*Hana Gartner

Television personality,

CBC

Ebullient cbc journalist Hana Gartner has been a client of Michael Levine for over 15 years. After years of negotiating her own contracts while at Take 30 and The Fifth Estate, she realized that someone should represent her and ‘in the small town that is Canada, Michael Levine’s name loomed large.’

‘Michael understands that my nature is, ‘The Cossacks are at the door. Any moment, life is over as we know it and I’m going to be a bag lady,’ ‘ she continues. ‘I got him a gag gift one day, a rock stamped with one word, ‘serenity,’ The biggest advice Michael has given me over the years is, ‘Hana, be serene.’ It’s not in my nature, but you’ve got to strive for something.’

Levine has tried to create that serenity for Gartner by negotiating favorable contracts for her at the cbc as her career shifted, over the years, from The Fifth Estate to The Magazine and beyond. Gartner enjoys watching Levine in action. ‘You remember the guy with the plates spinning on sticks, running up and down? That’s him. He generates more creative energy when he has more going on. He needs it; it feeds him.’

As a negotiator, Levine has few peers, a fact that Gartner gratefully acknowledges. ‘It’s an art. Mr. Levine has an incredible repertoire of emotions. He’s totally non-confrontational, but when he calls, it’s ‘My God! Levine is on the line!’ He’s intimidatingly friendly.’

Her only complaint about Michael Levine is, ‘I want to be his one and only when I’m with him. I get very upset when I’m sitting with him and the phone rings. I keep staring at him, trying to get his full and undivided attention. But he keeps the fillings of each pie from slopping over into the next one. He’s an incredible compartmentalizer. Clearly, he has to be one of the most discreet people on the face of the earth.’

*Arthur Weinthal

Senior programming

consultant,

Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting

Michael Levine acknowledges Arthur Weinthal as one of his mentors in the entertainment field. Weinthal was at ctv for 36 years and for the vast majority of that time, he has known and worked with Levine.

‘Michael is quite enchanted with television. From the first time we met, he was always interested in programs, how they were made, how they get broadcast and who paid for them,’ recalls Weinthal. ‘While he was trained and educated as a lawyer, he is predominantly a businessman. The thing I always found terrific about him, without denigrating the legal profession, is that he is mainly interested in getting a deal done. He likes pulling people and ideas together. I remember he once told me, ‘I’m not a writer or an actor or a producer, but I want to participate in how these people get programs made.’ Now, he is often a part of that process.’

It was Weinthal who produced the acclaimed Tribute to Terry Fox for television. ‘Michael was also involved and when we met afterwards, he said, ‘This is a great dramatic story. We should do something about it.’ That [The Terry Fox Story] was the first significant production that Michael was involved in. I was in from Day One.’ Weinthal pauses for emphasis, then adds, ‘Entrepreneurial skills in the business of producing programs are not that common. We have lots of performers, writers and directors but entrepreneurs who can put together a movie-of-the-week or a mini- series are not common. Michael has made his mark at it.’

As a program consultant for Alliance Atlantis, Weinthal is involved in the operations of the company’s History Television. So is Levine, through his activities with Patrick Watson and the Historica Foundation.

‘Michael loves the fact that you can bring complicated ideas and historical information to the public,’ observes Weinthal. ‘Most people who are in television, certainly at the level I’ve always been and where Michael functions, are mindful that we have access to people’s minds. While we sing and dance, we also inform and enlighten and stimulate. That’s an important part of Michael’s value structure.’

*Norm Bolen

Senior VP, programming,

Showcase and History Television

Norm Bolen was head of current affairs at the cbc when he first met Michael Levine. The two had discussions about the CRB Foundation and how it, and Levine, could become involved with projects at the station. One project that Levine brought to fruition there was The Danger Tree, about Newfoundland, based on a script and book by David Macfarlane.

‘The Danger Tree was a really good project,’ recalls Bolen. ‘Michael drove it relentlessly and against all odds managed to get it done. Even if a project seems difficult, even if the financing seems dubious and there’s a low interest level from the broadcaster, he has a way of bringing together different elements – the publishing component, the creative component, the publicity component – and making a compelling case for why something should happen. Often he overcomes significant odds to keep projects alive through his persistence, although he never pushes in an offensive way. He’s just relentlessly supportive and enthusiastic about the things he believes in.’

Since Bolen’s move to History Television, his relationship with Levine has become more important. Through Historica, a funder for some of the station’s productions, and Patrick Watson, who is involved in the biography series The Canadians, Levine has developed a number of associations with the station.

Now Bolen ‘spends a lot of time with Michael socially. I find him to be a very witty guy with a lot of stories. What I like about our relationship is that we’re able to solve problems quickly. He’s able to talk to me bluntly and it’s never taken personally. We have the utmost respect for each other.’

Bolen has had time to think about what motivates Levine. ‘I think that what drives him, first of all, is a desire to promote Canadian projects. He really believes in historical projects that are significant to Canadians, particularly young Canadians, especially when they have educational value. And secondly, Michael is focused on supporting the production industry. He’s keenly interested in supporting young talent and will often suggest various people for certain projects, hoping that they can work together as a team.’

*Suzanne de Poe

Co-president & COO,

WCA Film & TV Ltd.

Longtime industry professional Suzanne de Poe first met Michael Levine more than 20 years ago when they both were on the board of the Canadian Images Festival. ‘He was incredibly helpful,’ remembers de Poe. ‘Michael would move mountains.’

Over the years the two would see each other at film industry events, but it was only recently, when de Poe became involved with Westwood Creative Artists, that they began to develop a working relationship. ‘I phoned Michael and had lunch with him. I told him that I wanted to make a move with my agency.’ De Poe’s firm represented 75 film artists ‘and it seemed to fit perfectly with what was happening at Westwood at the time for us to talk about a merger. I knew that Westwood was getting into film,’ and with Levine as chair of the board, it was obvious that an expansion in that area was bound to happen.

With Bruce Westwood’s enthusiastic approval, WCA Film & TV Ltd. formed recently. ‘It’s only been six months,’ states de Poe. ‘It’s way early. All our projects are still in discussion stages.’ Still, the film rights to Timothy Findley’s Pilgrim have been sold and wca is working on packaging, or selling, such books as Bonnie Burnard’s award-winning A Good House and George Bowering’s Visible World.

De Poe and Levine are co-presidents of wca. He’s the ceo while she is the coo. ‘I’m on the spot, in the office,’ says de Poe. ‘Michael and I meet a couple of times a week to discuss projects. He’s incredibly supportive and very often brings another angle or suggestion. It’s like having another brain around whenever you need it and, of course, he has the Rolodex from Hell.’

Her favorite image of him is ‘Michael on a cell phone, making notes in a notebook, closing one deal and starting another, while hopping into a car for a meeting. Multi-tasking, I guess.’

*William Rosenfeld

Attorney & senior partner,

Goodman Phillips and Vineberg

Bill Rosenfeld brought a very young Michael Levine into his law firm in 1971. The two remain law partners to this day.

‘I first met Michael when he came looking for a job,’ recalls Rosenfeld. ‘We had a law firm of modest size. He had other options available to him. The fact that he isolated the kind of practice we had [entertainment law] and sought it out with real tenacity and drive was very impressive to me.’

At the time, Rosenfeld’s company represented a number of film and television distributors and film exhibitors. Among their clients were Astral, Columbia Pictures and Famous Players. ‘Having Michael join the firm was an ideal opportunity to coalesce the entertainment practice in the hands of someone who really loved it.’

During those early years, before the merger with Goodman Phillips and Vineberg, ‘we were a very small group,’ states Rosenfeld. ‘We would talk about all kinds of things over a cup of tea in each other’s offices. It was a very sociable environment.’ Levine, at that time struck Rosenfeld as an ‘unredeemed 19th century liberal. He has a strong sense of social obligation.’

Now, Rosenfeld finds, ‘Michael has remained irrepressibly brilliant. I was looking at a couple of series he coproduced for History Television. One of them was on Bobbie Rosenfeld [the great female athlete] who was a cousin of mine. That’s typical of Michael to put something like that on tape and breathe reality into that kind of Canadian history. Without Michael, it wouldn’t happen.’

*Robert Lantos

Chair & CEO,

Serendipity Point Films

Robert Lantos and Michael Levine first met in the early ’70s when Levine was the ‘only entertainment lawyer in Canada’ and Lantos was, by his admission, ‘a young upstart looking to produce my first film.’ The two have maintained a friendship over the years and, occasionally, Levine has represented the acclaimed producer and former head of Alliance Communications.

‘Michael is a marriage broker and a deal-maker first,’ states Lantos, ‘and a lawyer second. He’s always putting people together. The most salient example in my memory is that he had the original idea to merge the leading production companies in Canada in order to form one really strong firm.’

Back around 16 years ago, he hosted a dinner at a private club for Stephen Roth, Denis Heroux, John Kemeny, Robert Cooper and myself. That was the night the first discussions took place about us joining together to form the company that became Alliance. Officially, Michael was acting as Cooper’s lawyer and he eventually dropped out of the negotiations. But Michael wasn’t so much acting for him. He felt that we would all be stronger, the industry would be stronger, if there was one leading force in Canadian production.’

Although Levine never acted as an attorney or producer on any of Lantos’ films, he continued to be an advisor. ‘Early in the life of Alliance, we needed a financial partner. We went to Cineplex Odeon and Michael was at that very first meeting with Garth Drabinsky, which resulted in Cineplex injecting much-needed financing into Alliance for an equity position.