Industry’s true starmakers don’t draw attention to themselves

During my brief stint covering the entertainment industry, I was continually urged to make friends with lawyers. Behind all of Hollywood’s glamour and ego, my colleagues advised, they are the ones who know most everything.

Lawyers always have held the keys to the kingdom more so than agents, managers, publicists and even a studio mogul or two. Some used that power to become moguls themselves, but others remain behind-the-scenes players whose influence is less publicized. Either way, the message is obvious: In a relationship-dominated town, these guys (and they are almost all guys) will never be lonely.

Now it was my turn to see the gamesmanship first hand.

I had been wrapping up a profile of a famous television star and unable to find out how much the guy was making on his current series. It’s not the kind of information you’re likely to get either from the production company making the show or the network airing the show. Forget, also, about finding it in the financial filings of the media giant that owns the show.

And yet, it’s the one tantalizing number that an editor (and many a reader) would want included in the piece. I was stumped, so I asked a Forbes colleague in New York if he had any ideas. He e-mailed back the name and phone number of a lawyer who might know a key source, it turns out, that the magazine relies on for its annual list of top-earning celebrities.

Asking the question

He’s a big name among entertainment lawyers, a name that anyone with a passing interest in Hollywood would recognize. I left a message saying that so-and-so from New York suggested I call, and in an hour or two his secretary was on the line ready to make the connection.

He was very cordial, but I felt sort of embarrassed asking the question. This was a Hall of Fame dealmaker and here I wanted him to shag a ground ball. Still I pressed: Did he have any idea how much so-and-so is paid?

There was a pause at the other end. He didn’t know off hand, but he knew someone who did. He would have the answer in a few hours, tomorrow at the latest. But first he wanted my word that the information could not be attributed to him in any way. Agreed?

Of course, I agreed. No problem, absolutely totally off the record, background only, not for attribution, whatever you want. Don’t have to worry about me spilling any beans.

And so the next day, the guy came on the line, reiterated our little agreement, and then gave me the star’s 6-figure weekly salary. Voila nasty story hole filled.

My editor was happy, but I was vaguely uncomfortable about the whole process. At no point in our brief chat did he ever hint at who he called to get the magic number, or how that person knew. Was it possible, I later wondered, whether that other person got it from yet another person and maybe that person transposed the figures? I didn’t bother questioning the guy because, well, he is supposed to be a very reliable source, who, more importantly, has a very reliable Rolodex.

That, of course, is the ultimate secret to success in Hollywood. The Rolodex. That’s why my buddies in New York were planning to send the guy a case of wine for all his troubles in helping assemble the Forbes list. That’s why entertainment reporters can get those little nuggets of information that they hope are correct.

Real Hollywood power

It’s not just having the phone number, it’s recognizing whether the person on the other end knows what he’s talking about. This is power not tied to a single petulant movie star or mogul, not dependent on the summer movie box office or the fall TV ratings. It’s power that accumulates over 10, 20 or 30 years.

You seldom see these guys quoted by name in the papers. They rarely pop up in lists of the most powerful people in Hollywood. Show up in too many stories and on too many lists and you’ll be just another show biz guy peddling himself. That only makes your clients and colleagues suspect you’re more interested in your own celebrity than theirs. Bad idea.

The real insiders are cautious about who they talk to and what information they divulge. They’re careful not to outright lie, although a few might indelicately spin a story that’s in the best interest of their client (or themselves). Even if they don’t, their sources of information might have an indeterminate ax to grind.

The point is you don’t know. You’ll probably never know.

Occasionally, there is talk about how the rules are changing that with new entertainment products (cable, broadband, software) and consolidated media giants (AOL Time Warner, Viacom, News Corp.), Hollywood’s power base is being disbursed.

Maybe. But show business is not an exact science it’s a series of arbitrary decisions involving projects that typically last only a few months at a time and generate ludicrous amounts of money. It’s a business where relationships typically come first and the product second a crazy arrangement that requires someone to bring together all the disparate parties and eventually do the deal.

Those would be the lawyers the folks who know everything.

Mark Lacter is editor of the Los Angeles Business Journal.