UPDATE: Word is she’s going to Kevin Huvane at CAA. “Maybe he can put her in his close friend Joe Francis’ next Girls Gone Wild video,” my source snarked.
EXCLUSIVE: CAA has always represented her in the music area. But now Miley Cyrus is taking meetings with agencies about her TV and film and endorsements representation. Is this fair to UTA? Of course not. But I hear the decision was made by Miley’s mother Trish Cyrus who is her de facto manager. No word on whether father Billy Ray Cyrus, also a UTA client, will exit as well.
UTA had just closed the deal for Cyrus to return for the final season of Hannah Montana on The Disney Channel. UTA also packaged around Miley her next movie project The Last Song at Disney. The agency reps Nicholas Sparks, who wrote both the book and screenplay, as well as director Julie Ann Robinson and producers Adam Shankman and Jennifer Gibgot.
It was about a year ago that I reported when the star of that billion dollar Disney franchise Hannah Montana traded in Cunningham Escott Slevin Doherty (which helps transform mostly child actors, singers and models into A-list stars) for United Talent to follow her long-term talent agent Mitchell Gossett, formerly the ex-VP of CESD’s theatrical division. He also brought along Billy Ray. Gossett had reportedly been involved with Miley since she and her father demonstrated their father-daughter chemistry to Disney’s Gary Marsh; that led to deals in 4 areas at the Walt Disney Co: TV, film, consumer products and recording.
To hell with UTA, I’m glad she left, I hate that place.
UTA is like the starter house amongst the major agencies. I’m sure they aren’t exactly surprised at her decision.
I’ve got $20 on CAA scooping her up by Friday.
those old cliches have something to them — ‘what comes around, goes around.’ in this case, mitch gossett gets his well-deserved comeuppance. no one can blame him for being slimy (that you cannot help), but the way he left CESD without telling his clients, their managers or returning numerous phone calls was just plain unprofessional and sleazy. anyone who knows anything about this business knew that mitch would get his soon enough — who thought it would be this soon?
Wyly Miley Says Goodbye-ee
Great scoop!
“Is this fair to UTA? Of course not.”
If the term of her contract was up, what’s not fair about it? Those are the terms under which talent and reps work. I know I, for one, don’t feel it’s “unfair” for anyone to want to move on, for whatever reasons, so long as they’ve fulfilled the requirements of whatever mutually agreed to contract was in effect to that point.
Whoops!
RE: the line about “Miley’s mother Trish Cyrus who is her de facto manager”
I thought that Jason Morey, son of Jim Morey (ex-Gallin Morey Associates, now Morey Management Group) was Miley’s manager? I am sure her parents are in the mix and helping make certain personal decisions, but…
I think Jen Gibgot is hot. Have any of you met her in person?
There’s no loyalty in Cheesytown.
The stars we deserve: a stage-managed teenage warbler and her bland, soulless pseudo country hack dad.
Get these people off the stage with a hook. Please. I had the misfortune of seeing a few minutes of the ‘movie’, and it made the disposable junk of elvis and doris day look like CITIZEN KANE by comparison.
The death star welcomes them.
come on over to WME
You gotta think there has to be some good reason for it. not like she’s being lured away by WME’s amazing logo.
I never understand it when people change agents when everything is going so well…bad karma. But then, having your mom as your manager is probably not the healthiest thing in the world. My sympathies to her former agent who seemed to have done everything right.
Miley and her family are probably p.o.’d about UTA forcing that lame movie package on her.
Nikki, you seem to always be an apologist for UTA, even when they were losing all of their top comedy talent. You may like them, but they screw up, too. In this case, they were not being upfront with the family and trying to shove her into projects like the one announced this week at Fox.
That movie package is going to make her more money and relationships.
Silly silly girl.
SLIMEY AND UTA ARE INTERCHANGEABLE.
menoposual mom guiding tween star’s career…can we just call this the Dina Lohan Syndrome?
jason morey is her music manager. his dad jim is billy’s music manager, fyi
You know, for my money it just doesn’t get any better than when Billy Ray Cyrus sings “Achy Breaky Heart.” I celebrate the man’s entire catalog.
Gee, another amazing act of ‘loyalty’ in this business.
It’s always amazing, that ladder of success, and what Miss Miley has to look forward to on the way back down. It won’t be long now.
Susan Boyle pay attention.
What is loyalty? That thing an agent, studio/network exec or lawyer is to show. Actors? I’m doing it for my career… Actors get dropped when a) they suck for whatever reason, b) they stopped making money – and usually over a long time or c) they are such headcases it hits LTS category. But ACTORS? They get to drop U if they want to go to more parties, think they can act better than they can or don’t hit their marks on the job opps that their reps get them. So wakeup one and all – this is the reality we all face everyday in this Town.
Not that she has has to worry but Miley’s tween fans are getting older and outgrowing her. She doesn’t translate well with adult audiences so after her run with Disney, she’ll go the way of the Olsen Twins / Hilary Duff (rich but in obscurity – which isn’t too shabby at all).
the commenters on this board sound so out of touch! whether or not you think she has talent, your daughters do – and they probably buy a lot more movie tickets (not to mention merchandise) than you do. her fans are hardly outgrowing her – have you noticed that she doesn’t exactly look like a tween anymore? i give kevin huvane credit for recognizing the appeal she has with viewers and at the box office. he’ll do an amazing job guiding her to the next phase of her career.
She should be getting $250k+ (probably $500k) per episode for Hannah Montana, if you look at what stars get on other shows that are not nearly as profitable. She’s not even close to that.
If any of you are truly surprised by this move… what are you doing in this town?
The morality of it can be argued til the cows come home, but the truth is… this was coming ever since the opening weekend of her last movie. if you think Huvane hasn’t been trying to get her for the last couple months you’re pretty naive.