Rise of the uber-agent for a new generation
LISA Wilkinson had a champion at her door, a guardian looking out for her best interests, although until last week you might have underestimated the watchful hound dog and sidled up to give him a pat.
Confidential
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BROADCASTER Alan Jones once said there was only one Alsatian he needed stationed at his door: The celebrity agent Harry M Miller.
Last Monday Lisa Wilkinson, who rudely finished up at Channel 9’s Today show after 10 years, would have understood precisely what Jones meant by that comment made some 30 years ago.
Luckily for her, she too had a champion at her door, a guardian looking out for her best interests, although until last week you might have underestimated the watchful hound dog and sidled up to give him a pat.
Nine might have fared better if it had.
From a distance Nick Fordham looks to be less your protective Alsatian, more your amiable beagle but appearances can be misleading as Nine CEO Hugh Marks found when he struck Wilkinson from Nine’s payroll only to find her beagle had turned bloodhound and scented a new paddock full of game.
Fordham’s name is well known to veteran media players in this town. He is the son of the man who could successfully outmanoeuvre Harry M Miller in the men’s heyday, the 1980s, a day that proved long and lucrative for John Fordham and Miller.
For decades the pair dominated Sydney celebrity management, each growing rich on their 25 per cent cut of any representative business going.
While Miller had Jones, Graham Kennedy, Maggie Tabberer, Ita Buttrose and Lindy Chamberlain on his books, Fordham had John Laws, Ian Chappell, Mark Taylor, Mike Gibson, Ricky Stuart, Wally Lewis and a host of the nation’s leading sports stars.
Upon his semi-retirement Fordham passed the reins of the family-owned business The Fordham Company to his son Nick. But until last week the younger Fordham hadn’t been blooded.
Now, after secretly negotiating Wilkinson’s new $2 million Ten deal in the weeks before Nine terminated her, he has, justifying his large cut of her future pay packet in the process.
Unlike Miller and a number of agents who came after, including the fast-talking spotlight-loving Max Markson, today’s talent agents prefer the shadows.
That isn’t to say business isn’t booming for those who know how to cut a deal.
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But these days talent agencies look more like a mixed business than they once did.
In Fordham’s case while part of his business is devoted to playing Jerry Maguire to clients including Wilkinson, her husband Peter FitzSimons, Mark Bouris, Sylvia Jeffreys, Craig Bellamy, Jelena Dokic, his own broadcast star brother Ben Fordham and Paul Roos, another section of the business is dedicated to creating multimedia opportunities for those clients, as well as investment.
Bouris has his The Mark Bouris Show Podcast and if you want to speak to him chances are you will be asked to plug the podcast. Adam McDougall, the former Newcastle Knights star, has a health food business, Cranky Health, in which Fordham is an investor. Matt Wright has his TV show Outback Wrangler which airs on National Geographic, for which Fordham has a production credit as executive producer. Fordham also cannily bought TV rights to rugby union’s Shute Shield, which has turned out to be a savvy buy.
Across town one of Fordham’s main rivals is Titus Day of 6 Degrees Management.
Day manages the careers of Sophie Monk, Guy Sebastian, Grant Denyer and more than a dozen others but like Fordham also has diversified into big picture investment and entertainment production.
It was Day who approached Ten with the idea of casting his client Monk as The Bachelorette, a decision that has paid huge dividends for both parties.
He also runs a speakers’ bureau, has a record label for new and emerging artists called Trigger Records and has developed and marketed a new sunscreen, Solar D.
Others such as Mark Morrissey (Hemsworth brothers), Kevin Whyte (Dave Hughes), Lauren Miller Cilento (daughter of Harry M who represents Osher Gunsberg), Sharon Finnigan (Karl Stefanovic), Sean Anderson (Jodi Anasta) and Mark Klemens (Hamish and Andy) remain focused on their core business. With the expansion of media on multiple platforms, there is plenty of business to be had. As Fordham demonstrated last week, the star agent is far from dead.
He may even be back with a vengeance. That spells great entertainment for us all.