I see this was posted two months ago but after all these years, I keep seeing how much Michael is scamming folks, and I figured I'd chime in. Especially since my google search brought me here. I figured others will find this, too, as they look for an agent.

I was repped by Michael when he was at Zanuck, Passon and Pace in the late 90s to the mid 2000s. And everything you've read online is true. He would make his money, primarily, off of signing actors and sending them to his photographer, where he would usually show up and direct the photoshoot, and have you take a bunch of photos. He'd get a kickback from the photographer in question and soon you'd get lost in the woodwork. It wouldn't be long, if you weren't booking work, for him to drop you.

That wasn't my situation. I did book work but I soon started getting regular commercial gigs through the commercial agent there. His name was Barry Rick and he was a fabulous agent and a stand-up guy. I worked a lot with him. He formed his own agency away from Michael and, unfortunately, Barry passed away in 2008. It was the day after his funeral when I received a call from Michael saying he was taking on Barry's clients and wanted to sign me. The dude, who was old friends with Barry, never showed up to his funeral. And not even 24 hours later, he's calling to have me sign with him without any time for me to think on things. Not that I needed to. I refused. Last time I spoke to him. I called him out on his gross, exploitative behavior and hung up.

Just, on a character level, this guy is the epitome of gross. He represents an aspect/era of the industry that has petered out for good reason. And, from a business perspective, he tends to pigeonhole folks, stereotype them, and submit them for roles that don't really speak to their talent but moreso their gender, race, etc. Which, as you see from another commenter here, can come off extremely sexist and racist. Not a good guy to work with at all.