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Petitioner started receiving calls from journalists asking
for comments. Petitioner believed that the statements in the
articles attributed to UTA were false and that UTA had no cause
to fire him. Petitioner told the journalists that none of the
statements were true.
Petitioner’s Prospects With ICM
On Monday, April 22, 1996, the ICM retreat was attended by
the executives of ICM and approximately 80 agents (including
personnel from ICM’s London office). Jeff Berg, the chairman or
CEO of ICM, was at the ICM retreat. The articles about
petitioner that appeared in the trade publications that morning
were brought to the ICM retreat. At the ICM retreat, Mr. Berg
spoke to those in attendance and, referring to petitioner,
stated: “This is the poster boy for bad behavior” and “This kind
of behavior will not be tolerated at ICM”. Mr. Berg had the
articles about petitioner in his hand when he made these
statements.
Toni Howard, a senior vice president in the motion picture
department of ICM, attended the ICM retreat. When Ms. Howard
learned that ICM was in discussions to hire petitioner, she
opposed hiring petitioner. She spoke to six executives at ICM
and questioned how ICM could hire petitioner after noting the
articles in the trade publications.
Eventually, petitioner met with ICM. ICM would not hire
him, in part because of the articles in the trade publications.
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