CAA Taking A Bath On Sports Division? - Buying Matt Leinart, Tom Condon, and IMG

Someone -- perhaps Leigh Steinberg -- is reading this with glee. But if Hollywood Reporter Nikki Finke's any indication,
Creative Artists Agency , the super-firm of talent agents started by Ron Meyer and Mike Ovitz in 1975, and recently the epicenter of Hollywood's move into athletic talent mining starting with players like Arizona Cardinals QB Matt Leinart, may be losing money in its sports division.

To understand, read this post from Nikki's blog:

If CAA agents this week are looking inconsolable, it's because they now have to give up flying first class. (Those conversations you're trying to overhear at lunch in Century City are the CAA tenpercenters kvetching about it.) So what happened? My sources tell me that CAA called a big all-agents meeting and read the riot act to its spendthrift tenpercenters. To cut expenses by a whopping 20%. To start flying just business class instead of first class. And to take to heart this warning: If you want to get paid, then get your clients jobs.

I hear the motion picture agents are the most upset about the new edicts because they live the high life more and so got hit harder. Look, I've been saying this for a while now: CAA can't keep spending like drunken sailors without having cash flow issues: buying a bevy of agents from other shops and wooing clients by the hundreds, and moving into swank new headquarters while still paying rent back at the I.M. Pei building, and starting a money pit of a sports division where most of the endorsement deal money will be heading back to IMG for years, etc. Now CAA is having the same woes every other agency in town has been having: for instance, William Morris last year asked its departments to slash spending by 20%. What's next? Richard Lovett on Avenue Of The Stars with a metal detector looking for loose change and lost jewelry?



If it's true that CAA's gotten into a deal where it's giving most of its' cash from sponsorship deals back to IMG, then it's officially taking a bath in its sports division. Everyone in the sports business knows its the sponsorship deals that drive the industry, and this is especially true for NFL agents, which are limited to 3 percent takes of an athlete's contract.

By contrast, CAA comes from the world of the 20 percent deal, where they can get as much as that for an actor or actress. So they're giving up 17 percent of a deal, plus a big chunk of endorsement money? Wow. All that plus the fact that CAA and the other Hollywood agencies aren't savvy enough in new media to promote their talents to such an extent they make up for this. One firm I will not name has an extensive website, but you can't find it on Google! (They need to use SBS-ON!)

At first, I thought CAA's foray into sports would restructure the industry and cause a shakeout of some of the small-time -- at least in behavior -- agents. But given the appearance of their business model, I remain skeptical. It's now logical to me why IMG would give up its NFL operation to CAA without the appearance of a fight; they're getting paid! Moreover, it seems everyone, from Leigh Steinberg to Matt Leinart's trainer Steve Clarkson of Air 7 (which has a better website now), to IMG, and Tom Condon (who was lured from IMG to CAA) has been paid by CAA just so it could leap -- head first -- into the sports business without a battle.

In other words, CAA really did create a money pit!

Let's give it five years, and then review. Unless CAA starts making a ton of sports movies with Matt Leinart and Paris Hilton as the stars, they may see the NFL and sports as a waste of money. It's not, really. It's just that they don't really understand what they've gotten themselves into.

Rosie O and Frenchie Davis Are Right - Antonella Barba Is Getting A Pass From "Idol" On Soft-Porn Picts - Frenchie's A Big Girl...

I'm not sure that it's racist or a function of American Idol waking up to a digital media world, but they are letting contestant Antonella Barba pass without punishment for all of the racy pictures that have sprung up on the Internet.

There's not just one photo, there's a lot of them, and on YouTube , too. Moreover, either she knew about them and told American Idol or she knew about them and didn't tell American Idol. In either case, the yank job that "Idol" did to Frenchie Davis four years ago could have been done again.

It wasn't.

The View's Rosie O'Donell is right to bring up race in this story. I think some people are brainwashed to only accept images of Whites, or people of color who are lighter skinned. It's wrong, of course, but all too common. None the less, we've got to put a stop to it as a society and I think we are at least waking up to the problem.



But to be fair, there's a bit more to the Frenchie Davis story and it's obvious: she's overweight. And this fact really underscores the fact that American Idol's playing a nasty double standard. It's ok to have almost nude picts of yourself online as long as you're this thin and light-skinned woman, but if you're plus-sized and Black, American Idol's got a problem.

After all, this is the same program on which Simon Cowall told a then-unknown Jennifer Hudson she was too fat. Now that same person just got the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Dreamgrils. I'm serious. He said that. Now, I'm sure he had the same feeling for Frenchie Davis.

But it doens't mean America agrees with him.

See, in this Long Tail world, there's room for all tastes. The bottom line is this: was Frenchie a terrific singer? The answer -- given her success -- is yes. Why not bring her back on the show?

Simon, you've had your say. Now, it's America's turn.

Hillary Problems - Judicial Watch Claims Hillary Clinton Illegally Obtained Files On Political Opponents

Wow. This is getting deeper, the anti-Hillary news. And While I'm not anti-Hillary, I'm certainly pro-Barack and am concerned that the Clinton camp's wrongly attacking Barack Obama , almost portraying him as their enemy.

And according to the website Judicial Watch, we all know what Hillary does to her enemies. The site explains:

"In the early 1990’s, President and Hillary Clinton violated the privacy rights of their perceived political enemies by wrongly accessing and misusing the FBI files of the Reagan and first Bush Administration staffers, among others. Over 900 files were illegally gathered. This scandal became known as “Filegate.”

In an effort to discredit the women who charged President Clinton with sexual misconduct, personal files and papers were illegally obtained and released. The courts found, under the Privacy Act, that privacy of Linda Tripp and Kathleen Willey had been violated.

When faced with discovery, the Clinton-Gore White House further compounded their legal troubles by launching a cover-up and failing to turn over documents as required by subpoena. (Learn more about White House E-mail Scandal.)

Through pre-trial discovery, Judicial Watch was able to link Mrs. Clinton directly to the center of the Filegate controversy.

That was then, I can understand why Hillary would want to strike back. The question is does the Clinton campaign still have the files and have they honed and refined their practice of gathering negative information to focus on people like Senator Obama?

This is the question Senator Clinton must answer.

Barack Obama On His Plans For 2008

This is a video from Senator Barack Obama on his plans for the 2008 Presidential campaign.

SI's Mike Sliver On South Beach, Media Day, and Dog Collars

A pretty funny take by Sil, who's already in Miami for The Super Bowl. You can read it with a click here.

Seattle's Cowgirl Espresso and Bikini Espresso Girls Make A Lot Of Sexy Coffee With Little On

There's some news items one just can't pass up; this is one of them. I've never seen anything like this at all. Cowgirls Espresso is a Seattle- area coffee chain that serves java with a twist. Or perhaps I shoud explain that it -- ah the coffee maker -- can cause you to twist -- your head.

That's because Cowgirls Espresso features scantily-clad barista's making that large mocha with three-times the normal chocolate that I like. I'm not kidding. This is no jokee at all. In the ongoing "pornification" of America, this is the logical next step: A cross between Starbucks and Hooters.

That would be Cowgirls Espresso.

If you don't believe what I'm writing or what you're seeing, check out these words written by Amy Roe of the Seattle Times: "In a short, sheer, baby-doll negligee and coordinated pink panties, Candice Law is dressed to work at a drive-through espresso stand in Tukwila, and she is working it.



Customers pull their trucks up to the window, where Law greets each with an affectionate nickname, blows kisses, and vamps about as she steams milk for a mocha. "You want whipped cream?" she asks, a sly smile playing on her pierced lip.

The next customer rolls up, and Law throws a long leg onto the window sill, like an indie-rock ballerina at the barre.

"Do you like my leg warmers?" she asks. "Aren't they hot?"

Oh my God.

While the coffee queens don't wear much cloth, they reportedly don't sport that thong , as Washington state law requires that the girls cover their breasts and butts.

Now before you go off an assume this business concept was the brainchild of some adult male with ragging hormones, it's founder's a woman: Lori Bowden. And lest you think this is the only one of its kind, wrong again. There's Cowgirls Espresso, Natté Latté, Moka Girls, The Sweet Spot, Bikini Espresso, and Best Friend Espresso...so far.

I wonder why I've not seen any of these businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area? Are they in Florida? I know they're not in Chicago in the winter!

Whatever the reason they would be a hit at any Super Bowl Party and a great alternative to cocktails and waitresses. Send them to Miami!

Cowgirls Espresso

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The Sundance Film Festival - Video Blog From Susan On Pierre Huyghe

I've never heard of her or the film-maker she's vlogging about, but the video is quite interesting. Here's Susan: