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Dakota Johnson Joins Controversial Agent Amid CAA Turmoil and Weinstein Scandal: ‘It Looks Like a Win’
Dakota Johnson is the first A-lister to sign with a top Hollywood agent recently embroiled in controversy, according to the Daily Mail.
Johnson, 34, made the controversial move to sign with Maha Dakhil, 48, who left her board position at CAA after posting on Instagram, accusing Israel of genocide during the Israel-Hamas conflict.
Dakhil – whose clients roster includes Tom Cruise, who supported her during the controversy, Reese Witherspoon, and Natalie Portman — temporarily stepped back as co-head of the motion picture department for the CAA, after apologizing for her actions.
CAA issued its own statement supporting Israel after the October 7 attacks. The company said it “stands with the people of Israel, the Jewish community, and all innocent victims in the face of horrific acts of terrorism.”
An insider told InTouch of Johnson’s surprising career move: “It looks like a win for the agency by signing Dakota but there’s so much behind the scenes at CAA that is concerning. It’s a very cloak and dagger environment at the moment. There are a lot of paranoid executives holding onto their paychecks and doing their best to protect themselves.”
The insider claimed that recent lawsuits have caused many “to be on edge and constantly looking over their shoulders” as scandals continue to emerge. “The hits keep coming and it’s freaking a lot of people out waiting for the next shoe to drop,” the insider noted.
Actress Julia Ormond filed a lawsuit last month against CAA, the Walt Disney Company, Harvey Weinstein, and his former Miramax company, for allegedly failing to protect her from sex predator Harvey Weinstein.
The English-born Emmy-winner, 58, also appealed for whistleblowers to come forward as she takes on some of Hollywood’s biggest players.
Ormond says she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein in December 1995 when he was with Miramax, owned by Disney. She alleges that her CAA agents, Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane, knew Weinstein was dangerous but still encouraged her to meet him.
After the assault, Ormond alleges they advised her not to report it. Ormond, who won an Emmy in 2010 for “Temple Grandin,” claims that CAA lost interest in her afterwards, hurting her career. Although Lourd and Huvane, now CAA co-chairmen, aren’t directly sued, they’re often mentioned in the lawsuit.
The insider said of the lawsuit: “A lot of questions continued to be asked about what collateral damage could be.”
Wesintein’s lawyer told Variety after the lawsuit was filed last month: “Harvey Weinstein categorically denies the allegations made against him by Julia Ormond and he is prepared to vehemently defend himself.”
“This is yet another example of a complaint filed against Mr. Weinstein after the passing of decades, and he is confident that the evidence will not support Ms. Ormond’s claims.” CAA described Ormond’s claims as “baseless” and said the agency will “vigorously refute them” in court.
A spokesperson told The Sun: “CAA takes all allegations of sexual assault and abuse seriously, and has compassion for Ms. Ormond and the experience she described in her complaint. However, the claims that Ms. Ormond has levied against the agency are completely without merit.”
Last week, the actor Terrence Howard announced he is suing his former agency CAA over allegedly failing to represent his financial interests during his time on the hit Fox series Empire, and his attorneys say racism is to blame.
“We need accountability. We need access. We need to be able to share in the profits,” Howard, 54, said.
Howard and his attorneys say CAA entered into a packaging deal with the show’s creators Danny Strong and Lee Daniels and production company Imagine Entertainment, cheating him out of “a much higher salary given the success of the show.”
Howard starred as Machiavellian music mogul Lucious Lyon alongside costar Taraji P. Henson‘s Cookie Lyon. In addition to his starring role, Howard says his work on music and scripts contributed to the show’s success.
“I trusted CAA to look after me, and they looked after themselves,” Howard said. Although he says he knew CAA was representing multiple parties involved in the show, he believed that there was “so much” money that “everybody would share and everything would work out fine.”
He now says it didn’t work out that way. Howard says he was paid $350,000 per episode beginning in the show’s highly-rated second season, but that CAA made no effort to get him compensated for his behind-the-scenes work. He said he “never received the compensation as a producer or any of those things that are immediately given or asked for by agents of white actors.”
Attorney Carlos Moore declared that “discovery will show this was racism.”
Howard left CAA in 2019, and in 2021 the Writers Guild of America successfully fought the agencies’ packaging practices. Howard is currently represented by Independent Artists Group.
He said that taking legal action against CAA may be a “death blow” for his career, and said it was difficult for him to find a lawyer willing to take his case. “There’s two types of lawyers in L.A., two types of lawyers pretty much in the world,” Howard said. “Those that work for Disney, or those that want to work for Disney. The conflicts of interest were there.”
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