Hollywood Agent Fires off Letter to NBC after BriWi Interview
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It looks like Brian Williams has pissed off the Emanuel brothers and they are starting to push back.
At least hot shot Hollywood agent Ari Emanuel is.
The New York Post reports that uber-agent Ari Emanuel sent a fiery legal letter to NBC after he objected to a contentious interview he and his high-powered brothers sat for with Brian Williams for “Rock Center,” sources tell Page Six.
The brothers — Ari, Chicago Mayor Rahm and bioethicist Ezekiel — appeared on the show, in a segment that aired Friday, to talk about Ezekiel’s upcoming book, “Brothers Emanuel: A Memoir of an American Family.” But a source said that when they met Williams earlier this month to pretape it at a Manhattan bar, the NBC anchor was acting “like it was for ‘Meet the Press.’ ”
“Ari was not happy with it,” the source said of the aggressive interview done in a casual setting. “It was very odd, and [the brothers] were caught off guard. They were there to talk about the book and growing up together. They had offers to do this interview with lots of other people.”
Spies added that “something was just off.”
And, apparently, Ari felt things were “off” enough that he subsequently sent a letter to NBC, objecting.
A source told us that the letter said, ‘This was not what we agreed to. He felt like he did the interview in good faith and he was irritated.”
Another source said Ari was so annoyed that when he visited “SNL” on March 9 to watch client Justin Timberlake host the live comedy show, he confronted NBC Chief Executive Steve Burke.
“Ari told Steve he was not happy with the interview,” says a source. “Steve told him that it was NBC News’ thing and that he had nothing to do with it.”
But sources close to NBC and Ari’s agency, WME, which confirmed that the letter was sent, say there was never a heated confrontation with Burke. An NBC source added that the segment, which aired Friday, was “in no way influenced” by Ari’s letter to the network.
A rep for Ari had no comment.
An NBC spokeswoman told us: “We hope viewers will see [the] interview as a lively conversation with three famously colorful brothers who embody a great American story of success.”
H/T NY Post
