesn't unravel over the next few weeks and months. Look, nearly every United Talent partner is in play right now (so much so that some junior UTA agents has been spreading rumors that even they are being courted with the hope of getting their pay upped.) CAA, Endeavor, ICM and Paradigm have been calling lots of UTA partners, even to the point of interrupting that tenpercentery's meetings, and chumming the waters to see which sharks they can catch. Tracey Jacobs, David Kramer, David Guillod, Blair Belcher and even Darren Statt, and I'm sure many more, are all being courted. CAA's Richard Lovett, for instance, is calling Kramer twice a day.
Defamer.com has posted an untrue story that UTA partner Tracey Jacobs is heading to Endeavor with Johnny Depp and other clients in tow. Oh, puh-leeze, I've been following the UTA-Endeavor battle from the start and know what's fact and what's not. 
I've been knocking down this Tracey Jacobs-is-leaving rumor for nearly two weeks because no deal is in place yet even though her people are calling around to other agencies with a price for her. What Defamer clearly doesn't know is that she can't leave UTA without also leaving a shitload of money behind her. Several million dollars. Because in addition to Johnny Depp, she has two big TV stars that are integrally involved in UTA television packages: William Petersen in CSI and Vincent D'Onofrio in Law & Order: Criminal Intent. With these golden handcuffs on her wrists, no agency wants to write that huge check just now. The strategy is that they'll slow-play her -- wait for her to get so desperate to leave UTA that she'll agree to take less money. I understand Johnny Depp has told her he'll go wherever she goes.
Meanwhile, I'd do nothing else all day if I were to report every UTA rumor-du-jour so I've spared you every twist and turn. Just this afternoon, I heard that client Rachel McAdams is about to jump ship. (I also checked out two of the latest rumors yesterday -- that UTA co-owner and TV bigwig Jay Sures was leaving to head CAA's TV department, or replace Nancy Tellem at CBS. Not true on both. In reply, a CAA source emailed me: "He's out calling any agent who's ever seen a television show and asking them to come and work there." UTA denies that Sures is doing that.)
UTA, for its part, keeps telling me that it doesn't believe its partners are in play.
Meanwhile, UTA and Endeavor are still fighting over how to unlock the 
golden handcuffs on those original defectors Nick Stevens (also a UTA owner), Lisa Hallerman and Sharon Sheinwold, as well as Marc Korman, UTA's TV packaging partner who jumped to Endeavor a few weeks earlier. I hear there was an unsuccessful attempt at rapprochement yesterday morning at the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City between UTA's Jim Berkus, Jay Sures, COO Andrew Thau and Endeavor's Rick Rosen, Adam Venit and COO Tom Maguire. Explains a UTA source, "We've been up and down. There are issues, definitely. We came very close to a deal and we expect to make one shortly. Neither side wants to have costly litigation. The employment agreement is the employment agreement, and speaks for itself." If UTA stupidly smacks the trio with a lawsuit, I can't wait for secrets to spill out about the agency. Stay tuned.
- Apatow Says He's Still At UTA (For Now)
- UTA Defectors Took Key Clients With Them To Endeavor: Whither Apatow?
- TOLDJA! HBO Names UTA's Sue Naegle New President Of HBO Entertainment
- Ben Stiller On UTA/Endeavor's Nick Stevens...
- UTA's Nick Stevens To Endeavor; His Two Talent Dept Partners Follow
- UTA Loses Kate Bosworth (& Its Temper)
- UTA Partner Defects To Endeavor
- Vince Vaughn Fires Agency And Manager
Whoa! You mean Defamer went back to posting unsubstantiated industry gossip? Maybe I should give the website a look for the first time in over a year.
Alas, I was once a fan of Defamer until it appeared to morphing into a mimic of the bilious Perez Hilton and asinine TMZ.
I’ve felt that the change was due to pressure by demagogic blogging despot, Gawker’s Nick Denton thinking this was the path to more clicks.
Comment by P.J. — April 22, 2008 @ 2:47 pm
With the madcap musical chairs going on with agents and clients these days he was probably making a guess figuring he had a 50/50 chance of being right.
Or somebody planted the story as a trial balloon. Not an unheard of practise in certain parts of the world.
Comment by Furious D — April 22, 2008 @ 3:10 pm
The meltdown at UTA couldn’t happen to a nicer guy: Big Jim Berkus. I hear he gives money to the homeless and asks for change back.
Comment by Joe Green — April 22, 2008 @ 4:10 pm
berkus should retire already. zimmer is slowly eating his flesh. there is a long history of uta losing its best and brightest. it’s sad that they had so much and lose it all. i wonder what the throughline is
Comment by bored — April 22, 2008 @ 4:12 pm
jeremy zimmer kills all that is good. jim berkus is a good guy but with zimmer trying to expose his every weakness for his own gain; well, it wears on a guy like jim. so he gets on a bus. im sure jay sures has put himself in play; he lies on spec. i think it will be hard for him to get a job running anything. sue naegle was his savior, gavin palone before that. all alone, jay doesnt look very promising.
Comment by agreew/theboredguy — April 22, 2008 @ 4:43 pm
Anyone who thinks Jim Berkus is a good guy is seriously delusional. Even Berkus himself doesn’t think he’s a good guy. For a time, he did use to be a good agent, but that was a long time ago. His antipathy towards people has finally caught up with him and it’s over, much like Eisner. I will give him credit, he has Harrison Ford as a client, so he should be able to guide the two or three years left on that career before the expiration date hits.
Comment by Matteo Cashman — April 22, 2008 @ 5:21 pm
To “agreew/theboredguy”
How do you know “bored” is a guy?
Comment by neutral — April 22, 2008 @ 5:22 pm
I hope this all bodes well for Paradigm. I know a lot friends there, all good folks.
Comment by The Comet — April 22, 2008 @ 8:01 pm
Personally, I’d rather deal with Zimmer than with Berkus but that’s just my own two cents.
I’m indifferent to the UTA bust-up…and certainly not moralistic. It’s not like, on a human level, Jim Wiatt, Richard Lovett, or Ari Emmanuel have embraced some higher and kinder calling than, say, Jeremy Zimmer has.
As humans, they’re all the same…some have been more savvy in their recent business development that others.
In the end, UTA is dying, no one cares about WMA and ICM, CAA isn’t really losing anything, and Endeavour is only moving up.
In the end, it’s all cyclical…move the calendar forward, say, 5 years and the CAA “young turks” will being at each other throats and dodging the Judases from below…as will those at Endeavour.
As for some UTA/Endeavour lawsuit? There’s not enough money in the world that would make it worthwhile for those clowns to risk their internal workings (and finances!) becoming part of a court docket.
Comment by Charlotte A. Cavatica — April 22, 2008 @ 9:45 pm
Has anyone taken a step back from all of this and really analyzed the situation? I LOVE Niki’s writing, reporting etc. but this sounds like a UTA bashing and it’s gone over the deep end. Something doesn’t smell right to me. I’m just interested to see how this plays out. Nothing against Niki but something is a little odd here. I think someone might be playing her and that would annoy me.
Comment by Ron Johnson — April 22, 2008 @ 11:26 pm
I think when three such talented people leave UTA something is wrong with a top person Mr Berkus
he had such talent there and blew it as for NIkki
don’t sell her short ever. Very very smart no one will be getting anything over on her ever
And when all the UTA stars follow there agents
its sooo long Mr berkus
Comment by bionda — April 23, 2008 @ 11:59 am
I LOVE Nikki’s writing, reporting etc. but this sounds like a UTA bashing and it’s gone over the deep end.
UTA bashing? Please. No one’s bashing — they’re merely conjecturing on the situation.
As for Nikki being duped, I followed her reporting during the strike and, in hindsight, her accounts of the goings-on of the strike were 80 percent or higher in accuracy. Don’t know what her method is, but it appears to be the case that she confirms and/or backs up her sources/tips.
Comment by The Dude — April 23, 2008 @ 2:43 pm
mr berkus is a gentleman and you should all be ashamed of yourselves you’re all just poor and unsuccessful and you know it..so am i….thats why im even on this dumb blog because i, myself am unemplyed and haggle with my maid….so let this be a lesson to you all look at jim berkus as a shining beacon of hope and the american dream! Thank you all for your time
Remember greed is the antichrist
GOD BLESS
Comment by brooke ellen — April 27, 2008 @ 4:06 pm