Hollywood talent agencies seek out high-tech clients; glamour and clout may not impress computer whizzes.

"This is not the old Hollywood!" declared Stuart Miller, the vice president in charge of the literary department at Agency for the Performing Arts, a West L.A.-based talent agency. When Miller looks for clients today, he's just as likely to find them writing computer programs in a San Francisco multimedia studio as writing for a New York publishing house.

APA, William Morris Agency, International Creative Management and Creative Artists Agency have all started new technology divisions in the last year and have signed talent more familiar with microchips than Morton's.

It's a culturally-mixed marriage witnessed both warily and warmly by parties on both sides. "I see the agencies positioning themselves as a bridge between the industries," observed Roy Montibon, creative director of Vox Mundi, a West Los Angeles-based interactive multimedia design and production group. Vox Mundi specializes in designing and producing educational and entertainment CD-ROMs.

"Hollywood is attempting a takeover of the interactive industry, (but) extending their realm into the world of (computer software) designers and programmers won't be easy," noted Montibon, who said he himself has been approached for representation. "If the agencies and studios think they're going to bowl over the computer people with glamour and clout, it won't work. They're not impressed by Armani suits."

"It's being able to relate to technical people that's important. The types of corporate cultures are very different," said Donald Karl, a partner in the Beverly Hills-based entertainment law firm Rosenfeld, Meyer and Susman, and instructor at the American Film Institute, an independent trade school in the Los Feliz district of Los Angeles.

Karl, who teaches a course called "Strange Bedfellows: Business Issues in Building New Media Collaborations," commented, "(Hollywood talent agencies) don't necessarily have the skill to interface with program and game designers. If I were a game designer, I'd want them to tell me where's the value added. (Designers) don't need (agents) to find work."

William Morris agent John Mass observed, "Most of the time, these software developers spend half their time developing deals, when they'd rather be programming."

Mass and his New Media Group colleagues at William Morris can take over that deal-development process with their deal-making expertise, he noted.

Talent agents can also offer their services as matchmakers, hooking up their new techie clients with the agencies' more traditional roster of clients. Much of Hollywood talent agencies' early involvement with the computer industry, in fact, came when CD-ROM and video game developers approached the agencies seeking access to on-screen acting talent, noted Nick DeMartino, American Film Institute's director of Advanced Technology Programs.

"I foresee tie-ins with film, games and multimedia talent," predicted Steve Stanford, director of ICM's New Technology Group. His group represents 15 multimedia development companies, which he identifies by talking to game publishers about their hottest producers. "The game business is almost $12 billion (in annual revenues)," he estimated. "There's a huge opportunity for ICM to develop revenue."

William Morris, which represents an undisclosed number of individuals and companies in the interactive multimedia sector of the computer industry, apparently takes a similar approach to ICM's.

"We play the games. We try out the business titles. We say 'this person is going to be a star.' There are going to be stars in this business," Mass predicted. "Then we sit down with them and see how their business can be developed."

"What the agencies are doing is positioning themselves now so that when the market develops, they'll know it," Karl observed. "In the future, they will be players as representatives of intellectual property rights holders, writers and talent."

Karl said agencies' value-added strengths will probably lie in helping to line up financing, on-screen performers and project ideas, rather than in direct representation of computer programmers or designers. "It's hard for me to see (talent agents) as significant (that way)," Karl said.

Miller of the Agency for the Performing Arts said he took a road trip from Silicon Valley to Seattle, knocking on doors and having a great time "looking for other creative developers to represent." Plus, he noted, "I go to more conferences than I can count," both to educate himself on the industry and to find talent.

Miller, who had signed up for a course at the American Film Institute to familiarize himself with multimedia, actually ended up signing a new client there.

That client is Adair/Armstrong Productions, a San Francisco-based interactive CD-ROM developer. Peter Adair, the company's principal, had contacted DeMartino of the school's Advanced Technology Programs to seek advice about obtaining representation.

"We used the AFI lab to audition agents for (Adair's) multimedia projects. And Stu Miller, who was taking courses here (at AFI), won the account," DeMartino recalled. Miller has since negotiated a deal under which Novato, Calif.-based Broderbund Software will publish and distribute Adair/Armstrong's new interactive CD-ROM title, "Trial."

AFI's Multimedia Salon is a forum devoted to discussions of various multimedia issues, DeMartino said. It has become a draw for agents educating themselves on multimedia and for professional networking. "We also did an afternoon for Dan Adler (new media director) at CAA and one for APA," he noted. "The buzz began with Barry Diller logging onto the Internet. Now you see the bright people at the agencies apprising themselves of what's going to happen in this field," he said.

One of the obstacles to overcome in this new business relationship between Silicon Valley and Hollywood is compensation. "Agencies don't know how they're going to make money in the near term," Karl noted. "Developers can't afford (talent agents) 10 percent of their production budget," the attorney said. Talent agencies traditionally take 10 percent of any monies their clients receive from deals negotiated by the agency. However, in many cases, such hefty agency fees would not allow multimedia clients with enough money to develop their projects. So agencies are now contemplating alternate ways to structure their contracts, such as accepting equity positions in their clients' companies in lieu of part of the up-front fees.

"Right now, because the industry is emerging and there's a lot of chaos, people don't know what they're doing on both sides," noted multimedia developer Montibon. "Independents (multimedia developers and producers) are used to working with low budgets and creatively shooting from the hip," he added. "This could create difficulties in structuring deals."

Mass of the William Morris Agency concurred: "Business mandates that there may be, in certain types of deals, a different commission structure. We're going to have to come up with more creative ways to structure our compensation. It means, perhaps, taking equity, or deferring compensation."

Undoubtedly, the financial details will work themselves out as the entertainment and computer spouses settle into their respective marital routines, and the partners will develop a shared language. "A lot of people are going to have to learn new ways of doing business," Montibon asserted.

Will every successful programmer ultimately have an agent? "The best people will," Stanford predicted. Will Roy Montibon call back the agent who approached him? He hasn't decided.