THR: Agents Roundtable

From the Hollywood Reporter:

Nowhere is gender disparity among Hollywood’s corporate ranks more painfully acute than inside the top talent agencies, where the percentage of women agents can dip as low as 15 and nary a female CEO can be found. Sure, women have made huge strides as network and studio chiefs (Exhibit A: the dozens of such execs who appear on this year’s Power 100 list), but such advancements have yet to materialize in the agency world, where in-your-face, ballsy machismo seems to remain the default sensibility. This reality, among others (24-hour care of clients, pressure to embrace new revenue streams, shrinking budgets), was discussed with candor — and not a few laughs — among the six agents (WME’s Sharon Jackson, Gersh’s Leslie Siebert, CAA’s Maha Dakhil, UTA’s Blair Kohan, Paradigm’s Debbee Klein and ICM Partners’ Lorrie Bartlett) who gathered for THR’s first-ever on- the-record conversation with top agents. With the diplomacy required by their profession, they tackle the struggle to straddle work and family life (five of the six are married mothers), why it’s OK when clients leave and how an innate sense of nurturing actually can be an agent’s best weapon.

Here is the entire 1-hour video discussion:

For more of the article, go here.