Feature: Inner secrets of 'The Mailroom'

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- A new book offers a look deep inside the mailroom -- the training ground that's virtually mandatory for anyone who wants to be a Hollywood agent.

"The Mailroom: Hollywood History from the Bottom Up" is a true insider's account of the entertainment talent agency culture, told in the words of many of the most successful agents ever to take 10 percent.

Author David Rensin -- who co-wrote books with Tim Allen ("Don't Stand too close to a Naked Man," "I'm Not Really Here") and super-agent Bernie Brillstein ("Where Did I Go Right?") -- conducted more than 250 interviews for the book. In the end, he decided not to provide his own narrative, but to organize the agents' war stories and simply let them account for their own experiences.

The result is a 440-page book that shows how entertainment heavyweights such as David Geffen, Barry Diller, Ron Meyer, Michael Ovitz and dozens of others got started. The book will mainly appeal to people with an interest in the entertainment industry, and Rensin told United Press International he figured that group includes pretty much everybody -- given the old maxim that everybody wants to be in show business.

"We all have two businesses," said Rensin. "Our own business and show business."

The mailroom has a long-standing reputation as the place where ambitious young agents got their start, but Rensin fills out the picture to show a boot camp-type environment that provides a stern test of strength, stamina, patience and will.

"People come into the mailroom saying they'll do anything to succeed," said Rensin, "but that's a lot different literally doing anything."

Rensin said, for example, no one would actually walk over his grandmother for a deal. But his interview subjects tell all kinds of stories to make the point that surviving life as a low-wage gopher, with no promise that one will ever move up the agency ladder, can be daunting.

"It's just relentless," he said. "Not only do you have to ... deliver mail and packages, set up breakfast meetings and close up at midnight -- you're also babysitting, driving agents and their families to the airport, and the kid pukes in the car. Sometimes you're delivering urine samples or stool samples to doctor's office."

Rensin likens the experience to Marine boot camp.

"What doesn't break you makes you stronger," he said, "but there are so many opportunities to be broken."

Rensin said agents gave him a high degree of cooperation for the book, mainly because they regard it as a badge of honor to have made it through. They also saw the interviews as a rare opportunity to talk about themselves, given their ongoing imperative to check their ego at the door and virtually live for their clients.

There are ample stories about the menial work assigned to the newest employees, the ways they dreamed up to impress people who could help their careers, and the times they encountered celebrities with their guard down.

"One woman went to deliver a package to a famous producer," said Rensin. "He answered the door stark naked. Brad Pitt answered the door with his shirt off. She said that was worth it."

Several male agents had variations of the same story, involving stars such as Shelley Winters, Kim Novak and Sharon Stone.

"The Mailroom" provides something of a timeline, showing how Hollywood has changed in many ways. Many of the changes appear on the surface to be cosmetic, but turn out to be more significant than that.

The old mimeograph technology for copying documents and scripts is gone, replaced by computer technology that has actually changed the way agencies do business.

"E-mail has decimated the interoffice envelope," said Rensin. "Dispatching -- driving deliveries around to different studios -- is probably outsourced to dispatch companies. Those delivery runs were how kids got to learn who was who, get face time, do what they could to impress somebody so they might get chosen."

Although the technologies have changed, the essential nature of the mailroom has not. From their first day on the job, aspiring agents still need to cultivate relationships with the higher-ups -- to show they can develop relationships with performers and the producers who will ultimately pay for their services.

"If agencies get consumed by other companies and they go away," said Rensin, "you will still have the mailroom. You will still have kids getting in at the bottom."