Book excerpt: “Roll the Calls” by Ari Emanuel

Updated on: September 19, 2026 / 3:55 PM EDT / CBS News

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In his memoir "Roll the Calls" (to be published Tuesday by Knopf), Hollywood superagent and mogul Ari Emanuel writes of coming to blows in the competitive entertainment universe – and, in one instance, being sidelined by the business end of a truck.

Read an excerpt below, and don't miss Ben Mankiewicz's interview with Ari Emanuel on "CBS Sunday Morning" September 20!

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Early summer 1994. I rise early, do a hard workout, go to the office. Roll calls for several hours, speak to fifty or sixty people about fifty or sixty problems, then look up and realize I'm spent. And famished.

I walk down the street to Kate Mantilini's. I like their omelets.

The restaurant is on the corner of Doheny and Wilshire. One block east of there, I stop, wait for the light. Cars whipping by. I take note of how fast they're going. Faster than usual.

Someone could really get hurt right here.

At the restaurant I sit by myself at a…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/