Ari Emanuel took multiple shots at CAA's Bryan Lourd while promoting his book. Zuffa LLC Just as Hollywood’s post-merger landscape starts to come into focus, one of the industry’s most enduring rivalries has been rekindled. While promoting his memoir “Roll the Calls” on a podcast last week, WME Group executive chairman Ari Emanuel blasted Bryan Lourd, accusing the CAA principal of “draining the inheritance” of his company, failing to empower the next generation of leaders and cozying up to Harvey Weinstein. It’s no secret that there is no love lost between Emanuel and Lourd.
But as Skydance officially receives its new ticker on the NYSE, a behind-the-scenes power struggle is playing out between two of the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry, both of whom are coming to terms with the shifting dynamics of an industry that is now largely owned and controlled by the Ellison family.
One of Hollywood’s unwritten rules is that hiring a top level executive at a studio, network or streamer often requires the blessing of Lourd and — to a lesser degree — Emanuel, who has transitioned away from being a talent agent in recent years as CEO of TKO. The merger of Warner Bros. and Paramount which dragged on for a bruising 10 months, forced Emanuel and Lourd to take sides.
Emanuel was staunchly in favor of the merger and became one of its most vocal and high profile cheerleaders. (It certainly didn’t hurt that in 2025 Emanuel negotiated a $7.7 billion media rights deal between his TKO Holdings and Paramount.) He also wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal arguing how the merger could “save” Hollywood. Now that the deal is complete, Emanuel would seem to be sitting pretty.
Lourd, meanwhile, has taken a different route and remained more circumspect, making no formal public declarations or statements about the biggest merger in Hollywood’s history. According to reports, Lourd played a behind-the-scenes role in getting the 12 state attorneys general to negotiate a settlement with Paramount in the antitrust lawsuit filed over the summer. But according to multiple sources, Lourd had been more closely aligned with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos during the four-month window when the streamer made a successful bid to buy Warner Bros. — only to then walk away from the deal two months later. “David [Ellison] knows that Bryan doesn’t see [the merger] as a good thing for the business or the creative community,” said a source.
Then came last week’s news that Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy were being cut out of Skydance’s future as co-heads of Warner Bros. Entertainment — which many across the industry saw as a blow to Lourd. De Luca and Abdy are close with Lourd and have been creatively aligned on a variety of projects dating back years. “Bryan believes in them and likes them and they’re very loyal to Bryan,” said the source.
Lourd does not have nearly as strong a relationship with Paramount Motion Picture co-chairs Josh Greenstein and Dana Goldberg, who appear to have won the power struggle to stay. That leaves Lourd without a key creative ally and decision maker inside what is now the dominant studio in town. To remedy the situation, Lourd has been quietly positioning potential candidates with whom he has strong relations to join Skydance at the level, or close enough, of former Paramount president Jeff Shell.
One of the candidates being discussed is former Disney TV boss Peter Rice. We’ve reported on how Rice was seen meeting with Skydance’s new co- CEO, Ynon Kreiz for three hours in Beverly Hills.
A path towards unity for Lourd and Skydance may come in the form of a long-awaited “Barbie” sequel. The general feeling around town is that after fits and starts, “Barbie 2” will likely be one of the newly merged company’s first big announcements. That would require a collaboration between Skydance brass and Lourd whose agency represents all the major principals in the first film including Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. CAA declined to comment.
Another point of leverage may be the upcoming negotiations between Skydance and the NFL over the league’s broadcast rights deal with CBS. Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount in 2025 triggered a change-in-control provision allowing the NFL to reopen and re-negotiate its deal with CBS. Some savvy eyebrows were raised this week when CAA announced that it had hired Dasha Smith to serve as its new chief operating officer. Smith most recently worked at the NFL where she was executive VP and chief administrative officer and one of Commissioner Roger Goodell’s top deputies.
“There’s no way to do business without CAA and over time that relationship will work itself out because he’s a master of knowing how to handle people,” said a source. “Will he be just as powerful at Skydance as he has been at every other studio? Maybe. Maybe not.”
This week CAA was at the power agency’s corporate retreat in Ojai. The annual getaway was an anniversary of sorts for Lourd and his fellow partners, Kevin Huvane and Richard Lovett, who are celebrating their 31st year as the team presiding over one of the crown jewels of the entertainment industry.
No doubt how to work with Skydance was high on the agency agenda.
