Ari's Job Offer on Entourage

July 14, 2009 6:46 AM

Question regarding events in season 5 of Entourage: Spoilers within!

Spoiler warning!!! In Season 5, Ari is offered the job of replacing the late head of Warner studios. I have two questions regarding this plot point and the Hollywood movie business world:
1) How common/plausible is it, in real life, that a talent agent, however powerful, would get offered an executive spot at a major film studio? One would think the two roles would require different skill sets.
2) What inducement or argument could Ari possibly wield to convince the bigwig who offered him the job to give it to Dana Gordon instead of Amanda Daniels as previously intended?

posted by BigLankyBastard to media & arts (7 answers total)

1) In Hollywood, anything is possible. 30 or so years ago the position was given to a women's clothing salesman and failed actor. He turned the studio around.

2) The studio heads want to be freinds to the city's most powerful agents. Though it's a stretch to say that the job would be given to anyone the poweragent suggests (say, someone who's not qualified), it is not so much a stretch if the person is qualified and liked, as Gordon was (though we don't know a ton about Gordon, we do not she was a head's assistant (if I remember correctly) and has been in the business a long time.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 7:08 AM on July 14, 2009

Michael Ovitz, bigwig at CAA (Creative Artists Agency), left CAA to be the President of Disney...never seen the show, though, is this character Ari really well-known and feared?
posted by heather-b at 7:14 AM on July 14, 2009

Ari in the show = Ari Emanual in real life.
posted by smackfu at 7:16 AM on July 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh, the job was also given to a one-time hairdresser who, though he'd co-produced some hits, was pretty much the laughing stock of Hollywood. He, and his partner, were grossly overpaid for the job and fucked it up big time.

As for agents, powerful agents are very powerful people in Hollywood. The top agent in Hollywood at any given time easily has more power to effect the playing field than the head of any single studio at the same time. Mike Ovitz in his prime is a good example. One time agent David Geffen, also a former agent, is another example, but to a lesser degree. He's the G in Dreamworks SKG.

Also, Ari Gold is based on Ari Emanuel, one of the founders of Endeavor and now co-head of William Morris. Some of his clients have been in Entourage (Larry David, Scorsese, Jessica Alba, Mark Wahlberg...).

In my experience--and keep in mind that I don't work in Hollywood, I just read far too much about it, much of what happens on the show is very realistic and many of the players are based on real people (Bob the producer seems clearly based on Evans) or combinations of people.

On preview...
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 7:17 AM on July 14, 2009

Oops, should read "One time manager David Geffen, also a former agent..."
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 7:23 AM on July 14, 2009

Ron Meyer at Universal Studios is another example of a top agent going to a studio. Less famous than Ovitz, but much more successful, since he's still at the job 14 years later.

(I actually thought the studio in Entourage was a fictionalized Universal Studios, since the parent company seemed more like GE than Time Warner.)
posted by smackfu at 7:48 AM on July 14, 2009

never seen the show, though, is this character Ari really well-known and feared?

Yes. As smackfu points out, he is based on Ari Emmanuel.
posted by lunasol at 7:26 PM on July 14, 2009