Past Deadline

A Denial From the Guy Who's In Charge of Charles

Oren Koules, a founding partner with Mark Burg of Evolution Entertainment and co-manager of Charlie Sheen along with Burg -- and who also serves as an executive producer on "Two and a Half Men" -- called today to point out that the leak of his client's per-episode raise to $350,000 that was reported exclusively last week by our own Nellie Andreeva in the Hollywood Reporter did not come from him or his office and that he had nothing to gain from the information being released.

So if it wasn't Warner Bros. Television or Sheen's management, who was it that floated the news? I think we can probably eliminate his farther Martin Sheen, as he is in Ireland attending college. Journalistic ethics prevent me from asking Nellie her source -- not that she'd tell me, anyway.

"All I can tell you is it absolutely wasn't in our interests to have this information be out," Koules told me about a half-hour ago. "There has never been an agenda to negotiate this in the media, and it hurts us especially because we have business with (Sheen's "Two and a Half Men" co-star) Jon Cryer, too, and this complicates any future negotiation with him. It's like, Charlie just can't escape the spotlight and the press no matter how hard he tries, even when he's hoping to just go to work and keep a low profile."

Such is the price of stardom.

It's the Agents and the Managers, Stupid!

My column in today's Hollywood Reporter discussing Charlie Sheen's reported salary increase for his work on the CBS comedy "Two and a Half Men" inspired some bemused speculation over my ability to effectively reason -- and not for the first time. Essentially, it was spelled out to me by the ever-vigilant "sources" that it is rarely, if ever, in the best interests of a studio (in this case Warner Bros. Television) to disclose the precise amount of any raise in weekly pay for one of its performers and that in general it wasn't prudent to negotiate, or even release details, through the trades.

Who does leak this stuff, then, and why do they do it? Agents and managers, I was assured today. They love to strut and preen over how much they were able to land their clients, as it demonstrates just how valuable and effective they are and purportedly ups their individual profile as an industry heavy-hitter. By contrast, I was told, all this information does for the studio is create headaches amongst fellow performers. Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones might now understandably be wondering where their raises are, as they are not, after all, chopped liver.

The reality is probably that this kind of money info flows on the QT from a number of folks depending upon how it best serves their interests to have these figures made public. I know it's hard to fathom, but in this Hollywood game everyone seems to be out for himself or herself and there are no rules or guidelines or decorum. Consider it a timely reminder, as this is kinda the way it's been roughly since forever.

Charlie Sheen Soon To Have More Money Than God

Is Charlie Sheen worth about $350,000 per episode of "Two and a Half Men," as my ever so plugged-in Hollywood Reporter colleague Nellie Andreeva reported exclusively today? Well, let's see...the guy got nominated this year for an Emmy. He's also something of a taboid icon. And his show has for the past few years been primetime TV's highest-rated sitcom, though with TV comedy still trapped in something of a down cycle this is a bit like laying claim to being the top surfer in Omaha.

But making Sheen the highest-paid comedy star currently on the tube really has nothing to do with any of that. It's all about  bringing in the bucks. Sheen has been negotiating himself a huge raise from Warner Bros. Television the past few months, as Nellie reports, because his show just sold formajor bucks to both broadcast and cable syndication -- and whereas once there were a glut of off-network comedies competing in the rerun aftermarket, now there are a mere few. So it's supply-and-demand, baby.

CBS and WBTV could ill afford to lose Sheen on what's become a hit franchise, giving him genuine clout (as opposed to the phantom clout that some supporting players believe they have, only to discover they ain't all that if they overplay their hand with a salary holdout). It was never going to come to that for Sheen because if the show were reduced to "One and a Half Men," the diminished value of the series would likely be catastrophic no matter whom they got to replace him.

So you can bet that if Sheen is going to earn more than $8 million a season (covering 24 episodes), it's because he's worth it. Now, was Ray Romano worth nearly $2 million per episode during the last season of "Everybody Loves Raymond"? Yeah, probably, because of the show's reflective impact on the rest of the CBS schedule even as the series itself had to represent a loss leader.

If they are paying it to you, it's because you deserve to earn it, not because they just want to be nice. In fact, given the back-end riches the studio stands to earn, Sheen will no doubt represent a bargain.