Latest in Sam Gores

The long smoldering fire sale of Paradigm’s stronghold music division to Casey Wasserman has finally happened. Paradigm CEO Sam Gores announced a sale and called it as a “win for all parties,” with Wasserman taking possession of the assets in the second quarter of this year. This will bring up the inevitable question…

EXCLUSIVE: Ouch. Paradigm held a conference call Thursday morning where its head of HR told the agency that upwards of 180 employees — mostly operations and administrative, we’re told — have gone from “temporarily laid off” to permanently exited from the company. There are no new people who were laid off, but this…

EXCLUSIVE: After entertainment agencies and studios made pronouncements of support towards Black Lives Matter and anti-racism causes and shut down for Blackout Tuesday last week, it was inevitable that people within those companies would look around and gauge how deeply invested their companies are in diversity…

UPDATED with more details: Crescent Drive Media, an investment company run by Paradigm boss Sam Gores’ billionaire brother Tom Gores, has taken an “ownership interest” in the agency, shoring up finances at the company hard hit by the coronavirus crisis. No terms of the deal were disclosed Thursday, but the new…

(UPDATED WITH SAM GORES’ MEMO) The future of the Paradigm Talent Agency could lay in Casey Wasserman's hands. While we hear talks for the LA28 Olympics chair to take over the once lucrative music assets of the Sam Gores-run company are still pretty fluid, there is no doubt that conversations are being had that would…

EXCLUSIVE: Greg Bestick, an 11 year veteran of Paradigm who rose from COO to agency president, has just announced his retirement to staffers at the company. We’re told he’s leaving amicably. Paradigm Chairman & CEO Sam Gores said that “Greg played a vital role in the agency’s growth and successes. I am forever…

(UPDATED WITH KLEIN LAWYER STATEMENT) EXCLUSIVE: A week after former Paradigm agent Debbee Klein smacked her old employer with a $2 million breach of contract lawsuit, the Sam Gores-led company has hit back today with a searing court multi-million dollar filing of its own denying all allegations of impropriety as…

EXCLUSIVE: It has been a rough couple of weeks for Paradigm since chairman/CEO Sam Gores initiated “temporary layoffs” of up to 200 staffers in the wake of the Hollywood shutdown by the coronavirus pandemic, followed by a salacious lawsuit against the agency by vet agent Debbee Klein, who was among those laid off…

EXCLUSIVE: UPDATE, 11:48 AM: It took almost half a day, but Paradigm Talent Agency has finally responded to the more than $2 million lawsuit that Debbee Klein launched like a cruise missile late last night at the Sam Gores-run company for being unceremoniously axed last month after over two decades in the trenches…

UPDATED with additional info, full franchise agreement: Paradigm Talent Agency has signed a new franchise agreement with the Writers Guild of America, and will be able to resume representation of its WGA-represented writer clients immediately. The deal was announced by Paradigm chairman and CEO Sam Gores. Paradigm…

The coronavirus crunch has hit the talent agencies. Sources tell Deadline that Paradigm chief Sam Gores held a companywide conference call this morning to tell staffers there will be massive temporary layoffs on the order of 100 or more. There are 700 employees at the agency. We’ve heard that the number might be much…

Another day, another round of rumors about Paradigm. There had been steady chatter for the past couple of months about merger conversations between CAA and Paradigm, with both sides privately shutting down speculation. Paradigm chief Sam Gores did it internally today following an LA Times report that he held…