Sam Gores: Last News

Paradigm has elevated 14 agents to partners, establishing the largest new leadership group in the talent agency’s more than 35-year history. The new partners, who represent all sectors of one of the entertainment industry’s most significant independent agencies, will join managing partner Andrew Ruf as equity partners of the company.

William Earl Paradigm Talent Agency has named 14 new partners as the firm seeks to rebuild its stature in Hollywood. Paradigm went through transformative struggles during the pandemic period that led to the company selling off its lucrative music and touring division to Casey Wasserman’s enterprise. In addition to cleaving off its music arm, the firm lost numerous agents and clients to layoffs and defections. Monday’s promotions make it clear that the new-model Paradigm will focus on film, TV, publishing and theater, representing actors, writers, directors and producers as well as packaging TV series and movie properties. Last September the company also launched Paradigm Media Entertainment, a division to represent local and national news anchors, meteorologists, sportscasters, producers and other news and host talent. Paradigm kickstarted its way into the TV news biz with the acquisition of three speciality agencies: Napoli Management Group, Two Twelve Management and 3 Kings Entertainment.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Paradigm is turning to local TV and lifestyle stars to help rebuild the agency that has been reshaped by the changing entertainment economy and the wallop of the pandemic. Paradigm Entertainment has acquired three talent agencies from private equity firm Blue Equity to form Paradigm Media Entertainment, which will now be home to Napoli Management Group, 3 Kings Entertainment and Two Twelve Management and Marketing. Napoli Management and 3 Kings both have wide rosters of local TV anchors, reporters, weathercasters and other talent working in markets large and small around the country. Two Twelve focuses on representing chefs and other culinary, hospitality and lifestyle stars.

Paradigm Entertainment, the parent company of the Paradigm Talent Agency, said Wednesday that it has acquired BEST, a group of three management and marketing companies focused in the worlds of broadcast news, culinary and on-air media personalities. The new acquisitions will be housed in the newly created arm Paradigm Media Entertainment, which will include the talent agency. The lines of business will now work together to service clients’ entertainment, publishing, brand partnership, and news-media services needs.

Paradigm will be relocating its L.A. offices from 8942 Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills to the Green Building of West Hollywood’s Pacific Design Center, at 8687 Melrose Avenue, a representative for the agency has confirmed. Paradigm, which had been based at Wilshire since 2018, will begin occupying its new L.A. office space this month.

One of Hollywood’s largest rosters of music clients is moving under new ownership. Paradigm Talent Agency has agreed to sell itsNorth American live music representation business to Casey Wasserman’s lifestyle marketing and management firm, the agency said.

Paradigm talent agency disclosed that it would be making permanent staff layoffs of 180 employees that were temporarily cut earlier in the year amid pandemic-related film and TV production shutdowns. Sam Gores, the chairman and founder of Paradigm, said in a note to staff on Thursday that,"the profound effects of the coronavirus have continued to severely impact every aspect of our industry and our world for longer than we had even imagined six months ago." In March, in California alone, Paradigm temporarily laid off 130 staffers at its Beverly Hills office and 4 staffers in Monterey, according to a filing with the state's Employment Development Department disclosed in May.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media WriterDebbee Klein has agreed to go to arbitration to resolve her bombshell lawsuit against Paradigm Talent Agency, her former employer.Klein filed the suit in April, alleging that the agency had reneged on her agreement when she was laid off, and owed her the $2 million remaining on her contract.She also unloaded on Paradigm CEO Sam Gores, accusing him of “repugnant and outdated sexism,” and of using company funds to hire prostitutes.

Paradigm has tapped Shakira Gagnier to head the agency's diversity and inclusion efforts, in an announcement made by chairman and CEO Sam Gores. In her new role as the vp of diversity and inclusion – the first such position in the company's history — Gagnier will work with senior leadership, HR and the agency's administration to integrate enhanced strategies and new practices and programs, including employee engagement, defining a clear pathway to promotion for existing staff and instituting enhanced recruiting, training, mentorship and development opportunities.

Alexandra Del Rosario Associate Editor/Nights & WeekendsParadigm has named Shakira Gagnier vice president of the agency’s diversity and inclusion section.“Today is only the first of many steps that the leadership at Paradigm will take to stress diversity and inclusion as a core value of our agency,” said Paradigm chairman and CEO Sam Gores, who announced the news. “Shakira brings an extraordinary range of experience working at some of the industry’s most prominent media companies.”Gagnier, the latest addition to the Paradigm team, will be responsible for helping the talent agency develop enhanced strategies to promote diversity and development of its employees across the globe.

James McClain While a $20 million pricetag attached to a Beverly Hills property is a fairly common sighting, it’s rare to find one affixed to a tastefully renovated midcentury modern located in the most prime neighborhood pocket of town, where some of the nearest neighbors include heavyweights like Ellen DeGeneres, Sam Gores, and Fiji Water/Pom Wonderful billionaires Stewart and Lynda Resnick.Built in the late 1960s, the sprawling single-story has long been owned by Nathalie Marciano, the founder of independent film production company 26 Films (“The Duel,” “My Life in Ruins”) and a contemporary art dealer.

By Mike Fleming Jr

By Justin Kroll

Paradigm fired back at former literary agency Debbee Klein’s lawsuit filed April 2 with a fiery rebuttal on Thursday (April 9) accusing her of stabbing agency chairman Sam Gores in the back and lying about his behavior during contract negotiations. Over the course of a 20-page motion filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Paradigm attorneys offer a highly detailed and often angry point-by-point defense, calling Klein’s claims “self-aggrandizing and delusional.” Paradigm’s lawyers argue Klein should be forced to mediate her claims in arbitration, a forum t

Literary agent Debbee Klein’s lawsuit filed Thursday against Paradigm Talent Agency is full of stunning allegations, including payoffs to prostitutes and other criminal misconduct, but it’s the language around Klein’s contract termination and cuts to her compensation and health benefits that could prove to be a major liability for the agency.Without warning, Klein claims she and 200 other Paradigm employees were either temporarily laid off or had their employee contracts unilaterally suspended or terminated on March 20 when chairman Sam Gores decided to institute “temporary layoffs.” As a result, Klein and the other employees will be left without health insurance at the end of April -- just as the coronavirus pandemic is expected to peak in

By Gene Maddaus

Paradigm Talent Agency has signed a new franchise agreement with the Writers Guild of America, allowing the agency to resume representation of its WGA-represented clients for the first time in nearly a year.

By Mike Fleming Jr

By Mike Fleming Jr

Paradigm Talent Agency is closing all of its offices starting Friday, sources tell Variety. There is no timeframe of when they will be reopened.

Jill Goldsmith Tom Gores’ Platinum Equity has acquired the distribution business of Deluxe Entertainment Services.Financial terms were not disclosed. Deluxe Entertainment’s creative businesses are not included in the acquisition.Billionare Gores, owner of the Detroit Pistons, was most recently seen helping his brother, Paradigm chief Sam Gores weather a tough economy by taking an owership interest in the agency through another investment company, Crescent Drive Media.