Inside Move: No Dontanville, so Reese retreats

Witherspoon ankles William Morris

Reese Witherspoon has discharged the William Morris Agency, just one week after her longtime agent Steve Dontanville announced his imminent retirement.

Witherspoon continues to be repped by her manager, Evelyn O’Neill, at Management 360.

Despite the sure-to-come feeding frenzy for Witherspoon’s affections, insiders say the thesp-producer isn’t sure whether she’ll even take a new agent after having spent 15 years with Dontanville, who signed her on the set of her first movie.

Witherspoon is the latest in a line of big names that have ankled an agency and seem unwilling to leap immediately into the arms of new one. Other recent WMA departures include Halle Berry and Sarah Michelle Gellar, while at Creative Artists Agency, clients including Ice Cube and Bruce Willis have fired the agency without yet signing papers elsewhere.

In the meantime, questions remain about the future of other Dontanville/WMA clients. Those thesps include Management 360 clients like Kiefer Sutherland and Anne Hathaway.