Ari Emanuel‘s memoir “Roll the Calls,” out Tuesday, includes blurbs by music whiz Rick Rubin, Benjamin Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson, podcaster Kara Swisher and HuffPost founder Arianna Huffington. One influential name who’s not on the jacket, but has been pushing the tome, is the uberagent’s controversial pal, Elon Musk.
Musk has promoted the book on X by posting an Aug. 22 appeal by Emanuel to pre-order the book with the caption, “Truth is better than fiction.” Musk also big-upped Emanuel’s book on Aug. 24 by reposting a promo clip that showed the WME Group CEO meeting with his client Bob Odenkirk at a recording studio when the “Better Call Saul” star was narrating the audiobook.
Emanuel is also appearing in a series of Q&As for the book nationally that are being moderated by liberal pundits Swisher, David Axelrod and Rachel Maddow.
A publishing source pointed out that a rare book endorsement from Musk can lead to increased sales. “The only other time in recent memory that Musk actively promoted a book on X was for Gad Saad‘s ‘Suicidal Empathy: Dying To Be Kind,’ which was a No. 1 best-seller in no small part thanks to Musk.” The book was promoted by Musk in an X post about six weeks before its release.
(Musk also just promoted another tome: A book by his model mom, Maye Musk, titled “Timeless.”)
But the source mused of Ari’s Elon connection: “I wonder how these endorsers feel about sharing an endorsement with… [Musk], since the others would be horrified to be aligned with him on anything.”
There’s an embargo on the book till Tuesday. But the New York Times posted a review on Sunday, plus a piece called, “5 Takeaways From Ari Emanuel’s Memoir.”
The takeaways were mostly of the business variety — and the Times reported that Emanuel let Donald Trump go as a client when the former “Apprentice” star first took office, and writes of the decision: “I tell him I’ve never dropped a client with such ease. And I tell him I didn’t vote for him.”
But when it comes to his brofest with Musk — and another right-wing fixture, UFC boss Dana White — Emanuel apparently writes, according to the Times: “I can’t have beef with half my friends. I can’t hate half my country.”
The Times also reported in its takeaways that the book details Emanuel’s feud with Jeffrey Katzenberg, but doesn’t mention Emanuel’s CAA rival Bryan Lourd or any studio heads, including Paramount Skydance boss David Ellison.
Despite getting a first look at the book — after Puck also posted a sneak peek last week — the Times had a howler, reporting, “Also omitted is David Ellison, even though Mr. Ellison has been advising Mr. Emanuel on his acquisition of Warner Bros.” (The Gray Lady corrected the piece last night.)
If Emanuel was actually buying Warner Bros., that would be one of the book’s bigger revelations!
