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Informed sources reveal that Michael Crichton's just-finished manuscript, "Timeline," has been passed on by every major entertainment studio after it was submitted starting Sept. 24 with great pomp and circumstance by Crichton's brand-new manager, the former super-agent Michael Ovitz.

The crush of rejections by Disney, Fox, Paramount, Sony, Warner's and Universal is particularly embarrassing for Ovitz because this is the first Crichton novel Ovitz has circulated under the new relationship. Last month, Ovitz stole Crichton away from Creative Artists Agency, which had long represented the writer, and brought him over to his fledgling Artists Management Group. Increasing the humiliation is the fact that when Crichton was at CAA, all of his recent novels were immediately bought up by the studios and turned into big-budget films, often with big-name directors and big-salaried stars, including in recent years "Jurassic Park," "Sphere," "Congo," "Disclosure" and "Rising Sun."

Reliable sources also confirm that Ovitz is having trouble setting up another big-ticket, big-name project -- director Martin Scorsese's pet project about New York's Irish toughs, titled "Gangs of New York" and starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Yes, that's right -- King Leo! Ovitz's AMG represents both DiCaprio and ex-CAA client Scorsese, a duo heralded by the management company as the dream team to make the movie of the decade. So far, however, no major studio has shown more than a passing interest in the domestic rights to the expensive ($90 million-plus) project. (Disney only wants international.) And the murmuring is that the movie is in real danger of never getting a green light.

The big question making the rounds of Tinsel Town is: Who is to blame for these debacles? Crichton for writing a dud? Scorsese for coming up with yet another dark and violent plot? DiCaprio for squandering some of that post-Titanic star power? Or Ovitz, once the most feared man in Hollywood, for sowing so much ill will among studio executives for his past abuses of power that they're taking revenge on his AMG clients?

Next page | And the winner is -- Mike Ovitz!