Jason Bateman, who left UTA in early January, has landed at CAA.

A Golden Globe winner for the much-loved TV show “Arrested Development,” the actor has been spending his time on the movie side of the business.

He was most recently seen in the Oscar-nominated “Up in the Air” as well as Universal’s hit comedy “Couples Retreat.” Last year also saw him in “The Invention of Lying,” “Extract” and “State of Play.”

We don't usually use this space to cover some of Hollywood's more insidery news, but the merger of William Morris and Endeavor — officially announced , if not formally consummated, on Monday — will have broad implications even if you're just an average moviegoer.

Basically, since it's in many ways a product of shrinking studio slots and a contracting business, its effect will be to both counter and heighten that trend.

Tentpoles will be more prolific, since packages with top-tier directors, writers and talent will be easier to put together by a factor of two.

At the same time, be prepared for some of the bigger writers and directors to be in a position of flux for a while, as many of them will be repped by agents who are themselves in flux (and are targeted by new agents — as one person at a rival shop put it, "It's a Wild West out there"). That could mean a period of transition more than a period of creativity, deals and greenlights for the players in question, at least in the short term.

There are other ways there will be a reaction for every equal and opposite action.

The shakeout of scores of agents will reduce the overall pool of deals and projects, just as a simple matter of math.  But, further down the line, the world will suddenly get a raft of new producers and managers, which could then deepen the pool again.

(One interesting subplot/case study comes on the indie side, with figures like WMA's Cassian Elwes and Rena Ronson, and Endeavor's Graham Taylor and Alexis Garcia. If any of them aren't a part of the new WME — and there's been speculation that it could go that way  — whoever departs will be just fine in their new incarnation since they all have strong connections on the financing side).

We suspect there'll be more movement and even project news as the new WME — we're almost starting to get used to it — makes its case to the industry, while other agencies make their case by landing former clients and lining up new deals for them. It's a realignment, but not just in a musical chairs kind of way — it changes what gets made and who's making it. So the announcement may have finally come today, but the story's kind of just beginning.

About the only thing heating up faster than Palm Springs in July are William Morris-Endeavor merger rumors. After about two weeks of quiet, it was game on Thursday…or at least so many were saying.

Of course, just a few personalities at these private shops are needed to ratify a deal (before it goes to their respective boards). Which means that even if it is about to go down, there aren't a whole lot of ways this could leak  (unless clients and agents start getting notified). More as news warrants.

CAA’s Kevin Iwashina, who was a member of the agency’s eight-person film financing team, has been released by the partners, according to sources. The agent, who has spent his entire career with CAA, was instrumental in packaging independent films and was a major player on the festival circuit. A CAA spokesman confirmed that Iwashina will be leaving the agency to pursue other opportunities but declined comment on the reason for his exit. (posted by Tatiana Siegel)

The office is buzzing with the defection of primo director’s agent Robert Newman from ICM to Endeavor. Here’s Borys Kit and Tatiana Siegel’s report. Newman leaves behind director’s agents Jeff Berg (ICM chairman), John Burnham and Doug McLaren. Some ICM insiders say that Newman’s departure was a result of ICM’s recent merger with the Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann agency, although Newman denies that, expressing support for new ICM co-president Chris Silbermann. Newman’s clients likely to go with him include Robert Rodriguez, Guillermo del Toro, Baz Luhrmann and Danny Boyle. Mostly, Newman said, he’s excited by the opportunities presented by becoming partner at Endeavor. “It’s the hardest decision I ever made in my life,” he said.

The NYT’s Sharon Waxman gets behind the scenes on troubled comedy star Jim Carrey’s breakup with his longtime UTA agent Nick Stevens (reported on 9/13 by TMZ and Deadline Hollywood), followed by Carrey’s signing with CAA last week (reported by THR). The minutiae of who did what to whom is wearying; the question is what does it really mean? The first star to command $20 million (for 1996’s Cable Guy), Carrey is now facing the music as studios are asking how much they’re really willing to bank on him. At long last the industry is retrenching from the disastrous inflation that Cable Guy caused among the top-ranked movie stars who demanded that they should get what Carrey was getting—and then some. Cheap comedies weren’t so cheap when major comedy stars were attached to them. And so on.

NYP on Laura Albert/JT Leroy’s true confession. THR’s new blog reelpop on MySpace’s too-good-to-be-true lonelygirl15.
LAT on same. VIDEO: A Change In My Life.

Press agent Stephen Huvane went ballistic, according to the NY Post over The Today Show’s handling of his client Jennifer Aniston’s supposed engagement to Vince Vaughn.

Word is that Stephen Huvane is furious because the NBC morning chatfest trumpeted Us Weekly’s “scoop” about Aniston and Vince Vaughn’s supposed engagement, and then had Ann Curry breathlessly pump editrix Janice Min for details. So Huvane is said to be yanking his roster of top stars from future “Today” appearances.

Sources say Huvane called “Today” executives and read them the riot act for not having checked with him before reporting that Vaughn proposed to Aniston on a private plane after a romantic weekend in Mexico. Huvane has branded the story a complete fabrication. He’s said to have told the “Today” suits he’s pulling his hottest clients – including Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore and Kirsten Dunst – from the show indefinitely.

It’s also expected Huvane will hand his clients over to dreaded ABC competitor “Good Morning America.” His entire firm, powerful PMKHBH, may follow suit, which would mean a serious scarcity of stars on “Today.”

ICM finally makes a major agency acquisition.

ICM has sealed a deal to acquire Broder Webb Chervin Silbermann Agency, bringing the powerhouse talent agency together with a powerful literary-focused agency with a stellar roster of writer-producer and showrunner clients. The deal was finalized Thursday after roughly five months of under-the-radar negotiations between the two agencies.

Endeavor agency honcho Ari Emanuel (who inspires Jeremy Piven’s Entourage role) is one strange bird, reports the denizens of one Rhode Island vacation town.

As long as Hollywood is so eager to turn books into movies, New York book publishers want a piece of the action, reports the LAT.

Those pesky agency rumors keep cropping up. Week after week, the rumor mill grinds away with yet another round of imminent mergers between UTA and Endeavor or ICM and Paradigm. Of course, where there’s smoke there’s usually some fire. Certainly the folks at ICM, which still hasn’t done much with its recently raised $100-million war chest, keep talking about buying something. But ICM is unlikely to acquire any of the bigger agencies. They all have kicked each other’s tires, checked the financials, and tried to figure out mutually beneficial ways to merge, purge, and put some serious cash in their pockets. Talks did get serious some weeks back between UTA and Endeavor. But so far, no deals. The answer seems to be that with millions of dollars in expected receivables, mostly in TV, coming into agency coffers for years to come, it’s tough for the agency ruling class to share their wealth or power or give up their hard-won autonomy. Is Endeavor’s Ari Emanuel ever going to be willing to defer to UTA’s Jim Berkus, or vice versa? Hard to imagine.