ZestBlog

United Talent Agency – UTA – is a big Hollywood agency, representing actors and creators like Charlize Theron, Wes Anderson, the Coen brothers, M. Night Shyamalan and Harrison Ford. UTA’s CEO is a man named Jeremy Zimmer, and Zimmer is in the South of France this week, attending the Cannes Lions event. Zimmer used his time at the festival to diss the Duchess of Sussex:

In 2020, Spotify’s stock spiked on the news that Meghan Markle and Prince Harry signed an exclusive deal with the streaming platform. But when the deal fizzled last week, the leader of one of the biggest global talent agencies, whose business is increasingly focused on audio, said he wasn’t surprised.

“Turns out Meghan Markle was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent,” United Talent Agency CEO Jeremy Zimmer said over coffee at La Majestic during the Cannes Lions advertising festival. “And, you know, just because you’re famous doesn’t make you great at something.”

[From Semafor]

It continues to astound me how often Meghan is solely being criticized for the end of the Sussexes’ Spotify contract. Meghan actually produced a massively popular and award-winning podcast, and Spotify still refused to give Archetypes a second season (luckily, Archewell owns the rights to Archetypes, so she can shop it somewhere else). But my point is, all of these nasty old men are so insanely focused on Meghan, meanwhile Harry didn’t produce any pods. Reportedly, he did have some good ideas, ideas which were rejected for some reason. Anyway, of course Meghan is talented – that’s why UTA was trying to sign her, before Ari Emmanuel and WME signed her.

United Talent Agency CEO Jeremy Zimmer may have blasted Meghan Markle as “not a great … talent“ — but a stream of his own agents still tried to sign her, sources told Page Six.

Zimmer hit out after the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s deal with Spotify imploded last week and it was revealed the audio giant won’t be making another series of Markle’s “Archetypes” podcast. “Turns out Meghan Markle was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent,” Zimmer told Semafor at the 2023 Cannes Lions advertising festival last week.

But an industry source sniped to Page Six: “So then why did Jeremy have multiple agents trying to sign Meghan? They were in serious pursuit. One of their agents was recently actively pursuing her.”

Page Six has reached out to UTA for comment. A source familiar with the situation said Markle never met or spoke with UTA agents.

[From Page Six]

Yeah, that was my first instinct too – that this wasn’t even about Meghan or Spotify, it was about professional jealousy between UTA and WME, Jeremy Zimmer vs. Ari Emmanuel. I imagine there are many Hollywood power brokers who are salty that Meghan didn’t choose them. Still, the sheer amount of crusty old men who are publicly taking potshots at Meghan and Harry these days… how unprofessional.

That Page Six story also added some new information – a rumor that Meghan might sign on to a brand ambassadorship with Cartier (I wouldn’t be mad about that) and that Meghan is about to announce something big – this is the “calm before the storm” and “Meghan has an ace up her sleeve.” Well, get to it, Meghan!! Announce your sh-t on your terms, before Rupert Murdoch’s machinery scoops you!!

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.

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