Ari vs. Bibi: My View from the WME Table
Boos, walkouts and pride at the Simon Wiesenthal National Tribute Dinner. Plus: Ron Howard talks to me about Roger Corman
Welcome to the Jamboree, my weekly series of quick(ish) takes on the industry’s passing parade.
The Courage to Be Unpopular
Hearing the honoree at a L.A. charity banquet booed is such a unique spectacle that one’s brain can hardly process what is happening. The Hollywood banquet circuit is for overcooked chicken drenched in sauces, hours of self-congratulatory speeches and mile-long post-game lines at the hotel valet. To say I’ve never heard an honoree at one of these functions booed is like saying I’ve never seen the Dodgers score five touchdowns. It’s not what a Dodger game is there for . . .
Unless, of course, the honoree is Ari Emanuel, in which case all bets are off.
That was the case last night when the Simon Wiesenthal Center gathered to honor the Endeavor founder at its annual dinner at the Beverly Wilshire Ballroom, which found the venerable affair suddenly and roughly thrust into the most charged issues of the moment.
Before Ari started, I joked with one of the WME employees at my table that I’d be happy to counsel Ari, if he was having pre-speech jitters. “I’d tell him not to compare himself to anyone else. Just be the best Ari he can be.”
Little did I suspect!
His tribute started out routinely enough. During a very funny introduction, Tyler Perry told the story of coming aboard WME after he was absorbed from William Morris. He met with Ari, who painstakingly sat and just listened to all his problems and concerns. “And I never saw that man again,” he recalled.
A tribute film put together by WME featured testimonials by Larry David, Dwayne Johnson, Mark Wahlberg, his wife, kids, renowned brothers and mother and ended with a testimonial from WME co-chairman Christian Muirhead who related, “And I can hear you saying, ‘Shut the fuck up,’ so I will.”
Then the honoree took the podium.
