The Ultimate Mogul

Tom Cruise is on the line.

Call Warren Beatty.

Barry Levinson wants to talk about the new script.

Mayor Bradley called. And Barbra.

Would anyone like something to drink?

It's after sundown at Creative Artists Agency in Beverly Hills, California, but all three floors quietly crackle, as ever, with the buzz of incredible deals being hustled, of fabulous concepts being bruited, of hurried corridor conversations between 28-year-old talent agents who feel privileged -- no, blessed -- to be in this place.

In a corner office on the top floor is the soft-spoken 46-year-old from whom the swirl of glamour and adrenaline and influence derives. Michael Ovitz, CAA's co-founder and chairman, does not on first glimpse look like the most powerful man in show business. His scratchy voice and gap-toothed grin are real, even warm. This is the guy who sends streams of cold sweat down elegantly coiffed necks? This guy with the rosy complexion and slight stoop, who gives the impression that he has all the time in the world to hear about your weekend? Who keeps a giant bowl of Hershey's Kisses and a Gumby doll in his office?

This is the guy. How powerful is Mike Ovitz? He's so powerful that when the heads of two film studios and one of his own senior employees were asked last week what they thought of him, all three men sang his praises but insisted on anonymity, for fear that Mike might be upset that they had said anything at all -- and then had second second thoughts, calling Ovitz to confess pre- emptively that they had talked to a reporter.

Why is Mike Ovitz so powerful? Very simple: most of the really big movie stars are represented by him and his agency, including Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, Michael Douglas, Whoopi Goldberg, Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton, Bill Murray, Al Pacino, Barbra Streisand and Robin Williams. They also represent most of the top directors, including Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and John Hughes. And most of the top screenwriters. The only weak spot, according to one of those reticent studio chiefs, is in music; there, CAA's client roster is peopled by such nobodies as Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson and Madonna. If you are a movie executive or a producer and you want to get a film made, it's possible to proceed without Ovitz's complicity -- but not advisable.

Being the ultimate agent, however, isn't enough for Ovitz; he's thinking bigger, ignoring nearly all the comfortable old show business boundaries. Lately he has extended his radius of operations, scaring the bejesus out of Madison Avenue by devising two dozen smart, sexy TV spots for Coca-Cola, and he may be looking to poach other business from the ad agencies. And still he wants more. He has turned himself into the movie industry's highest-profile investment broker in the past few years, arranging the multibillion-dollar acquisitions of Columbia Pictures by Sony and MCA/Universal by Matsushita.