"A Lubitsch Not of Films but of Finances": Michael Ovitz and the Mainstreaming of Media-Industrial News

abstract: Michael Ovitz was considered one of Hollywood's most important players during his leadership of the Creative Artists Agency in the 1980s and 1990s. Despite his frequent protests that he wanted no attention, he appeared frequently in mainstream media stories about changes to the film industry. Using insights from business sociology and media theory, this article positions Ovitz as Hollywood's first charismatic CEO—a celebrity who served as a symbol that explained and justified the structural and aesthetic shifts in the US film industry at the end of the twentieth century.