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NEWS
July
2002
Page
3
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WKMG
to Reboradcast Lupus 2002 Benefit on July 6th
back up
Source: Dorough
Lupus Foundation
2002 DOROUGH LUPUS FOUNDATION CONCERT RAISES MORE AWARENESS AND
IMPRESSIVE FUNDS
Orlando, FL – Headline bands, musicians and family joined Howie
Dorough in raising awareness and funds for the “Lupus 2002”
benefit concert, making this the most profitable fundraiser the
foundation has experienced.
The June 22nd concert, now in its third consecutive year, was created
and hosted by Dorough, also known as “Howie D.” of the Backstreet
Boys, after Dorough’s sister Caroline succumbed to the disease in
1998.
The Dorough Lupus Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded
by Dorough and his family to raise money for lupus research, education
and to provide financial assistance to organizations that help
individuals living with Lupus who cannot afford treatment. “Funding
for this disease is not as prominent as it is for cancer, heart
disease, diabetes or AIDS,” says Dorough. “Hopefully, in the near
future, a cure will be found and no other family will have to endure
the tragic loss our family did.”
The concert was broadcast for the first time by WKMG, Channel 6, from
Universal’s Hard Rock Live on June 26, 2002 airing as “Howie D’s
Concert for Life”. “This is a great show for a wonderful cause,”
says Tracie Richardson, Executive Producer. “The original run raised
an impressive amount from our viewers and we hope this weekend will
bring similar results.” The benefit will be rebroadcast on WKMG, on
Saturday, July 6, noon. “Local 6 is proud to partner with the
Dorough Lupus Foundation and bring awareness to our viewers” says
Richardson.
Performers, and friends joining Dorough and his family in their
commitment that evening were: R.E.O. Speedwagon, David Clayton Thomas
& Blood Sweat & Tears, Survivor, 3LW, The Tyrones and Dorough’s
sister, songwriter, singer, actress Pollyanna.
Doug Haase of Kraft/Nabisco, presented Dorough with a check for
$100,000 on stage at the concert. Other corporations joining
Kraft/Nabisco in significant contributions were Wal-Mart, Cragan
Campelone & Assoc, Starlight Productions, and WKMG. Total funds
raised for the benefit to date exceed $158,000. “I am touched by the
compassion and generosity of the fans and the rest of the public.
Without their support, we would not be able to make a difference in
trying to combat this disease,” says Dorough.
Lupus is a widespread and chronic (lifelong) autoimmune disease that,
for unknown reasons, causes the immune system to attack the body's own
tissue and organs, including the joints, kidneys, heart, lungs, brain,
blood, or skin. More than 16,000 Americans develop lupus each year and
LFA market research data shows between 1,400,000 and 2,000,000 people
have been diagnosed with lupus. (Study conducted by Bruskin/Goldring
Research, 1994.) Lupus is more prevalent than AIDS, sickle cell anemia,
cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and cystic fibrosis combined.
For information on the Dorough Lupus Foundation, contact Vice
President/Executive Director Angelia M. Herring at 1-321-725-8599.
Donations to the foundation can be sent to: 4690 Lipscomb Street,
N.E., Suite 7, Palm Bay, FL 32905. Contributions can be called in
during the broadcast of “Howie D.’s Concert for Life” on July
6th, or Monday through Friday 9AM – 5 PM at 1-866-GIV-2DLF.
CONTACT: Alisa Anderson
PHONE: 321-725-8599
EMAIL: alisaandersonpr@aol.com
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Bid
on an autographed shirt from Brian
back up
Source: We're
Standing Strong Campaign
Although the July 4th fireworks are over, some lucky BSB fan will
still have a reason to celebrate! The We're Standing Strong campaign
is proud to announce that we will be auctioning off on ebay
one of our WSS teeshirts autographed by none other than Brian Littrell
beginning Sunday, July 7. All proceeds from this special week-long
auction will go to benefit Brian's charity, Healthy Heart Club for
Kids. Brian not only signed his name, but added "God Bless"
underneath his signature. The winning bidder will receive, in addition
to the shirt, a letter of authenticity from HHC. To view a picture of
this great looking shirt, please visit here.
WSS has successfully auctioned off two other autographed teeshirts --
one signed by Kevin to benefit JWR and one signed by Nick to benefit
NCOC. Now, it's time for all the Brian fans to have their say!
Please visit our website at on the above link, to find out more about
our campaign or email us at: info@fansstandingstrong.org.
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Firm
Believer
back up
Source: Washington
Post
With His Hollywood Management Company, Jeff Kwatinetz Is Reaching
for the Stars
By: Sharon Waxman, Washington Post Staff Writer
Click here
to skip to the section concerning the Backstreet Boys.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif.
Here along the power corridor of Wilshire Boulevard, from the
sleek, rounded hub of Creative Artists Agency to the darkened glass
monolith of the William Morris Agency, a shift in the Hollywood
pecking order is underway.
Gone is the onetime prince of Babylon, Michael Ovitz, the
agent-cum-mogul who as the head of CAA in the 1980s could set
Hollywood atremble with a flick of his speed-dialer. Two months ago
Ovitz sold his failed, three-year-old venture, Artist Management
Group, to a company few in Hollywood had heard of, a music management
outfit called the Firm. Assuming millions of AMG's debt and absorbing
dozens of its top-notch executives, the Firm instantly became a player
in the dealmaking district, this stretch of prime real estate in the
heart of Beverly Hills.
As Ovitz exits -- his final indignity a magazine interview in which he
blamed Hollywood's "gay Mafia" for his downfall -- curious
eyes have turned farther down Wilshire, toward a hulking '70s
structure and the handsome, ambitious young man who works on its
fourth floor.
That man, Jeff Kwatinetz (pronounced QUAT-nits), co-founder and chief
executive officer of the Firm, has plans to change the entertainment
industry. He intends to do this by making "brands" of his
artist-clients, by "empowering" them, and by leveraging
their pop culture status throughout the disparate divisions of his
company -- which, besides guiding artists, is into clothing,
recording, animation, the concert business, and television and film
production.
In four brief years the Firm had already established a remarkable
beachhead. Kwatinetz created one record label and bought another,
along with two smaller music-management companies. He bought a defunct
sneaker company, Pony, and invested in a media marketing company with
the plush toy retailer Build-A-Bear, and another similar enterprise
with the creators of the children's book character Arthur.
With the acquisition of Ovitz's company -- a deal that closed late
last month -- Kwatinetz, a 37-year-old, Harvard-trained lawyer, has
suddenly became chief caretaker to one of the most prominent rosters
of clients in the industry, including Cameron Diaz, Leonardo DiCaprio,
Samuel L. Jackson, Martin Scorsese, Benicio Del Toro and Martin
Lawrence in film, and Korn, Limp Bizkit, the Dixie Chicks, Linkin Park
and Enrique Iglesias in music.
Similar to agents, managers are regarded as the long-term custodians
of artists' careers. In the Age of Ovitz, the agent reigned supreme in
putting together "packages" of actor clients to appear
together in films and demanding high salaries for them. As a manager,
Kwatinetz hopes to do all that for his clients and more -- with the
advantage that managers, unlike agents, are also permitted to produce
movies and television programs. (For decades, state law and guild
regulations have prohibited agents from doing this, to avoid the
likelihood that agents would exploit their own clients if they could
profit by doing so. There has never been a similar rule for
managers.)
He used to say that he intended to build the next AOL Time Warner.
That was before AOL Time Warner stock nose-dived.
When it comes to himself, Kwatinetz is obsessively media-shy and
declined to be interviewed for this article until just before it was
to be published. (In its first three years the Firm issued not a
single press release, and a search of the Lexis-Nexis newspaper
database turns up only half a dozen stories about him.)
In the interview, this is how he outlined his philosophy: "With
all the focus on the short term, on making immediate profits, people
sacrifice building brand credibility. I have a different approach. I
want to build credibility behind entertainers. Credibility is another
word for brand equity."
"I think he's a genius," says Bruce Kapp, a senior executive
at Clear Channel Touring, who sets up concert tours with the Firm's
clients. "He has pulled off stuff -- I've just scratched my
head," he says of such innovations as a recent Korn concert that
Kwatinetz had simultaneously broadcast live to 30-some movie theaters
around the country.
"I think he's going to make a lot of noise, I really do,"
says Jimmy Iovine, who heads Interscope Records. "He's very, very
aggressive. He plays to win."
But Kwatinetz has, even at this stage, many detractors. He is not shy
about suing those he perceives to have crossed him, among them a
former employer, a prospective investor and lately Sony Corp., over
money he said was owed to his clients the Dixie Chicks.
Former associates question the ethics of managing musicians' careers
while, in some cases, also owning their record labels or touring
company. They wonder about what they call his erratic behavior, with
pedal-to-the-metal work jags followed by sudden disappearances for
days at a time. He spins visions of grandeur for potential investors,
while critics say he doesn't have a formal business plan.
"His strength is the doppelganger of his weakness," says his
former partner, Aaron Ray, who left the Firm last year. "He's
passionate about things in a cultlike, Kool-Aid kind of way. But he
doesn't have a real grounding in business. It's all a facade. . . .
His business model is Pac-Man. People talk about playing chess. Jeff
is really playing Pac-Man."
"A lot of people who have dealt with him predict he will
implode," says Haim Saban, an entertainment mogul who considered
investing in the Firm, then decided not to. "I would not jump to
that conclusion that fast. But people like him either implode or
become very, very big."
Inside the Firm
Pass through a pair of frosted glass doors, which bear the words
"The Firm" in 1940s-style, gangster-chic typeface, and you
find a cavernous, echoing space filled with glass-walled offices
encased in gray concrete. Huge columns rise behind a bank of
receptionists. MTV plays on a built-in television.
Two young women coo into constantly ringing phones, "The Firm,
may I help you?" Handsome young people slouch about with an air
of self-conscious distraction, dressed more for the beach than for
Beverly Hills dealmaking. Many wear rumpled T-shirts with the Pony
logo.
A reporter has shown up without an appointment, since the Firm has not
responded to requests for an interview. Is Mr. Kwatinetz available?
The answer comes back from one of three assistants: "Jeff is on a
plane." Soon a burly security guard arrives with a polite request
to vacate the premises.
"He doesn't want to appear boastful," Howard J. Rubenstein
explains later by phone. The heavyweight New York publicist was
recently hired to handle calls from the press. "People are
pushing him as the next Ovitz; he certainly doesn't feel he's that. He
wants to wait until he achieves something."
As the reporter leaves the building, a tall, slender man in a
billowing black shirt and skinny black pants is stridingtoward the
front door. He speaks on a cell phone. His manner exudes urgency and
get-out-of-my-way authority. Behind him an entourage is scurrying to
keep up: an assistant carrying a bulky bag; a large, muscle-bound
gentleman; a couple of associates in jeans.
It's Kwatinetz (perhaps just off the plane). The reporter scrambles to
catch up, slips into an elevator with him as the doors shut. An
introduction is offered, but Kwatinetz refuses to speak, staring
impassively ahead. He has a long, slim face with a jutting brow that
slopes into a pointed nose, and shaggy brown hair with glinting gold
highlights, the manager as rock star. He steps out of the elevator and
away, without a backward glance.
Four days later, after lengthy negotiations, Kwatinetz finally agrees
to an interview, along with two senior Firm executives, Steve Bannon
and Dave Baram. Today the CEO is dressed in a black Armani suit with
white shirt and pale lavender tie. He looks -- sitting on his ecru
suede couch, framed by crepe beige curtains and a '70s-era white
sheepskin rug -- like one of those Gucci ads featuring cool people
you'll never get to hang out with. (The ads, however, rarely have
framed diplomas from Harvard on the wall.)
He exudes a sheepish charm. He smells good, like balsam, or maybe
sandalwood, and is utterly disarming, green eyes flashing warmth and
intelligence. You think: JFK Jr., a little. Still, one foot wags
incessantly, like a tic, through a 90-minute discussion.
"We would like to build a company," he begins in a slightly
nasal voice, "that is driven by artists and creators. . . . If
you make great art -- musicians, actors, writers -- you should be able
to figure out how to monetize it. Too much of this business is
figuring out how to make money, making the quarterly and yearly
numbers."
He says: "If the goal was just to make money, I would keep things
small, make millions of dollars a year and be another person." A
beat. "We want to help our clients get a disproportionate part of
what people do with their spare time and spare income."
In practice, explains Bannon -- an investment banker who became a
partner at the company eight weeks ago -- this means that brand-name
clients can be marketed throughout the Firm's divisions. For example,
Pony will be releasing a sneaker designed by Korn this fall, hoping to
capitalize on the release of a new Korn album this summer. Or Limp
Bizkit may be interested in designing a video game. Or Cameron Diaz
may want to start a clothing line.
In this sense, Bannon believes, Kwatinetz has devised a new kind of
synergy in an industry where the consolidation of the 1990s, like AOL
Time Warner's and Vivendi-Universal's, has not turned out to be
profitable. "Quite frankly it's the beginning of a
revolution," Bannon says, then mentions a couple of clients.
"We're in the Vin Diesel business, or the Fred Durst
business."
It's not immediately obvious that Kwatinetz's vision is revolutionary,
and it's not a word he uses himself. Instead he talks a lot about
"the team" and sharing ideas and "investing in
people" and "the long term." He talks about his genuine
love for music and film and his understanding of "what's
important to Wal-Mart and Target."
How, Kwatinetz is asked, would he see his company operating in five
years, under this philosophy?
"I believe in five years we will be a very synergistic,
artist-oriented company that is creating equity for artists. The exact
shape of that, I'd be lying if I told you exactly what it would look
like. But it will be artist-driven."
Superstar Strategies
Not everyone is convinced by Jeff Kwatinetz's concept, or by the man
himself.
Industry professionals warn that the movie and music industries are
mercurial, and that a company with high overhead can run into trouble
in lean times. A top-selling group can have one platinum album, and
then produce no album -- and thus no revenue -- for years. Leonardo
DiCaprio once seemed a solid member of the $20-million-per-film club;
lately his career has taken a dip.
With the Firm now numbering about 240 employees, and many of the top
managers earning more than $1 million a year, knowledgeable insiders
estimate its overhead at up to $2 million a month, a large sum for
such a young company. (A spokesman for the Firm would not confirm or
deny the figure.)
Says one prominent Hollywood executive with a background in investment
banking, speaking on condition of anonymity: "Inside Hollywood
everyone is scratching their head: How do they go on? How are they
financing this? Are they making any money at all? Where's the revenue
stream?"
Others say that Kwatinetz's strategy is vague and overly ambitious.
"The business fundamentals weren't there for me," says
Saban, a former chairman of Fox Family Worldwide, who had two meetings
with the Firm's chief about investing in the company. "He never
submitted a business plan -- he submitted a vision. He had a vision
that was not compatible with mine."
Frank Registrato, who until recently served as the Firm's office
manager, says that the culture of the company is one of scattered,
frenetic energy, rather than calculated strategy:
"They're gamblers. It's like if you throw money on the roulette
wheel," he says. "If you throw money at a bunch of things,
maybe one of them will work out."
And there are other matters. Aaron Ray, the former partner who is now
one of Kwatinetz's most outspoken critics, says he left the company
last year to start his own music management business because of what
he called his boss's erratic and unprofessional behavior.
The Firm's Bannon asserts that Ray was fired, though Ray disputes
this. A May 2001 article in Variety says that he "exited"
the company and took several major clients with him.
On occasion, Ray and others said, Kwatinetz would disappear in the
middle of a high-stress deal for two or three days -- for example, a
deal with Will Smith's production company, Overbrook Entertainment,
that subsequently failed -- and would reappear looking tired and
disheveled.
Ray and others -- who spoke on condition of anonymity -- said they had
seen evidence of cocaine use or had confronted Kwatinetz about drug
use, and said it got in the way of work.
One music industry colleague who demanded anonymity came close to
joining the Firm but backed off after a short trial period. He says he
confronted Kwatinetz about suspected drug use, but Kwatinetz denied
it. Then he asked the partners about it. One responded, he said:
"It's being dealt with."
Kwatinetz's response: "While I did use drugs in the past, I
categorically deny having a drug problem, and I certainly don't use
drugs now. I was particularly outraged by the accusation that I would
have ever used drugs in the workplace, which was an outright lie by a
disgruntled former employee."
Ray says he also had issues with the way Kwatinetz was running the
company. He argues that there were star clients whose careers were
being neglected, or whose interests were at times compromised to
benefit the Firm.
Michael Jackson was a client for about a year. Kwatinetz has
repeatedly said that he dropped the once-towering pop star. But Ray
says that Jackson was unhappy with the Firm's guidance. "I was
there. They were doing nothing for the guy," he says. "He
needed direction. A client like that you need to spend a lot of time,
be in the studio. But it was just a chip. Michael Jackson needed help.
What did Jeff do for him? Nothing."
Says Baram: "We absolutely fired Michael Jackson. . . . Some
artists we desperately want to be in business with, some are not the
right mix. We decided he should get other representation" after
Jackson did not take their advice. Sources in the Jackson camp agree
there was a breakdown in communications.
Similar, according to Ray, was the case of the Backstreet
Boys, whose career has been in decline for a couple of years. Ray
says Kwatinetz spent the tens of millions of dollars earned from the
Backstreet Boys to buy other companies, then milked the group for cash
to the detriment of their career. (Kwatinetz says the opposite is
true, that he has taken financial hits to nurture his clients, such as
persuading the Backstreet Boys to move their concerts from stadiums,
which they could not fill, to smaller halls where they would make less
profit but play to a packed house.)
"Why were the Backstreet Boys in a Burger King commercial?"
asks Ray. "You can't make a strong argument that it helped their
career. It reinforced their younger audience, which they were trying
to get away from. But there was a check there."
Kwatinetz responds: "It's a complicated question. When you have
big clients, eventually some are going to leave, that's the short
answer. Two of the guys in the Backstreet Boys had problems with the
company. Three wanted to stay, two didn't." The Firm kept one of
the Boys, Nick Carter, as a client, who has a solo album due out in
the fall. The group is now managed by Irving Azoff; Azoff declined to
comment.
Ray says he saw problems regarding what Bannon calls "vertical
integration": managing music clients while owning their record
company and the concert tour on which the band is booked (a strategy
the Firm is also pursuing for film and television clients, through its
production company). The Firm's client Korn, for example, was part of
the Firm-owned "Family Values" concert tour, and Staind --
another Firm client -- was on the tour.
"Whose interests are we looking out for? The artist, the record
company, the first act, the second act?" asks Ray. "Are they
being given good advice?" Ray felt the bands were not. "The
ethics got to the point where it became disgusting to me. We were
using one client to leverage another. There were conflicts and we were
not upfront about it."
Kwatinetz says he is aware of such pitfalls, but adds, "We'll
never pressure a client to do something sub-par because it serves the
Firm's agenda. We're conscious of it, and we make sure we do the right
thing for all our clients."
Man on the Move
Kwatinetz was born and raised in Brooklyn, his father an accountant in
the garment industry and his mother a homemaker. When Jeff was in
third grade, the family, which included a younger brother, moved to
Marlboro, N.J.
He attended Northwestern University for undergraduate studies, getting
involved in the local Chicago music scene, then matriculated at
Harvard Law School, flying back and forth to Chicago, where he had a
concert promotion company. He moved to Hollywood inthe early '90s and
briefly joined an entertainment law firm, then struck out on his own
in the music business before joining the established management
company Gallin-Morey.
Kwatinetz's incipient empire was started just four years ago when he
and Gallin-Morey colleague Michael Green decided to leave that company
and set off on their own.
With a handful of managers, the Firm began working out of Kwatinetz's
apartment in Malibu, near the ocean. In a couple of years it had a
staff of 15 working out of offices on Sunset Boulevard, crowding one
suite, then two. They were managing not just Korn and Limp Bizkit but
Staind, Ice Cube and the Backstreet Boys (the latter landed after the
boy-stars were engaged in a well-publicized battle with their former
manager).
"It was nuts," says Eric Griffin, Kwatinetz's former
assistant who watched the company grow to 55 people over the next
year, eventually moving to Wilshire Boulevard. "A very crazy,
hard-working and open atmosphere."
Enrique Iglesias was added to the roster, and Mary J. Blige. Their
phenomenal success could be monitored on cable television. Says
Griffin: "MTV was Firm TV."
In 1999, the company had the wind at its back, with several
top-selling albums out, and with two movies opening at No. 1 at the
box office, "Big Momma's House" and "Next
Friday."
And while Kwatinetz's work tempo was frequently manic -- arriving
early in the morning, leaving late at night, yelling at underlings,
making extravagant threats during negotiations for clients -- he was
tempered by Green's calmer demeanor, according to former
associates.
A sense of inclusiveness made the hard work gratifying; each week
Kwatinetz held a company-wide staff meeting (he still does), in which
everyone from the mail sorter to the controlling partners offered
opinions about Korn's latest music video or the trailer from Martin
Lawrence's upcoming film.
Soon after that high point in 1999, according to Ray and others,
Kwatinetz increasingly went from music manager to visionary. He would
constantly talk about "the long term," and wanting to be
Time Warner.
He began to buy companies left and right, acquiring the management
firms for the Dixie Chicks and Sisqo; snapping up Flip Records, which
belonged to Limp Bizkit. Then last year, Kwatinetz bought out founding
partner Green for an undisclosed sum. Green did not return repeated
calls asking for comment.
According to officials at the Firm, the purchase of Ovitz's AMG
involved the assumption of about $15 million of AMG's debt and taking
over the contracts of top-name managers Rick Yorn and Julie
Silverman-Yorn, who became partners.
It's the biggest gamble yet for a company already on a steep growth
curve. Says Kwatinetz: "This acquisition -- it's our biggest
acquisition. We need to get it right. It's a big bet. But I'm feeling
better about the bet every day."
Asked to give his impression of the man many consider his heir
apparent, Ovitz observes: "I think it takes a certain panache to
be in this business. I don't think wallflowers do particularly well.
Jeff is bright and tenacious. I think he's got great style. He's
surely qualified to be in our insane business."
"The odds are he will flame out," says Ken Hertz, a
prominent entertainment lawyer who has counseled the Firm on business
strategy. "But the odds are always long. That's why it's so
interesting. I think he'll succeed. People want to see him fail for
the wrong reasons.
"He's prepared to put everything on the line. He's Donald Trump.
He'll win huge, or he'll go down in flames."
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