Roman Polanski 's agent Jeff Berg poses in his office in Los Angeles on September 28, 2009. The controversial 76-year-old director was arrested on September 26, 2009 after he arrived to receive a prize at the Zurich film festival. France and Poland are to ask the United States to drop the charges and consider a presidential pardon over the case, though Polanski has already acknowledged he had sex with the 13-year-old girl in Los Angeles in 1977. Several Swiss newspapers drew a link between the detention and Switzerland's dispute with the United States over banking secrecy, and called the arrest of Polanski at Zurich airport a stain on the country's image.
Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty ImagesSome degree of peace has erupted in the sometimes cankerous world of Hollywood talent agencies.
Jeff Berg‘s Resolution Entertainment and his former company ICM Partners have come to a settlement to end a lawsuit that was brought last October.
The case, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleged that ICM had sent letters to agents who left to join Resolution seeking “commissions Resolution earns for some deals Resolution either has negotiated or will negotiate through the agents who used to be ICM Partners employees.”
EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Berg Speaks: Plans for New Agency, What Really Happened at ICM
Berg left his seat as chairman of ICM in 2012 after three decades as a power broker there. He departed amid a conflict and was reported to have received a mid-seven-figure payout. With his new agency, he attracted some of his former ICM colleagues.
The defections raised hackles.
Resolution alleged a months-long “nuisance campaign,” wherein ICM has sent “a number of claim letters to Resolution gravely ‘reserving rights’ against Resolution regarding these agents and commissions.”
ICM was allowed ample time to respond to the claims, but eventually the parties came to a private resolution, The Hollywood Reporter has learned. The case was dismissed with prejudice earlier this week. Terms haven’t been revealed. The plaintiffs were represented by Joseph Taylor and Tiffany Caterina at Liner Grode. The defendants were represented by Howard Weitzman, Lawrence Iser and Kristen Spanier at Kinsella Weitzman.
At least for the moment, another lawsuit by agent Martin Beck against Resolution for luring him away from ICM as part of an alleged plot to poach clients is still pending.
Email: Eriq.Gardner@THR.com
Twitter: @eriqgardner
