REcent allegations about Britney Spear’s manager (alleged to be feeding her drugs) made me curious: do these managers manipulate the people they work for? For example: Elvis Presley’s manager (“Colonel” Tom Parker) was alleged to have stolen tons of money from Elvis, and roped him into deals that were vERY unfavorable for Elvis (and lucrative for Parker). Are celebrity managers Svengali-like characters who actually harm their charges? How about the late Heath Ledger-what was his manager up to (while Heath was soaking his brain in drugs)?
The examples you give are of musicians, not actors (I’m ignoring Heath since it’s purely groundless speculation).
Musicians are more likely to be hermetically sealed–holed up writing music, locked away in studio sessions for months at a time, touring on buses with the same small group of people. They’re less likely to have much contact with the outside world unless they initiate that contact themselves, which makes them more susceptible to “handlers” who, in handling all the operational minutae of their business, can feel free to take advantage of their client in the bargain.
Actors are constantly collaborating with a wide varity of artists–fellow actors, directors, technicians and craftsmen. Even on a close-knit TV ensemble, they’re not going to be as out-of-touch with aspects of the business and are more likely to have more say in the trajectories of their careers and other larger business decisions. This isn’t to say that actors haven’t been bilked by managers or agents (or parents) in the past. But actors are more likely to be interfacing directly on a day-to-day basis with their peers, so they’ll have more of a frame of reference of what’s normal and what’s exploitative.
Actors are more likely to be fed drugs by their stylists and, well, the guy they keep around to get them drugs. Agents, managers, publicists, etc. tend to have multiple clients and want to keep working.
Actors and celebrities don’t have a monopoly on being ripped off by business agents. Anyone who hires someone to handle their finances runs the risk of it. Most agents, of course, are perfectly trustworthy, but there are always one or two who are out to rip off their clients.
It generally happens because people hire someone to handle finances and then don’t check up on him. They don’t want to be bothered, so they don’t realize something is wrong until a lot has been ripped off.
mY manageR says to TELL yOu “nO”.
Here’s a funny and enlightening (and sad) video about how musicians get screwed by their managers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JHN5HaUg28
This is what infuriates me about the groundless speculation (as ArchiveGuy puts it) surrounding Heath Ledger in the first hours and days after his death. A pox on the loose-lipped police officers who told people false things without understanding that they would be taken as fact, and a media that prefers the most sensational aspects and detests fact-checking. It doesn’t matter now how Heath Ledger died (a sad and unintentional mixing of prescriptions drugs for his pneumonia and insomnia), most people believe and will always believe that he was a druggy, or that he committed suicide.
Vera said that?
I’ve heard Edward Furlong’s manager was fucking him in both senses of the word, as well as keeping him well supplied with drugs. Don’t know if he’s extracted himself from her or not.
And looking outside of Hollywood, there’s always Don King.
The Motley Fool has an interesting list of celebrities who lost nearly everything to bad money management. Not all of them were screwed over by their managers, but several of them were getting bad advice from people the trusted.