Ever heard of MCA? That was a backroom deal, if I ever heard one.
M.C.A. was the only talent agency that was allowed to also be a producer through an exemption to union rules granted by S.A.G. when Reagan was the union president, and it used the exemption to acquire Universal International Pictures. Talent agents were not permitted to be producers as there was an inherent conflict of interest between the two professions, one of which was committed to acquiring talent at the lowest possible cost and the other whose focus was to get the best possible price for their client. When a talent agent was also a producer, like M.C.A. was, it had a habit of steering its clients to its own productions, where they were employed but at a lower price than their potential free market value. It was a system that made M.C.A. and Lew Wasserman, enormously wealthy.
Wonder if that's that point made by Lynrd Skynrd (sp?) in their song "Working For MCA"? Can't remember all the details but they seemed less than thrilled by the prospect.
so what did Reagan get?
Re MCA; a small and little known fact is that in 1967 MCA funded a small group of Caltech grads and others to do some research on digital imaging, resulting in the very first digital disk being made and replayed with full color and sound from a TV program. The whole thing was done with a budget of less than 2.5 mil with the whole idea and patents sold to Phillips in the Netherlands.... now you know where your DVD's came from......