Former Wme: Last News

Charles D. King To make sense of all that has transpired in 2020 and what it portends for the media and entertainment sectors going forward, Variety spoke with a cross section of industry leaders about the broad theme of change.

Rachel Seo Watch out, agents: Your assistants might be making memes about you. In the spring of 2018, four assistants at WME kicked around an idea. Given their stressful environment — one that routinely saw them juggling phone lines, handling guest lists and working long hours for little pay — they thought: Why not work through their frustrations in a healthy way? Thus the Instagram meme page Assistants vs. Agents (@assistantsvsagents) was born. Since its inception, the account has gained nearly 100,000 followers, cultivating a network of assistants who commiserate over the indignities, headaches and fleeting moments of hilarity from life in the Hollywood trenches. Former WME assistant Warner Bailey, a founding member of the page and currently its sole operator, says the account’s audience includes assistants from other agencies, aspiring assistants, agents themselves and actors like Glen Powell and Amber Midthunder, who both follow the page.

Peter White Television EditorEXCLUSIVE: Mark Itkin, former WME partner and a doyen of the international formats and unscripted world, has joined the board of Plimsoll Productions.Itkin, who is based in LA and New York, will work closely with CEO Grant Mansfield and VP, Production and Development Saul Goldberg as the Hostile Planet and Yellowstone Live producer focuses on the U.S. market.He will advise on strategy across the group with a focus on creating and packaging non-scripted content for the U.S.  Plimsoll currently has 18 series in production around the world and recently made Netflix’s Night on Earth and Tiny World for Apple+.