ICM Partners Drops Celine Dion As Client For Not Paying Commission

[Angel2006]

This sounds very bad. I don't want to think the worst, so I'm hoping Celine's team releases a statement of some kind soon and we can get all the facts from both ends. I can't help but worry though, because this is the first time I can ever remembered, or I've ever heard of Celine not paying a bill, especially for a company she's been with since the beginning of her career. I really hope we find out more info soon.

[Xpresso]

And now that René is gone, I would be very careful with the people handling the money. René was aware of everything, and I'm not so sure Celine is…

[maki_Dion-er]

This sounds very bad. I don't want to think the worst, so I'm hoping Celine's team releases a statement of some kind soon and we can get all the facts from both ends. I can't help but worry though, because this is the first time I can ever remembered, or I've ever heard of Celine not paying a bill, especially for a company she's been with since the beginning of her career. I really hope we find out more info soon.

 

There's definitely something more here. I doubt she would just say (or the person responsible, though they are calling her out specifically) "nope, I don't feel like paying you". And I don't think it's because she has no money to be able to pay them, and even if it was that I think they would have accepted some kind of arrangement. They said they tried to solve things amicably, which means they've been in talks for a while.

[Tricey3115]

Guys this is nothing that hasn’t been seen before with contracts and money in the show business life she obviously has reasons to not want to pay for a certian reason and im sure her team is handling it its not the first time shes ever been sued for money contacts for any famous person are always risky business because everything is about money

[Tricey3115]

Mabye this is why: News of the schism between ICM and their longtime client comes as she is preparing to conclude her Las Vegas residency this summer and just days after Concert West Senior Vice President John Nelson told Billboard that Dion is planning major international tour after she wraps her stay in Vegas. mabye she is not paying the commision because of details about what her plans for after vegas touring.

 

http://celebrityaccess.com/2019/02/13/report-icm-drops-celine-dion-as-a-client-over-allegedly-unpaid-comissions/

[Xpresso]

Maybe ICM is just pissed that those two guys from AEG will be helping Celine with the touring business - thus losing money. Let's wait for the facts!

[Tyler1991]

Times like this we really do miss rene....sorry but what a mess. Her career has been very spontaneous of late (admittedly sometimes nice) but lacking direction.. lacking a little more stability, and clearly there is little organization. This is a mess. Get things back on track celine.

[Tricey3115]

I dont find this bad at all its show business after all this stuff happens cause anything that involves money causes drama. I can guarantee Celine did make this mistake or if she didnt agree to pay there a good reason for it

[angelil78]

This sounds very bad. I don't want to think the worst, so I'm hoping Celine's team releases a statement of some kind soon and we can get all the facts from both ends. I can't help but worry though, because this is the first time I can ever remembered, or I've ever heard of Celine not paying a bill, especially for a company she's been with since the beginning of her career. I really hope we find out more info soon.

 

She had some problems with an employee in her Florida house some years ago. He wasn't paid overtime or something like that

[nuts2you]

I remember that one,

[Nmj]

 

 

She had some problems with an employee in her Florida house some years ago. He wasn't paid overtime or something like that

 

I hope this isn’t true, because nothing worse than a rich person who’s cheap. But there’s always two sides of a story.

[maki_Dion-er]

 

 

I hope this isn’t true, because nothing worse than a rich person who’s cheap. But there’s always two sides of a story.

 

Then again she likely didn't handle the finances or employment of her staff back then (or now?)

I would hope she isn't "that" rich person, especially when she used to be poor and saw her parents live paycheck to paycheck as a kid. Her family isn't wealthy, and some of her friends are also middle (maybe lower) class. I know that's an assumption but, for instance, I doubt Pepe as a dancer was making much money.

 

Anyway, I really want to hear her side of this issue and hope it's resolved quickly.

Edited February 14, 2019 at 01:03 AM by maki_Dion-er

[angelil78]

 

I hope this isn’t true, because nothing worse than a rich person who’s cheap. But there’s always two sides of a story.

Here it is https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/347948/Celine-Dion-settles-lawsuit-with-former-employee/amp

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

 

[chocolatechip15]

I’m sure there’s another side to this story, but I don’t think this would have happened if Rene were still here.

[maki_Dion-er]

Here it is https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/347948/Celine-Dion-settles-lawsuit-with-former-employee/amp

 

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

 

He was being payed $50,000 a year, that seems like a good salary for a Florida based worker. I suspect this man just wanted to get more out of them.

This is a different issue because while that was a man that worked for her for 3 years before being fired, this is a company that's been with her for 30 years.

[CelinesDIVO5]

 

 

He was being payed $50,000 a year, that seems like a good salary for a Florida based worker. I suspect this man just wanted to get more out of them.

This is a different issue because while that was a man that worked for her for 3 years before being fired, this is a company that's been with her for 30 years.

 

That is a good salary. It depends on whether he was getting paid a flat salary, or if he was being paid at an hourly rate. If he was being paid at an hourly rate, and worked over 40 hours a week, then he would be required time and a half pay every hour above 40 that he worked. So he would be within his right to sue for that pay. It’s not about trying to milk them for more money. It’s about getting the money he was owed.

[québecflower]

my take is that Celine left them , and they put a different perspective on it.

[maki_Dion-er]

 

 

That is a good salary. It depends on whether he was getting paid a flat salary, or if he was being paid at an hourly rate. If he was being paid at an hourly rate, and worked over 40 hours a week, then he would be required time and a half pay every hour above 40 that he worked. So he would be within his right to sue for that pay. It’s not about trying to milk them for more money. It’s about getting the money he was owed.

 

The article states he was paid a salary, not by the hour.

[CelinesDIVO5]

 

 

The article states he was paid a salary, not by the hour.

 

Then he was going for something that he wasn’t entitled to.

[DionFanAlways]

Wow, her and Rob have a 30 year relationship. He spoke at Rene's tribute. Something really went off the tracks here. Edited February 14, 2019 at 02:38 AM by DionFanAlways

[jpatdeleon09]

Maybe that’s why she needs a manager to handle these things.

[Philippe]

Ok guys, you need to take 5 seconds and breath in and breath out. The number of ridiculous assumptions mentioned in this topic is ridiculous. I know this comes from a good place (because we all love and care for Céline) but the #1 rule is - if you don't know, you don't talk. We know nothing about this case. I am a commercial lawyer working for a national firm in Canada. Drafting and negotiating contracts is what I do on a daily basis. The kind of contract that link Celine with this man must be very detailled. I know nothing about this case, but everything lead me to think there must have been some kind of disagreement with respect to some provisions in connection with the commission. This happens all the time. If Celine does not pay, it's probably because she has been advised by her legal team to not to. Her refusal must be based on solid legal grounds. It cannot be a question of negligence from her team. She is well represented and is not let by herlself. This will probably be settled out of court. The guy simply tries to get some leverage by going public with this news. The last thing we should do is the care about this non event news.

[jpatdeleon09]

“there must have been some kind of disagreement with respect to some provisions in connection with the commission. This happens all the time. If Celine does not pay, it's probably because she has been advised by her legal team to not to. Her refusal must be based on solid legal grounds.”

 

Post it on twitter

[celine19]

Two sides to every story!! And Céline´s side has not been told!! We will see.....

[Angel2006]

I was only trying to say that the story sounds bad when not knowing the facts, but I'm not making any assumptions or speculations. I always give Celine the benefit of the doubt and I try to stay positive and not judge. I know that Celine is a very smart woman and must have a very good reason for not paying whatever this company feels she owes them. I am sure it's nothing and will be settled in court soon. At least that's what I hope anyways.

[jolo87]

She must be trying to get out of the contract before signing another deal with someone else. She has probably been delaying paying the balance on the commission because she has some exit strategy from that deal and doesn't want to waste her money.

 

ICM has probably decided she is too valuable to let go and would rather sue her for as much money as possible rather than allow her to walk (assuming she has some kind of legal basis for doing so).

[Bruno Portugal]

To stop these bad news she needs to release a new single. It's time to talk about Celine's music!

[scielle]

I am a commercial lawyer working for a national firm in Canada. Drafting and negotiating contracts is what I do on a daily basis. The kind of contract that link Celine with this man must be very detailled. I know nothing about this case, but everything lead me to think there must have been some kind of disagreement with respect to some provisions in connection with the commission. This happens all the time. If Celine does not pay, it's probably because she has been advised by her legal team to not to. Her refusal must be based on solid legal grounds. It cannot be a question of negligence from her team. She is well represented and is not let by herlself. This will probably be settled out of court. The guy simply tries to get some leverage by going public with this news. The last thing we should do is the care about this non event news.

 

I agree that it's probably a quibble over some particular provision and this'll end up settled out of court.

BUT, I also wouldn't call it non-news.

The guy hasn't exactly "gone public", as you say - it's a leaked internal memo, but fair enough, quite possibly "leaked" intentionally. This is a guy who has worked with her for decades, and as someone mentioned, spoke at Rene's memorial.

And for a $500m deal at, say, 10% commission (that's what WME charges, for instance), yeah, that's a hefty amount.

 

So... eeek.

 

And truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised if her finances were a mess.

At first blush, there doesn't seem to be anyone on Team Celine who's all that financially savvy. (I think I saw on LinkedIn a while back that the Feeling Prod CFO / head finance guy had retired quite recently).

 

It's not all that uncommon for multi-millionaires to live completely beyond their means and be very overleverd, constantly in debt and not realizing that yeah... sometimes that debt comes due! (For example, one of the reasons Cirque du Soleil was in pretty dire financial straits when it was acquired by TPG, was because Guy Laliberte was using it as his personal piggy bank to pay for things like trips to space - as he was entitled to as the owner, mind you. But it certainly wasn't financially sound for the company!)

 

When you deal with millions all the time... you get desensitized by all those zeros.

 

I'm an investment banker, so I advise on multi-billion-dollar deals all the time, and at that level, the running joke is "meh, what's a few hundred million between friends".

 

We know that Rene was driving her around in limos and housing her in top hotels long before he could actually afford to do so. And so, the idea of "paying bills" may be entirely foreign to her... she never really had to learn to do it because she was so sheltered from it, and has lived a lavish lifestyle for a very long time now.

I believe the autobio (hers, or Rene's, don't recall) basically said Rene was living like a millionaire long before he actually was one. He was a great manager and great at making deals for his artist, but I don't think he was particularity financially savvy!

 

Plus she's new to this... she never had to "pay" Rene, per se. They were 50/50 partners in Feeling (not to mention husband & wife!)

 

Also, let's not forget she entered a bunch of real-estate in her hey-day, at the top of the property market, and then ended up selling several of those assets at a substantial loss. All those properties were probably still heavily mortgaged.

 

So in short, yes, I do suspect that this issue is probably some very specific contractual dispute and she's merely doing as advised by her lawyers, but... I also wouldn't be surprised if she needed a legitimate finance person to oversee things.

And a PR person!

Edited February 14, 2019 at 06:47 AM by scielle

[angelil78]

I agree that it's probably a quibble over some particular provision and this'll end up settled out of court.

BUT, I also wouldn't call it non-news.

The guy hasn't exactly "gone public", as you say - it's a leaked internal memo, but fair enough, quite possibly "leaked" intentionally. This is a guy who has worked with her for decades, and as someone mentioned, spoke at Rene's memorial.

And for a $500m deal at, say, 10% commission (that's what WME charges, for instance), yeah, that's a hefty amount.

 

So... eeek.

 

And truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised if her finances were a mess.

At first blush, there doesn't seem to be anyone on Team Celine who's all that financially savvy. (I think I saw on LinkedIn a while back that the Feeling Prod CFO / head finance guy had retired quite recently).

 

It's not all that uncommon for multi-millionaires to live completely beyond their means and be very overleverd, constantly in debt and not realizing that yeah... sometimes that debt comes due! (For example, one of the reasons Cirque du Soleil was in pretty dire financial straits when it was acquired by TPG, was because Guy Laliberte was using it as his personal piggy bank to pay for things like trips to space - as he was entitled to as the owner, mind you. But it certainly wasn't financially sound for the company!)

 

When you deal with millions all the time... you get desensitized by all those zeros.

 

I'm an investment banker, so I advise on multi-billion-dollar deals all the time, and at that level, the running joke is "meh, what's a few hundred million between friends".

 

We know that Rene was driving her around in limos and housing her in top hotels long before he could actually afford to do so. And so, the idea of "paying bills" may be entirely foreign to her... she never really had to learn to do it because she was so sheltered from it, and has lived a lavish lifestyle for a very long time now.

I believe the autobio (hers, or Rene's, don't recall) basically said Rene was living like a millionaire long before he actually was one. He was a great manager and great at making deals for his artist, but I don't think he was particularity financially savvy!

 

Plus she's new to this... she never had to "pay" Rene, per se. They were 50/50 partners in Feeling (not to mention husband & wife!)

 

Also, let's not forget she entered a bunch of real-estate in her hey-day, at the top of the property market, and then ended up selling several of those assets at a substantial loss. All those properties were probably still heavily mortgaged.

 

So in short, yes, I do suspect that this issue is probably some very specific contractual dispute and she's merely doing as advised by her lawyers, but... I also wouldn't be surprised if she needed a legitimate finance person to oversee things.

And a PR person!

 

I've been hearing about money problems for a while now. She has been moving assets around last year I heard, maybe to make more money to her name?

 

And René was a big big gambler. He sometimes lost millions when playing and the care he got when he was sick was also very expensive. High respect for René though. If he hadn't gambled, we wouldn't have Céline and he deserved the best care possible.

[DionFanAlways]

She could always sell some of her shoes........ oh blasphemy!

 

And for all of us wanting to hear her side, well, I'm not holding my breath on that, we know it ain't coming!

 

 

I think it's true that a lot of these celebs don't have a clue about how much really they take in and what goes out on a daily basis. That's why it leaves them open to things like this.

Edited February 14, 2019 at 11:17 AM by DionFanAlways