Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency

by James Andrew Miller

SANDY GALLIN, Manager: There are some differences in the agencies, but I think there’s a bigger difference in the particular agent who’s looking out for you—and how much they’re really looking out for you. Mitch Rose sent me the Milli Vanilli album. They had only released one single, and I listened to the album and I thought, Oh my God. They are going to be huge! Enormous! Gigantic! I told everyone in my office, “Find Milli Vanilli. Get them to my house or to the office. I want to meet with these guys. They are going to be enormous.” We found them, met with them, and signed them. They had a horrible, horrible, horrible record deal. So I went to London to meet with Frank Farian, who was their producer, and I told him you’ve got to give them a new deal. They’re working for slave labor. And he said, “You don’t understand. They don’t sing.” I told him, “No, you don’t understand. Obviously they sing well enough that millions of people are buying their records and they have had one hit number one record. And the second one is on the way.” So again he says, “No, no, no. You don’t understand! They don’t sing!” And he gets mad and pounds on the table. Diana Ross was in the restaurant, and came over and asked, “Sandy, are you okay?” I said, “Yeah. I’m fine.” She said, “Well, you don’t look fine. This guy looks like he’s going to kill you.” She said, “My bodyguards are outside at my car if you need them.” Mitch Rose and CAA evidently had no clue they were the vocals on the record. So...