[One result of that shuffling was the ill-fated addition of talent agent Michael Ovitz to the Disney team.] He did a short 14-month stint at Disney. ... It was a very bad episode for Eisner when he fired him and the money he paid him to go away became public. |
Eisner is not about loyalty. His relationships almost invariably seem to end up in some kind of blowup. |
Every time you turn around, Disney is in your life, and the guy who is behind all that, I think, is somebody who should be looked at. |
I think there's a lot of anxiety on the part of the academy. They fear that these movies are small, and people won't care. |
One of the reasons I wrote this book, ... was to illustrate the impact that the death of this one guy had in the community. When Wells died, it set off a spiral of ambition. It ultimately lead to Katzenberg being let go as head of the studio after a 10-year run -- he was pushing for Wells' job. |
The Keys To The Kingdom |
To get ahead in the rat race you have to be very tough, ... but whether you have to be mean and disrespectful to people, as well as being tough, is a valid question. |
When Spielberg later watched Cruise's manic declaration of love, Levy says, he sensed that the film's carefully orchestrated media plan might be slipping off the rails. |