The Lawsuits Thread

[Joni]

I really don't think Johnny needs any of us to tell him how to live his life or handle his business affairs. Personally I feel this part of his life is none of my business.

[gipsyblues]

Joni !
In good times and bad times !!! , Johnny !!!!!

[brunasouzota]

Soon all the journalism crazy and stop bad words and and they go far away of Johnny to others celebrities...

Johnny is a good person, he has Lily, Jack and Christie, he has the people that love and respect him, he has health , he has Alice, Hollywood Vampires, Harry Potter, Pirates, Invisible Man and others...I think Johnny is

I love you Johnny forever, rich or poor, this is no matter!!! If you tired of all one day and want stop movies and music, no matter I will continue love you forever!!!

[sleepy]

I really don't think Johnny needs any of us to tell him how to live his life or handle his business affairs. Personally I feel this part of his life is none of my business.

No, he doesn't need any of us to tell him how to live his life. But, he needs someone to help him. It's obvious the people around him have no influence in his decisions. You can put on blinders, if it makes you feel better, but when something this important makes headlines, it's hard to ignore. We aren't digging into his personal life...it's in headlines on practically every entertainment/trade sites on the internet. The way he has chosen to end his marriage and now, to expose his financial lawsuits, is anything but private. I'm commenting because what is going on, very publicly, worries the crap out of me. For various reasons.

[nebraska]

I think the whole Amber debacle has been an awakening for Johnny. I am not sure how much of this financial thing could have continued on until more and more damage was done if the divorce hadn't forced his legal team to make an accounting.

It has to be incredibly difficult to grow up poor and then have millions of dollars dumped in your lap -- POTC made him look like an overnight success -- and to know how to manage that kind of wealth or who to trust. I still can't believe the management company didn't insist on a written contract if they intended to act honorably and honestly.

Let's face it, Johnny is an easy mark for tabloids. He always has been, and she-who-should-not-be-named has painted a target on his back for new assaults for a long time to come. I am not sure anything he could say would make a difference to "Hollywood" or the public who loves to have someone to beat up. I think the Fantastic Beasts franchise is a go for him. J K Rowling has been enthusiastic with her praise for him. All he needs to do is show up for work and do a good job.

[fireflydances]

I really don't think Johnny needs any of us to tell him how to live his life or handle his business affairs. Personally I feel this part of his life is none of my business.

I couldn't agree more strongly. This is business stuff. These are two law firms who are going to go hammer and tongs against each other, and we have NO capacity to judge any part of it. We are his fans, period. We know nothing about what kind of business relationship he had with these people. We know nothing about his money sense or lack of sense.

If anything the opposition is climbing on back a story that circulated vis-a-vis Amber. And one most of us felt was a low blow.

I refuse to read these articles. There is more than enough nastiness being circulated on a vast number of other issues, and I don't need more. I like the guy because of how he treats me. I like his work, his music, what he reads and I wish he'd write more.

[Vanillababe]

What people are not talking about and should be is the "fraud" aspect of this case. Johnny is not suing this management team because he is spending his own money. This is a serious case of intentional mishandling and stealing his money by this management team. Johnny can spend his money as he sees fit. But when people are falsifying documentation and lying about his true assets, that is fraud. This has happened to so many celebrities from Elvis to Michael Jackson. You can not trust anyone, not even your family sometimes. Very sad but I think Johnny will be ok. He just needs to be more aware and use this as a wake up call.

[Chocolat]

In my opinion, I think because of the messy divorce, over time, Johnny came to realize how poorly his fiances were being managed. If we are to find any glimpse of positiveness out of the divorce, it was the ultimate AHA! discovery moment of when and where Heard slipped up and revealed the extent of trouble she had created with his money. My gut feeling, is that she had her hand in a portion the mismanagement, or carelessly added to it and is just as guilty as The Management Group. But that is just my opinion and it makes sense to me.

[brunasouzota]

In my opinion, I think because of the messy divorce, over time, Johnny came to realize how poorly his fiances were being managed. If we are to find any glimpse of positiveness out of the divorce, it was the ultimate AHA! discovery moment of when and where Heard slipped up and revealed the extent of trouble she had created with his money. My gut feeling, is that she had her hand in a portion the mismanagement, or carelessly added to it and is just as guilty as The Management Group. But that is just my opinion and it makes sense to me.

I do not understood about Christie. Someone can tell me about why the name her to be in document?

[SnoopyDances]

In my opinion, I think because of the messy divorce, over time, Johnny came to realize how poorly his fiances were being managed. If we are to find any glimpse of positiveness out of the divorce, it was the ultimate AHA! discovery moment of when and where Heard slipped up and revealed the extent of trouble she had created with his money. My gut feeling, is that she had her hand in a portion the mismanagement, or carelessly added to it and is just as guilty as The Management Group. But that is just my opinion and it makes sense to me.

I do not understood about Christie. Someone can tell me about why the name her to be in document?

Christie is Johnny's personal business manager and she is named as a witness and participant in allowing TMG to spend the money.
She isn't listed as a defendant in the countersuit, but as a person who okayed certain loans and spending by TMG. In Johnny's original suit, he claimed he wasn't aware of his financial situation and wasn't aware of TMG's spending habits. TMG countered that they repeatedly told Johnny and Christie and Johnny's lawyer what was happening.

[SnoopyDances]

Business management companies are quite common in Hollywood with actors, directors, producers, recording artists, etc. Athletes and other high-paid celebrities/officials hire them, too.

From Forbes, 2015:
The Increasing Demand For Personal Business Managers


I thought it would be fun and educational (and lighten up the thread a bit) to see what other celebrities demand from their managers and how the managers handle weird or extravagant demands. None of these links are related to Johnny's case or TMG. (Although I find it interesting that TMG isn't among the top 25.)

Every year, The Hollywood Reporter runs a list of the 25 Most Powerful Business Managers. The list mentions the group and some of the celebrities they represent, plus some of the requests/demands they receive and advice tips.

THR 2016:


THR 2015:


Variety 2014:


This THR article is from 2011: (for space, I'll put the full article in spoilers)

Naturally, business managers -- who are either on retainer, paid by commission or compensated with a flat fee -- aren't crazy about frivolous spending. Many are certified public accountants with a fiduciary responsibility to manage cash flow responsibly. Moreover, most top business managers know enough about the fickle ebbs and flows of show business to realize that just because a client is coming off a successful string of high-grossing pictures or hit TV shows, it doesn't mean long-term success is guaranteed.

"Creative people are going to come up with creative ways to spend money," says Alan Goldman, who manages a distinguished clientele at Los Angeles-based Goldman & Knell. "I can't tell them not to spend money, but I try to get them to understand that Hollywood careers don't last forever."

To that end, business managers have unique strategies for steering clients in the right direction. Most financial pros will send their clients all kinds of reports regularly, sometimes weekly. Goldman says he was able to show one actor with a ferocious appetite for shopping at Barneys his wayward habits by tallying $600,000 worth of clothing spending in a single year. But often, that's not enough.

Entertainers can be right-brained souls who are fabulously inventive but lack attentiveness to the kinds of details found on a P&L sheet. Some business managers must negotiate such handicaps by being a little creative in their own right.

► Show Spoiler

Hollywood’s Top Business Managers Tell All (Exclusive)
True stories – like the star who spent $600,000 at Barney’s in a year – and a list of the 25 savviest financial pros who rein them in.
Not long ago, a celebrity client of entertainment business manager Evan Bell came to him with news of a girlfriend in London. This wouldn't be terribly extraordinary except for the fact that the client already had a wife. Nevertheless, the celebrity wanted to know if it would be possible to set up separate bank accounts in Las Vegas and London so he could maintain two families. It was indeed possible, and Bell took care of the details.

"As far as I know, the two women still don't know about each other," says Bell, whose clientele includes top young stars like Amanda Seyfried and media types like Bill O'Reilly. "We don't manage morality. We manage finances."

It's the job of Bell and other business managers in the entertainment community to make sure well-heeled stars are set up for life. This means working with others in an entertainer's entourage of representatives, including agents and lawyers, to determine the star's earnings projections. From there, business managers play point on a team of advisers and financial consultants who shelter millions of dollars in investments such as bonds, stocks and real estate. According to experts in the field, that accounts for about 80 percent of a client's assets. The rest is more liquid, put in a bank account that often goes to support an entertainer's lavish lifestyle.

"If you look at all the people who surround talent, most are focused on increasing revenue," says Paul Feinstein, a financial adviser at UBS who, with partner Justin Demko, works with many business managers. "A business manager looks at that end, too, but is also focused on the risks a client is taking -- what goes on with the budget. That role is critical in an entertainer's life."

Naturally, business managers -- who are either on retainer, paid by commission or compensated with a flat fee -- aren't crazy about frivolous spending. Many are certified public accountants with a fiduciary responsibility to manage cash flow responsibly. Moreover, most top business managers know enough about the fickle ebbs and flows of show business to realize that just because a client is coming off a successful string of high-grossing pictures or hit TV shows, it doesn't mean long-term success is guaranteed.

"Creative people are going to come up with creative ways to spend money," says Alan Goldman, who manages a distinguished clientele at Los Angeles-based Goldman & Knell. "I can't tell them not to spend money, but I try to get them to understand that Hollywood careers don't last forever."

To that end, business managers have unique strategies for steering clients in the right direction. Most financial pros will send their clients all kinds of reports regularly, sometimes weekly. Goldman says he was able to show one actor with a ferocious appetite for shopping at Barneys his wayward habits by tallying $600,000 worth of clothing spending in a single year. But often, that's not enough.

Entertainers can be right-brained souls who are fabulously inventive but lack attentiveness to the kinds of details found on a P&L sheet. Some business managers must negotiate such handicaps by being a little creative in their own right.

Lester Knispel, a business manager who has handled money for such notorious spenders as Kim Kardashian, Courtney Love and Shaquille O'Neal, says that when money comes in, the first thing he does is set aside a good portion into a "tax account" so his clients don't get the wrong idea about what they've got in the spending war chest. And Knispel loves life insurance. He pitches it to clients as the way to ensure their family's well-being. But he also knows that making a client pay a heavy dose of insurance premiums is a good way to essentially trick them into socking away cash reserves because many policies allow holders to draw from them later in life.

Still, such strategies only go so far to rein in dollar drainage.

O'Neal is a world-class auto collector with dozens of cars. Now that he's nearing the end of a Hall of Fame-caliber basketball career, Knispel says he is gearing up to have a conversation with the former Laker about gently applying the brakes to the fast life. "Let's wind down that monthly nut," he says, referring to Shaq's expense ledger.

Such tough talk isn't unusual for a business manager. All of them understand that some entertainers, besides having what pop psychologists might term an urge to splurge, are under intense social pressure. In an industry where image is everything and rich entertainers get hit upon to provide financial support for others, material pleasures and good-will spending can arguably be classified as status investments -- much as business managers are loath to admit it.

On the other hand, it's the job of the business manager to be the front guard against financial ruin, mitigating the risk of too much exposure to frivolous expenditures. Doing so takes real skill and a healthy knowledge of a client's makeup.

Sometimes, business managers know more about what's going on with the money than spouses do.

Business manager Martin Fox recalls a last-second call he got from one of his clients, who demanded that a particular car be bought and delivered with a big ribbon around it within a couple of hours to a restaurant. This entertainer had forgotten his wedding anniversary. Fox got the car delivered before dessert came.

"The next day, the wife comes to the office and says, 'You have no idea what a wonderful husband I have,' " Fox says. "I'm thinking, 'If you only knew.' "


Grant Tani Barash & Altman
Howard Altman

When Altman's name shows up on the deed of a high-priced property on the market in Los Angeles, and he is representing the buyer, local bloggers start speculating which big celebrity might be moving into the neighborhood. Since launching his firm in 1989, the name of the intensely private and selective business manager has shown up on the deeds of many A-listers including Naomi Watts, Jennifer Garner, Ethan Hawke and Cher.
Bell & Co.
Evan Bell
Many of Bell's Hollywood clients are twentysomethings who star in hot TV shows and buzzworthy films. As a result, Bell, who started his New York firm in 1985, sees himself as a business manager-cum-father figure, coaching responsibility and negotiating sometimes-frivolous requests, knowing a client's career can easily turn cold. ("Generally, if I said no to every request, I'd be right 95 percent of the time," he says.) At the same time, he's careful, knowing that any refusal could make a client even more determined to get what he or she desires.
Chapman Bird Grey & Tessler
Terry Bird
Since splitting from Breslauer Jacobson Rutman & Chapman in the mid-'90s -- a firm that merged a few times until it became a subset of American Express -- Bird and fellow partners Nancy Chapman and Bonnie Grey have developed the biggest female-led business-management firm in Los Angeles. Bird declined to discuss her work, but her company has been connected with big-money transactions for such top stars as Tom Cruise and Angelina Jolie.
Summit Business Management
Scott Feinstein
"Entertainers can't have a risky portfolio when they work in the riskiest profession," says the Encino-based Feinstein, who counts Mila Kunis, Vanessa Hudgens and Leighton Meester among his clients. He has gotten many of his customers to back off lavish spending and focus on retirement funds instead. But as is the case with most business managers, trying to dissuade someone from extravagance doesn't always work. "I had a client who wanted to buy land in Hawaii," Feinstein says. "I thought he was nuts. He bought it anyway."
Brentwood Management
Matthew Fishburn
For 30 years, Fishburn has resisted offers to merge Brentwood Management with larger firms. Staying small and independent has given him the ability to take hands-on supervision of his company's 25 employees and give clients personal attention. Fishburn and his business partner, Michael Gordon, are also well known for founding the trendy L.A. restaurant Toscana, which got off the ground with client participation in 1989. It's a popular meeting place for Fishburn and many of his music-industry clients. "Everyone in entertainment has been to Toscana," he says proudly. "Clients have gotten a kick out of being part of it."
Macias Gini & O'Connell
Martin Fox
When Fox started out in business management in the 1970s, his shoulder-length hair made him look a bit like a counterculture rebel. After he sought restitution on behalf of several entertainers who had been cheated by another manager -- whom Fox caught in the act -- that impression was solidified. His honesty led to a quickly growing practice in Los Angeles. These days, the long hair is gone, but Fox continues to take the client's side whenever he needs to go toe-to-toe with a production company during a profit-participation audit. "Good managers are the ones giving clients security that someone is watching their backs," he says.
Gelfand Rennert & Feldman
Todd Gelfand
A former musician, Gelfand decided early in his career that if he couldn't be a rock star, he at least wanted to be around them. Today, from the Los Angeles management firm he co-founded in 1976 -- one of the biggest celebrity management companies in the U.S. -- he's the financial quarterback for many touring musicians, not only handling their day-to-day bookkeeping but also administering the financial groundwork that lets performers collect revenue on a regular basis. "A good manager is a foot deep and 10 miles away in terms of knowledge about buying planes, paying taxes and hiring gardeners," he says.
Goldman & Knell
Alan Goldman
"Having a big Rolodex is important for what I do," Goldman says. It was no doubt beneficial last year when he helped put together the deal that landed his client Piers Morgan on CNN as Larry King's replacement. Agents and attorneys often put such contracts together, but in this case, the lawyer checked out of the process 36 hours before it closed, leaving Goldman to negotiate final details. Thanks in part to Morgan, Goldman has recently bolstered his client base to include established European celebrities. He also has a growing licensing practice, representing the estates of Kurt Cobain and the Doors.
Altman Greenfield & Selvaggi
Barry Greenfield
After his parents bought him a single share of Disney stock when he was a kid, Greenfield remembers walking through Disneyland and contemplating the meaning of being part owner of the enterprise. These days, Greenfield is just as enthusiastic about doing due diligence on a wide range of client investments, from mansions to rare automobiles. Most of the time, clients let him find the best deal. But the L.A.-based Greenfield recalls one actor who wanted to propose to his girlfriend and insisted on a diamond ring from Tiffany. Greenfield warned him about the price markup, but the client didn't care. "He said, 'But it wouldn't come in a blue box,' " Greenfield laughs.
Citrin Cooperman
Arnold Herrmann
For 20 years, Herrmann worked at the firm of Ken Starr, who was sentenced in March to 7½ years in prison for running a Ponzi scheme on celebrity clients. Herrmann emerged from the debacle in reasonably good shape, bringing all of his clients -- including Martin Scorsese, Gus Van Sant and Liam Neeson -- to his new Manhattan firm. One client wanted assurance that his money hadn't been touched by Starr, so Herrmann agreed to an audit. The resulting clean bill of health "probably went a long way" toward resolidifying trust, he says.
Miller Kaplan Arase & Co.
Michael Kaplan
Business managers walk a tightrope when saying no to a client, says Kaplan, whose firm manages about 6,000 of them from offices in Las Vegas, Seattle and Los Angeles. Although Kaplan believes in being forthright with clients about their spending habits, he says there are some who can't stop spending -- and can't handle the truth. "We always tell those who come in the door if they can't hear 'No,' don't hire us," he says.
Nigro Karlin Segal & Feldstein
Michael Karlin
Karlin, founder of one of Hollywood's largest business management firms, continues to usher new clients into his 30-year-old company, which boasts a staff of more than 200 in Los Angeles and New York. According to Karlin, a business manager does his or her job best when he stays on top of their clients' lives. "The last thing a business manager wants to hear [from a client] on a Monday is, 'I've bought this car over the weekend,' " he says. "If you've done your job, they'll call you in advance."
Boulevard Management
Lester Knispel
Knispel has come a long way since his early days at a general accounting practice, where he made sure mortuaries had the proper number of caskets and amount of embalming fluid. By the 1970s, he had become the go-to accountant for L.A.-based doctors, but when Roy Orbison came looking for a business manager, his job description changed again. Over time, Knispel added TV, film and sports superstars to his roster. "I've been doing this so long, my clients don't even try to B.S. me when they want something," he says.
Murphy & Kress
Gary Kress
Having access to celebrities can be rewarding. In the aftermath of last year's earthquake in Haiti, Kress and a Santa Monica surgeon discussed ways by which they could provide assistance to Haitians ravaged by the disaster. As the surgeon, Ramin Modabber, later described on a personal blog, Kress proposed that Partners in Health -- a nonprofit that has garnered the support of Kress' client Matt Damon -- could help out. Kress then called Mel Gibson, who offered his own plane, and a 13-member medical team was soon transported to Haiti via a luxurious private aircraft.
Sobul Primes & Schenkel
Steve Levitt
Levitt has established a lucrative niche in Hollywood by focusing his services on those in the industry who aren't performers -- everyone from agents to composers to writers. Levitt, who worked for 12 years at PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining his current firm in the mid-'90s, says the financial profiles of these clients differ from those of actors: Because their careers tend to be more stable, investments are geared more toward higher-growth assets. Plus, Levitt hardly has to hold their hands when it comes to spending. "Many of these agents and lawyers are business-savvy, and they get a lot of the things I throw at them," he says.
Laura Lizer & Associates
Laura Lizer
Clients choose their money managers based on comfort level, and the L.A.-based Lizer, who represents such old-time Hollywood stars as Sidney Poitier and Jackie Collins, respects a client's ideas about where they want to put their money. Can business managers be as creative as their clients? "Creativity doesn't just mean painting," says Lizer, who also works with Caroline Kennedy to raise capital for youth-based charities. "There's always times when you're doing financial planning where a curveball comes your way, and you have to figure out how to make adjustments."
Freemark Financial
Andrew Meyer
Working with as many young celebrities as Meyer does (he counts cast members of Twilight among them) means he must regularly investigate business opportunities brought to his clients' attention. (Restaurants and branded clothing lines top the list.) But only about 5 percent turn out to be worthy, according to Meyer. "Our responsibility is to vet the numbers," he says. "We tend to be more pessimistic than people who aren't CPAs."
Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt
Julie Miller
Miller once represented an aging TV star who was set to marry a younger woman. A background check by Miller revealed that the fiancee was a porn star. Still, the client refused to back off his marriage plans, so Miller made protection a priority. The marriage didn't last, and the actor died, leaving the presumption by his family that his money had been lost. Miller, who got into the business in the late 1970s and joined Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt five years ago, is proud of what happened next. "I was able to sit down with the man's son and tell him that he had inherited more money than he ever imagined," she says.
Francis, Sadikoff & Nachshon
Shira Nachshon
Nachshon has a taste for putting a large share of client money into real estate investments. In the past decade since joining with L.A. business-management pioneer Bernie Francis, she has given actors, writers and directors part ownership in homes, shopping centers and mobile-home parks. Her firm dodged the subprime and foreclosure troubles, mostly with good bets like investments in booming towns in Texas. "I try to explain as much as I can to clients that when they see a multimillion-dollar paycheck, after commissions and taxes, they'll only be keeping 33 percent of it," she says. "Investment becomes necessary."
Nigro Karlin Segal & Feldstein
Fred Nigro
Nigro takes pride in some of the larger work he does for clients, which includes setting up production companies and purchasing big homes. But, like many business managers, the L.A.-based Nigro steers clients away from investing in restaurants. Even so, he sheepishly admits to investing his own money in one. "Restaurants are the worst place to put money when you're looking for a return but the best place to put money if you want to find a job for your wife and daughter," he says.
Philpott Bills Stoll & Meeks
Robert Philpott
After Philpott came back from a tour of service with the Marines in the 1970s, he got an accounting degree at Cal Poly Pomona and a job in the audit division at PricewaterhouseCoopers. He later hooked up with Gary Kress and Brian Murphy, who tutored him on the art of servicing celebrities such as Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn. During the mid-'80s, Philpott founded his own firm, which now has more than 50 employees and 150 clients. "I'm always kept on my toes," he says. "Working with interesting personalities never gets boring, from prenups to philanthropy."
Level Four Business Management
John Rigney
Rigney has discovered that setting up a charitable foundation takes a lot of hands-on work. The business management veteran, representing an actor who is devoted to a rice-intensification project, has, for the past year, negotiated tax ramifications, ensured that money is well spent and traveled the world on behalf of his client. In March, Rigney was in Haiti, shepherding his client from one meeting to the next. "I feel like I'm the referee," he says. "My job is to make sure he doesn't overpromise or get too revved up."
Bemel, Ross & Klein
Brad Ross
After a short stint as a real estate agent, Ross became an entertainment accountant in the mid-'80s. He and business partner Rodger Bemel took on clients no other firm would touch. Twenty-five years later, many of those clients, including Dean Devlin, Roland Emmerich and Matt LeBlanc, have enjoyed great career success, and Ross consequently has shepherded a growing practice. And though he has been throughout Europe, Thailand and Mexico representing clients in purchases of jets, jewelry and rare musical instruments, he says his current role is to be a grounding influence. "My first wife wasn't so happy I was on the phone so much," he says.
Savitsky Satin & Bacon
Steve Savitsky
In the mid-1990s, Savitsky followed his father into business management -- and he has been running a very careful shop with a steadily growing client list ever since. Small measures such as buying disability or fire insurance have paid off and earned client gratitude. Not that Savitsky is looking for it. "My whole approach is under the radar," he says. "I'm not looking for kudos." In his spare time, Savitsky raises money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.
Nigro Karlin Segal & Feldstein
Mickey Segal
It's somewhat amazing that Segal, managing partner at one of Hollywood's biggest business management firms, finds time to have one of the most active lives away from the office. In the past decade, he has twice served as mayor of Arcadia, Calif., and also raised $60 million for charity. Last year, he took a cruise that traveled 5,000 miles, including through the Ganges River. But no matter how far Segal goes, his clients are close in mind. When entertainers come to him with ideas about investing in friends' projects, he tells them that's fine -- but not to allocate more than 10 percent of their funds there. Diversity in asset allocation is crucial, he says.

From the NY Times, 2004

Making Sure Hollywood's Nouveau Riche Stay Riche

TO the average viewer of HBO's ''Entourage,'' the profligate spending of the suddenly rich young movie star protagonist and his pot-smoking hanger-on pals -- $1,500 cellphone bills, $2,500 monthly for vitamin supplements, the spontaneous leasing of a $300,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom -- probably seems like so many familiar real-life examples of celebrity excess, which as often as not lead to pathetic, real-life tales of financial ruin, amusing for their inevitability.

But there is one group of viewers incapable of finding humor in the self-induced financial wreckage of free-spending stars. No matter how absurd, they view such tales with grim disapproval. They are the men and women with the thankless task of keeping stars from spending themselves blind -- celebrity business managers.

► Show Spoiler

Making Sure Hollywood's Nouveau Riche Stay Riche
TO the average viewer of HBO's ''Entourage,'' the profligate spending of the suddenly rich young movie star protagonist and his pot-smoking hanger-on pals -- $1,500 cellphone bills, $2,500 monthly for vitamin supplements, the spontaneous leasing of a $300,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom -- probably seems like so many familiar real-life examples of celebrity excess, which as often as not lead to pathetic, real-life tales of financial ruin, amusing for their inevitability.

But there is one group of viewers incapable of finding humor in the self-induced financial wreckage of free-spending stars. No matter how absurd, they view such tales with grim disapproval. They are the men and women with the thankless task of keeping stars from spending themselves blind -- celebrity business managers.

''I would say 'The Entourage' for me is a frustrating watch,'' Evan Bell, a business manager with young clients including Melissa Joan Hart and Piper Perabo, said in the somber tones common to his profession. ''Simply because their lifestyle is inappropriate, bordering on dangerous.''

In a culture of constant affirmation -- from friends, fans and of course talent agents -- business managers stand out as Hollywood's doomsayers. For them, a rainy day is always just around the corner and every role is as likely as not an actor's last. While freshly minted stars may see an entourage of family and friends as a barrier against the intimidating maw of the entertainment industry, the business manager is likely to view them as income-sucking mooches.

Continue reading the main story
''When the agent says, 'No one read that bad review' and that 'it doesn't matter,' '' Mr. Bell said, summing up his role, ''I say, 'You got a bad review -- don't buy that new car.' ''

Holding celebrities to their budgets -- never easy -- has gotten tougher recently for business managers like Mr. Bell because of a glut in the number of stars who have attained wealth quite young, including many whose financial training was limited to sliding the occasional coin into a piggy bank. While young stars have always been scattered among the casts of film and television series, today whole networks targeted at teenagers and tweens -- like the WB and Fox -- employ almost exclusively young actors, a number of whom have found themselves suddenly wealthy.

''These kids are making serious money,'' said Scott Feinstein, a Los Angeles business manager who specializes in young clients, including Hilary Duff. ''They don't realize the pressure that friends and family will put on them. They don't have the maturity to say no.''

The problem of saying no is a recurring theme in ''Entourage,'' HBO's latest hit series, which began July 18 and concerns the life in Los Angeles of an up-and-coming actor named Vince Chase and his childhood pals from Queens. The series was produced by the former rapper turned actor Mark Wahlberg and a Long Island native, Doug Ellin, whose father, Marvin Ellin, is an accountant in Manhattan. On the show, when the celebrity protagonist is spurred on by friends to impulsively lease that $300,000 Rolls-Royce, the fussbudget business manager -- named, not so coincidentally, Marvin -- goes ballistic, urging his client to get a Prius instead, and using the discussion to kvetch about the $1,500 phone bill as well.

''You can get an unlimited plan for $200 a month,'' he screams. ''Switch 'em to an unlimited plan!''

''He's 100 percent my father,'' Mr. Ellin said last week. ''He was always saying, 'Save, save, save.' ''

Mr. Ellin and business managers who watch his show said its central tension derives from a dilemma faced by many young stars who go from average backgrounds to sudden riches in Hollywood: squaring one's new lifestyle with one's old friends.

''When you want to fly off to Paris for the weekend and your friend can't afford it, you either say, 'I'm going to pay for you,' or 'I'm going to go without you,' '' Mr. Ellin said. ''Usually you come to the conclusion you'd rather pay for your friend.''

For a typical fee of 5 percent of an actor's annual income, business managers offer to solve that dilemma by holding and managing a star's money -- handling everything from electric bills to complex tax shelters -- and doling out allowances carefully budgeted to keep the stars from going broke. ''We become your financial parents,'' Mr. Bell said. ''We tell them, 'Your parents knew what they were doing.' ''

Ms. Hart, the actress who played Sabrina the Teenage Witch, said that actually handing over her assets was a struggle, but that she was motivated to do so by various tales of financially devastated celebrities.

''When I got 'Sabrina' I was making more money in a season than 99 percent of the people make in a one year,'' she said. ''I heard those horror stories -- M.C. Hammer and the 'Diff'rent Strokes' girl. They had all that money, and they lost it. I had come from a place where I didn't have anything, and I didn't want to go back.''

Ms. Hart said her main extravagances are travel and her art collection, which includes works by Renoir and Picasso.

''When I get a little crazy, he lets me know,'' she said of Mr. Bell.

For business managers with young clients, those parental duties often entail what might be called entourage-busting. When Ms. Hart told Mr. Bell that her sister and brother-in-law were going to move in for a while, he insisted that she charge rent. ''So they didn't stay forever,'' she recalled.

Mr. Bell said he recently had a 21-year-old client with 14 people living in her house. When she walked into her kitchen one morning and found strangers having breakfast there, she called him in a panic. His advice: kick everyone out.

''They feel very guilty about what they have, and they want to give it away,'' Mr. Bell said of some of his younger clients. ''We tell them it's not their responsibility to take care of other people. They like to hear it because no one ever tells them that.''

As often as not, business managers are saving clients not just from moochers, but from themselves. Many young stars, they say, feel pressure to keep up with the spending habits of more established celebrities. The rhythms of the profession, too, create ample opportunities for indulgence. ''They have three, four, five months of the year off,'' Mr. Feinstein said. ''What do they do? They're bored; they spend money.''

Last week Mr. Feinstein received a call from a client in his mid-20's who wanted to buy a $35,000 watch.

''I said 'What time does it say?' and he said, 'Ten minutes after 3,' '' Mr. Feinstein recalled. ''I told him, 'Mine says 10 after 3 too, and it cost me 60 bucks. Put the watch down.' ''

''He told me I really know how to ruin a good time,'' Mr. Feinstein added.

As many young stars learn the hard way, Hollywood money isn't always as big as it seems. Agents, publicists, lawyers and entertainment and business managers combine to take as much as 30 percent off the top of any earnings. The Internal Revenue Service takes another chunk. And of course the work is erratic, and the money geyser can stop as quickly as it began, especially for young actors who fail the transition from teenage to adult stars.

''When you make money in this town it's very fast, and it feels like it's never going to end,'' said Mr. Ellin, a former comedian who directed the film ''Phat Beach.'' ''I've done it myself. I've been the idiot who was spending money and then thought, 'Wow, I haven't had a job in two years.' ''

Mr. Feinstein said that often, the most difficult issue for young stars is protecting their assets from their parents and family members, who have no legal right to the money, but who may feel entitled to a share because of sacrifices they have made in the name of the young star's career. His usual advice is to form a corporation and to pay the parents a salary determined by the child, usually a few thousand dollars a month. When the parents want more, he said, ''I say put them through to me.''

Mr. Feinstein said he was recently approached by the parents of a young star hoping to convince their child to put up a $150,000 down payment for a family house.

''I said, 'I'll be candid with you,' '' Mr. Feinstein recalled. '' 'I'm going to try to convince him not to.' ''

Some young stars manage to strike a balance between Hollywood extravagance and financial well-being by instituting strict spending rules.

Elena Casey, the mother of David Gallagher, a 19-year-old actor who plays Simon on the WB's successful show ''7th Heaven,'' said her son has nine cars, among them a Dodge Viper, a Cadillac Escalade and a 2003 Hummer equipped with a Sony PlayStation, but they are all paid off.

''I tell him, if he can't afford to buy it outright, he can't get it,'' she said.

For business managers, the nightmare client is one who refuses to adhere to a budget. Managers cannot prevent clients from opening credit card accounts, and often they learn of spending sprees after the fact. In cases where a client routinely flouts budgets, business managers are forced to go on the record with their objections to avoid liability.

''You can't make them do anything they don't want to do,'' said Andrew Blackmun, a business manager in Manhattan with several actors as clients. ''They say, 'I went into this field in order to make money and spend frivolously!' and you say it over and over again: if you didn't want this advice, why did you hire me?''

''If you think they're making a bad decision, you have to put your reasoning in writing,'' he said, ''When they're down and out, some lawyer's going to come knocking at your door to try to recoup their lost fortune.''

Marvin Ellin, the conservative accountant who inspired the portrayal of a tightfisted business manager on ''Entourage,'' said that for all his worrying not all of his free-spending clients went broke. Some, he said, simply made enough money to keep spending. Even so, he said, he's not changing his outlook.

''I don't call it pessimism -- I call it realism,'' he said. ''That's our training: to look at the downside.''

And from Jan. 18:
Business manager for Alanis Morissette, other celebrities admits to stealing more than $6.5M from his clients



CNN, 2009
Nicolas Cage caused his own financial ills, ex-business manager says

[Sweeney Todd]

I think it's disgusting how they diverted attention from their actions to what he's spent his money on over the years. They knew exactly what they were doing with that, and it really shows their true colors.

Let's just hope he wins the case.

[fireflydances]

Interesting article today from the New York Times on the laws surrounding financial advisers entitled "The Depp Conundrum."

[rinda]

I agree, the main issue here is Fraud, not how Johnny wants to spend the money that he, and he alone, earned.

The Depp Conundrum argues that people should be more aware of what happens with their money, rather than just believing what their financial advisors/business managers tell them. So, even though he paid them $28 million to do their job, and they didn't, but he didn't realize it, the conundrum is that it still could be his fault and not theirs? Oh please, give me a break!

[brunasouzota]

In my opinion, I think because of the messy divorce, over time, Johnny came to realize how poorly his fiances were being managed. If we are to find any glimpse of positiveness out of the divorce, it was the ultimate AHA! discovery moment of when and where Heard slipped up and revealed the extent of trouble she had created with his money. My gut feeling, is that she had her hand in a portion the mismanagement, or carelessly added to it and is just as guilty as The Management Group. But that is just my opinion and it makes sense to me.

I do not understood about Christie. Someone can tell me about why the name her to be in document?

Christie is Johnny's personal business manager and she is named as a witness and participant in allowing TMG to spend the money.
She isn't listed as a defendant in the countersuit, but as a person who okayed certain loans and spending by TMG. In Johnny's original suit, he claimed he wasn't aware of his financial situation and wasn't aware of TMG's spending habits. TMG countered that they repeatedly told Johnny and Christie and Johnny's lawyer what was happening.

Chocolat.

So strange the fact that the TMG seems confirm about Christie authorizing the use of money
and Johnny said that he not authorizing. Someone know if she and Vanessa was friends? I remember a pic of Christie using a dress of Vanessa. Johnny was pure near a girl ambitious like Amber... but the truth of logic and of mathematics show Vanessa much more ambitious that AH, Vanessa wanted and she got 3 very successful professions above Amber. She is the Muse of Ch, singer and actress. Johnny trusted Amber and told us good things about her and we believed it easy. The problem here is that now the dirt has surfaced and someone in the family seems to have stolen a lot of money from Johnny and he before praised Vanessa a lot. Honestly Vanessa scares me more than Amber. Vanessa got much more attention, pics in red carpets and photoshoots and covers of magazine than Amber. I hate thinking that people can thinking that Christie was not honest. I prefer to continue to believe in Christie's serenity and modesty than to believe in Vanessa and her extraordinary and ambitious life of glamour of many years. It not surprise me if V also was a mess to Johnny and he made not know it or do not tell it because of his kids.