There was an unfortunate miscommunication and when the script arrived that had the line in it, 'I would take you to homecoming but you have to know that I don't like girls that way.' The actor [Thomas Dekker]'s, manager threatened to pull him from the show because he was up for the John Carter role in The Sarah Connor Chronicles and she didn't want him playing a gay character because it might affect FOX's interest in hiring him. It got really ugly. [...]

I was very upset by it - I was not happy about it at all. There were times I had to avoid talking about it because we didn't want to have a negative reflection on the show. The show's been such a positive experience for so many people, we didn't want to get hung up on the fact that one actor's management felt that it was a career killer for him to play a homosexual which, as a gay man, I found incredibly insulting.

We had episodes planned for him to be in, and she pulled him from the show altogether. So that's why he sort of disappeared.

Whoever this nameless manager was, it remains noteworthy that, even in this post-Brokeback age of greater gays-on-TV openness, so gripped was she by pink panic that she would sooner exercise the "No Gay" clause in her client's contract than risk jeopardizing his burgeoning career by subjecting him to the mark of the Fuchsia Letter.

• PopGurls Interview: Heroes Bryan Fuller [PopGurls.com via Towleroad]

They are still working out the details, but the pair will continue to co-manage Jim Carrey. Gold will take such clients as Vince Vaughn and Ellen DeGeneres, while Miller will continue to rep Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow, Jay Roach, Sacha Baron Cohen and writer-director Adam McKay.

And what does this mean for you, the avid consumer of Hollywood big-budget comedy product? Not much, unless you care which manager is reaping millions from a cut of the next time Judd Apatow strolls into a Universal executive's office, utters the phrase, "Will Ferrell as the world's greatest chimney sweep," and walks out with a project greenlit for the summer of 2008.

• Gold, Miller do splits [Variety]
• All Hail The New Gay Mafia [Defamer]

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: WHEN DID YOU FIRST LEARN ABOUT THE 'SMOKING GUN'S' FINDINGS?

KE: James called me a few days before the piece ran to say he had learned they were doing a negative story on him, but I didn't learn of the specifics until I read it on 'TSG' Web site along with everyone else.

PW: ARE YOU CONTINUING TO REP HIM?

KE: No, I am not. In the last week, it became impossible for me to maintain a relationship once the trust had been broken. He eventually did apologize, but I felt for many reasons I had to let him go as a client.

Evashevski's reaction might have less to do with matters of betrayed trust and more to do with maintaining a friendly, parallel position to Winfrey. After all, Frey is hardly the first of Evashevski's clients to make it into the club Wally Lamb's She's Come Undone was also featured and presumably the manager doesn't want him to be the last. As for Frey, CAA's Kevin Huvane is still listed* as his agent, though with news emerging that Warner Bros. is "reevaluating" the status of the Little Pieces movie, not to mention the fact that Winfrey is one of Huvane's clients, Frey's name could soon find itself marked by an assistant with the dreaded "tell them I'm in a 7-hour lunch meeting" asterisk on the power agent's phone sheet.

*All rep information according to most recent listings on Studio System.

• Frey's Agent Goes on the Record with 'PW' [Publisher's Weekly]
• Studio Rethinks Frey's "Pieces" [E! Online]
• Previously: Oprah Exacts Revenge On James Frey [Defamer]

"To another firm, it would seem like an exodus; to another company it would seem like this company is taking on water," said Jordan Schur, president of Geffen Records and one of Mr. Kwatinetz's closest friends. "In reality, it's a correction, of Jeff taking out people who don't want to work, people riding coattails."

Others suggest that the departures are far from over and that the exits to date reflect a wider cash crisis as well as internal doubts about Mr. Kwatinetz's strategies for expansion.

"It means that the original vision that Mike Ovitz was able to achieve, his ability to create a brand for C.A.A., never did get off the ground at the Firm," said Howard Rosenman, former head of motion pictures for Brillstein-Grey, referring to Mr. Ovitz's legendary tenure at the Creative Artists Agency. "To create branding, even the geniuses of this town have trouble. Look what's happening to DreamWorks."

Ouch. Whether or not The Firm is in trouble or merely regrouping (hey, they've still got Cam and Leo, right! Right?!), being lumped in with both Mike Ovitz and studio-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown DreamWorks in the same passage can't be good. The folks at Brillstein-Grey had better make sure they've got plenty of paper in the fax machine to handle a panicked flood of resumes and headshots.

[*We think that's Murphy's head cropped out of the above picture of ex-fiancee Kwatinetz, which ran with the NYT article. We added the red arrow, just for fun.]

• Departures Cool Off Agency's Hot Start [NYT]

In unwinding his ownership in Brillstein-Grey Entertainment, Grey retains a significant ownership in HBO's "The Sopranos" and a passive financial interest in other shows originated during his tenure. They include ABC's "According to Jim" and "Jake in Progress" and HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher."

Grey also will continue collecting money from the syndicated series "Just Shoot Me" and "NewsRadio."

The article also mentions that the happy new owners will keep the Brillstein-Grey name for now, presumably until they hire an outside branding firm to come up with something a little less unwieldy than Brillstein-Pett-Dante-Liebman-And-Eventually-
Gurvitz-Once-The-Wife-Is-Out-Of-The-Picture Entertainment.

• New Paramount Chief Sells Brillstein-Grey to Executives [LAT]

Much of the problem...stems from a loophole in the Talent Agencies Act in California, which says that only a licensed agent can procure work for actors. An actor can cite the law to assert that a manager broke the law by getting them work, and thus quit the contract.

With this kind of soul-crushing Catch-22 built into their profession, we don't know how managers are expected to do their jobs. There's really only one solution: Hug a toaster and jump into the jacuzzi before the actor you "illegally" set up in a series-regular job on Everwood calls to dump you.

• Actor to Manager: I'm Working, You're Fired [NYT, reg. req'd.]


• Connolly Not Giving It Up To Agents? [Defamer]

[Natasha Lyonne, of course, is unavailable for casting at this time.]

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• Previous Hollywood Holiday Cards [Defamer]