WHO IS MICHAEL OVITZ?

The multitalented and highly listenable Dennis Boutsikaris offers a performance that almost redeems this memoir of talent agent and Creative Artists Agency founder Michael Ovitz. As a memoir, it is almost exclusively a self-congratulatory career-centered ode with minimal mentions of his personal life. Ovitz's lengthy preface, which he narrates himself, substantiates the sound decision to have an accomplished narrator handle the balance of the story. Boutsikaris's tone is smooth and measured, achieving that magic space where the narrator disappears and the story unfolds. Frequent celebrity name-dropping is pervasive. Amazingly, the inside stories of representing such well-known figures as Robert Redford and Martin Scorsese are presented in a way that makes them seem secondary to Ovitz's egocentric recollections. W.A.G. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2018]