The California Talent Agency Act has been around since 1978 but its legal roots go back to the dawn of Hollywood. The statute is now being hotly contested by writers and their agents.
The Writers Guild of America is fighting talent agencies over practices that the guild believes allow agents to prosper while neglecting client interests.
As writers send agents termination letters, the guild has encouraged them to rely instead on personal managers and attorneys to fill the void. But agencies“We write to advise you that the WGA’s purported delegation violates both California’s Talent Agency Act and New York’s General Business Law, and to demand its immediate retraction,” an attorney representing the agencies wrote.
Hollywood’s big four agencies — Endeavor, CAA, UTA and ICM Partners — have vehemently defended their position, saying in a strongly worded letter to the WGA this month that they would consider any attempt by the guild to delegate agent duties to other parties to be “unfair and unlawful competition.”Agencies argue that the law is a useful regulation that ensures a certain level of professionalism and trustworthiness by requiring them to register with the state.
The agencies are relying not just on California law but also a New York rule that is similar in spirit but marginally less strict when it comes to agents. Over the decades, the state Legislature revised the set of laws, calling it different names. The California Talent Agencies Act is the most recent iteration of the original concept. Except for some modifications in the 1980s, it has remained the same for more than 40 years.
“Agents shouldn’t have a monopoly on our access to work,” said one screenwriter, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject.
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