The Talk of Hollywood; A Hollywood Incident Full
of Sound and Furor
By BERNARD WEINRAUB, MAY 28, 1992, NY Times
Just a few weeks ago Jay Sures was another brash
25-year-old Hollywood agent with fast patter, trendy wardrobe, hefty expense
account and, of course, portable phones. Mr. Sures was not a powerhouse
Hollywood player like Michael Ovitz, the chairman of Creative Artists' Agency,
or Jeff Berg, chairman of International Creative Management. But his feistiness
and energy as a television agent made him an up-and-coming player at the United
Talent Agency, which represents a number of prominent actors and writers.
Suddenly Mr. Sures has replaced Dan Quayle as the
subject of lunchtime dishing. And his unexpected notoriety says something about
Hollywood power plays, name dropping and ambition. Even such a prominent figure
as Peter Guber, chairman of the board of Sony Pictures Entertainment, is
involved in the brouhaha.
The story was first revealed last week in Claudia
Eller's column in Daily Variety, and has since taken on a life of its own. It
has now become a kind of combination of "Saturday Night Live" and
Robert Altman's scalding comedy "The Player."
It began when Mr. Sures's two Sony cellular
phones started misbehaving. Instead of taking them to a repair shop, the
agitated young agent sent a letter to Sony, demanding that the company replace
the phones and claiming that such clients as Michael J. Fox, Alan Alda and
Jason Priestley "always complain about the sound quality of these two
phones."
To assure Sony that he was nothing less than an
important Hollywood player, Mr. Sures casually noted that "my friend and business
associate" Peter Guber, as well as Akio Morita, the head of Sony, would
"be embarrassed to know that their company made products that perform so
poorly." He also sent a copy of his letter to Consumer Reports.
Although the actors were said to be angry about
the use of their names, no one was more outraged than Mr. Guber, who received a
copy of the complaint and promptly wrote a scathing reply to Mr. Sures.
"Please erase my name from your Rolodex, and
from your memory," Mr. Guber wrote. He said he was not responsible for the
company's telephones, that the letter was "objectionable," and that
Mr. Sures's reference to Mr. Guber as a friend and business associate "is
not only incorrect but questionable as well."
"I didn't bother to call you because your
telephone is probably still broken," wrote Mr. Guber, who sent copies of
his letter to 22 agents at United Talent.
Within days, a contrite Mr. Sures hand-delivered
an apology to Sony studios, and Mr. Guber accepted it.
The matter would have rested there, but like most
funny episodes in Hollywood, there was a sequel. In recent days, a mock letter
signed by "J Sures" on United Talent Agency letterhead was faxed all
over town. The letter was addressed to Tom Pollock, chairman of the MCA Motion Picture
Group, which is owned by Matsushita, a Sony rival. The letter may have been
written by gremlims inside the agency, or by rival agents.
In it "Mr. Sures" states that his two
Panasonic microwaves are no longer working. "The cooking carousel doesn't
turn and my food never seems to cook -- a culinary catastrophe that has
embarrassed me on more than one occasion while cooking dinner for my clients
Michael J. Fox, Alan Alda and Jason Priestley," the letter said, and
continued, "Most of my close and personal friends, including Peter Guber,
who is almost like a father to me, can't believe that the carousel doesn't
turn!"
Mr. Sures, reached at his office, said in
exasperation that he did not want to talk about the letters, real or parody.
But one of his bosses, Martin R. Bauer, president of the agency, said with a
laugh that "the town is viewing all of this with bemusement."
"Jay has had a tough time of it," said
Mr. Bauer. "We had a long talk with him. He used poor judgment. All right.
But look, I sent both letters -- the real one and the fake one -- to Alan Alda
and we were hysterical. You've got to have a sense of humor in these
things."
Mr. Bauer said the original letter proved that
Mr. Sures had the qualities that make a first-class Hollywood agent: "What
makes a good agent? Aggressiveness, tenacity, intelligence and anger. And Jay
has that."
Anger? "You have to be a little bit
angry," said Mr. Bauer. "You can't give up when opinion goes against
you. That's the dichotomy of life here. Jay's coming out of this a better man,
a better agent."
Reached by noncellular phone, Mr. Guber said:
"This is a good kid who'll turn out to be a really good agent. He has some
chutzpah that, if he can keep it in check, will be useful to him. It was a
funny incident. I don't know the kid, never met him. Of course you have to be
careful about making statements that someone is your best friend, which people
often do in this town. I don't think this will really affect his progress or
his reputation." ...
Full reference at https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/28/movies/the-talk-of-hollywood-a-hollywood-incident-full-of-sound-and-furor.html
===
UTA Still Struggles With Internal Discord
May 21, 1996 | CLAUDIA ELLER | LA Times
...In the last few weeks, UTA has made headlines
in the Hollywood trade papers for highly public feuds with two of its young
agents. The company fired maverick TV agent Gavin Polone, smearing his name in
the press, then apologizing days later and giving him a payoff of more than $5
million to go away.
Then, again in the public eye, UTA filed suit
against Polone protege Jay Sures when the young agent tried to get out of his
contract and flee what he termed "intolerable working conditions" at
the agency "which threaten my future."
Low and behold, two days later, Sures returned to
the fold with a promotion he had been offered weeks earlier as the new co-head
of UTA's TV department and a contract that will free him at the end of the year
instead of the end of 1997...
Full reference at http://articles.latimes.com/1996-05-21/business/fi-6588_1_uta-partner
===
UTA’s Sures: Give Trump a Chance
Power agent/Democrat fundraiser plans to stay
involved in politics
Michael Malone, Nov 9, 2016, B+C (Broadcasting
and Cable)
Jay Sures, managing director at UTA and a
prominent Democratic fundraiser and activist, sounded a philosophical note
following Donald Trump’s surprise win Tuesday night. Sures called the Election
Day result “an incredible learning experience” that is helping him understand
how GOP diehards felt when President Obama won the 2008 election and reelection
four years later.
Sures—who counts a number of top-shelf TV news
talents, including Norah O’Donnell and Jake Tapper, as clients—cited something
another client, Glenn Beck, said about coming out on the short end of
elections. “I had no idea how the other side felt when President Obama won in
2008,” Sures told B&C. “The despondency, the confusion—how upset people
were at that point.”
Choosing to look on the bright side, the power
agent said he looks forward to a smooth transition of power, as has been an
American hallmark for centuries, and is investing hope in the president-elect.
“I think we’re all obligated to give Donald Trump a chance and see what he can do,”
said Sures. “As hard as it is.”
Sures says he does not envision, at least for the
moment, Trump’s presidency negatively affecting business in Hollywood.
A recent inductee into B&C’s Hall of Fame,
Sures vowed to immerse himself in the details of what went wrong for Hillary
Clinton and other key Democrats in 2016, and how the electorate was misread. He
envisions remaining a participant in politics. “I can’t imagine not being
involved in some capacity,” he says.
Some have speculated that Sures may have a future
in politics, which Sures has not denied. But for today, it’s a matter of
processing a disappointing result.
“The people have spoken,” Sures says. “The great
news is, the sun rose today, and the sun will set. Tomorrow, the sun will rise
again.”
===
Show
Starring Avenatti and Scaramucci Is Being Pitched to Television Executives
By Michael
S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, May 17, 2018, NY Times
A
television show featuring Michael Avenatti, the lawyer who is suing President
Trump on behalf of a pornographic film actress, and the former White House
communications director Anthony Scaramucci was pitched to two cable networks in
recent weeks, people briefed on the matter said on Thursday.
The
prominent television agent Jay Sures discussed with executives at CNN and MSNBC
the concept of a program where the two men would square off, according to three
people briefed on the issue. Both have become frequent cable network guests —
Mr. Avenatti as one of Mr. Trump’s greatest antagonists, and Mr. Scaramucci as
a loyalist to the president even after flaming out after less than two weeks at
the White House.
Representatives
for MSNBC and CNN declined to comment, as did Mr. Sures and Mr. Scaramucci.
“I have no
interest in television right now,” Mr. Avenatti said. “I enjoy my law practice
and look forward to prevailing on behalf of my client Stormy Daniels,” he
added, using the stage name of the actress, Stephanie Clifford. He did not
respond to a question about why Mr. Sures made such a pitch involving him...
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