Innovative Artists Signs Deal With Writers Guild of America
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Innovative Artists has signed a deal with the Writers Guild of America that allows the agency to represent WGA members following a nine-month standoff.
The agency issued an announcement Monday through Owner and President Scott Harris, along with the Innovative Artists’ Executive Committee.
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“We are proud to support our literary agents and the talented writers they represent,” the statement said. “We are grateful for our clients’ loyalty and are excited to resume working for them. As advocates and representatives, we always seek to put our artists’ interests first and foremost, and to that end, we have heard the concerns and positions of our writers and look forward to continuing to provide the level of personalized and passionate service that they have always valued and enjoyed.”
Innovative Artists becomes the third major agency to make such an announcement in a week following similar WGA deals with the Agency for the Performing Arts and Gersh. It’s the seventh mid-size agency to accede to the WGA’s bans on agency packaging fees and affiliate production ownership, joining APA Abrams, Buchwald, Gersh, Kaplan Stahler, Rothman Brecher Ehrich Livingston and Verve.
WGA members were told in April to fire their agents if the agents had not agreed to ban packaging fees and affiliate production. Innovative is joining more than 70 agencies allowed to represent WGA members.
The WGA had no immediate comment about Innovative’s announcement. But it has listed Innovative in its Franchised Agencies list on its web site.
CAA, UTA and WME have sued the WGA on antitrust violations, alleging the guild is engaging in an illegal boycott. The WGA has accused the agencies of a racketeering conspiracy by accepting fees from studios for packaging talent along with engaging in a price-fixing conspiracy by suppressing writers’ wages, and of an illegal group boycott, by agreeing to deal with the guild only through its trade association.
A federal judge heard more than two hours of arguments on Jan. 24 from attorneys for the guild and three agencies. The agencies and the WGA anticipate a trial in March, 2021.
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