The Hollywood agent turned mogul Ari Emanuel has written his memoir, so now we have—what, exactly? A tale of a terribly neglected child, and the rage he doesn’t want to lose and doesn’t want to keep? The story of WME?
The part of my heart reserved for late-20th-century corporatized Hollywood agents with a story they want to tell (or book they want to sell) goes out to him. I’m serious. It’s so hard for anyone, reviewing his own life, to reveal, let alone discover, the truth, but it’s so much harder for agents who are, by their own code, not allowed to reveal it, and their clients, often so oblivious to the incredible hard work and vision of their agents, wouldn’t know how to praise them even if they wanted to. Anyone searching for the real workings of Hollywood will find the search gets harder after the advent of CAA in 1975.