Ari Emanuel's Disaster : Sources Claim WME To Suffer 8-Figure Loss After Setbacks In BH Building Arbitration

Deadline Hollywood reports:

We all know that Ari Emanuel is an asshole, but we also thought he was at least a smart asshole. No more. Because it was Ari Emanuel who decided to back out of the William Morris Agency's commitment to lease that big blue Beverly Hills office building after Endeavor took over the venerable tenpercentery. Well, now that decision is biting him on the ass big-time. Informed sources tell me that WME could be on the hook for anywhere from $25 million to $70 million because of Emanuel's petulance. (Talk about money going down the drain.)

I've been following this building story since 2008 when Morris first decided to sell its buildings and make the move, through the WMA-Endeavor merger in 2009, and well into Ari's subsequent antics. But then two weeks ago I was tipped to the latest news. What happened is that, of the two-pronged arbitration, the first ruling went WME's way but the second one didn't. Ari's argument had been that George Comfort & Sons violated its lease agreement with WME by letting rival Gersh agency move from Canon Drive into another Comfort space next door at 9465 Wilshire Blvd. That was just 50 feet away from the site of the new WME headquarters in the 6-story building going up at 231-265 N. Beverly Drive. The two agencies would have shared valet parking services and a parking lot. (God forbid!)

No word yet on whether Obama could come up with some "stimulus" money to help out Ari.