Employment of Unlicensed Talent Agents

"In Hollywood, talent — the actors, directors, and writers, the Jimmy Stewarts, Frank Capras, and Billy Wilders who enrich our daily cultural lives — is represented by two groups of people:  agents and managers.  Agents procure roles; they put artists on the screen, on the stage, behind the camera; indeed, by law, only they may do so.  Managers coordinate everything else; they counsel and advise, take care of business arrangements, and chart the course of an artist’s career. This division largely exists only in theory. The reality is not nearly so neat. The line dividing the functions of agents, who must be licensed, and of managers, who need not be, is often blurred and sometimes crossed.  Agents sometimes counsel and advise; managers sometimes procure work.  Indeed, the occasional procurement of employment opportunities may be standard operating procedure for many managers and an understood goal when not-yet-established talents, lacking access to the few licensed agents in Hollywood, hire managers to promote their careers." In Marathon v. Blasi (2008) __ Cal.4th __, the Supreme Court considered whether certain licensing requirements of the Talent Agencies Act (Labor Code §§ 1700 et seq.) are applicable to personal business managers as well as talent agents, and whether the doctrine of severability of contracts applicable to violations of the Act.

In upholding the lower court's decision, the Supreme Court held that:

• (i) the strictures of the Talent Agencies Act do apply to managers as well as agents;
• (ii) the Labor Commissioner has the authority to void manager-talent contracts ab initio for unlawful procurement, but also has discretion to apply the doctrine of severability to partially enforce such contracts; and
• (iii) a genuine dispute of material fact exists over whether severability might apply to allow partial enforcement of the parties’ contract.

You can download Marathon v. Blasi here in pdf or word format. The talent, in this case, was actress Rosa Blasi. A petition for rehearing is pending, and there may be some interesting wrinkles before this case is over.