De Havilland's legacy paved way for Limato

August 24, 2007 If newly emancipated agent Ed Limato brings his exclusive Oscar party from ICM to WMA, he should reserve an invite for an unlikely guest of honor: 91-year-old actress Olivia de Havilland. Sixty-four years ago Thursday, de Havilland and her lawyers at the Gang Tyre firm filed the lawsuit that led to the "seven-year rule" for personal services contracts, helping bring down the old studio system and bestowing unprecedented power on talent and, ironically, agencies like the one Limato successfully sued to escape. California's seven-year rule, also known as Labor Code Section 2855, is such an accepted tenet of entertainment law that it's hard to imagine the business before it existed.

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