LOS ANGELES (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — Brad Grey’s imprint on Brillstein-Grey Entertainment has finally been removed – from the company’s name at least. Partners Jon Liebman and Cynthia Pett-Dante, who bought out the financial interests of owner Brad Grey when he left to run Paramount Pictures in 2005, have changed the company’s name to Brillstein Entertainment Partners.
According to Variety, the name change adds another level of closure to Grey’s stewardship as a talent representative and producer, and came short after the finale of “The Sopranos,” which he produced with David Chase.
Grey divested ownership of Brillstein-Grey, a half-partnership in Plan B, and Brad Grey Television in July of 2005.
Part of the reason for keeping his name in the title was contractual, but Leibman and Pett-Dante also didn’t want to cause any ripples similar to when Grey changed the company’s name to the hip-sounding “Basic” in response to an influx of new companies like 360 Management and the Firm.
“The clients boycotted, and we wound up switching back and having a bonfire with all the business cards and stationary,” Pett-Dante told Variety.
Liebman, who became CEO after Grey’s departure, told the magazine that the experience taught them to stick with something close to the original moniker of the Brillstein Co., which founder Bernie Brillstein used when he opened his doors in 1969.
Brillstein Entertainment Partners continues to represent clients such as Brad Pitt and Plan B, Adam Sandler and Happy Madison Productions, Lorne Michaels and Broadway Video Entertainment, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Orlando Bloom, Kate Beckinsale, James Belushi, Natalie Portman, Bill Maher, and several others. –by CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
