Ok well first of all, I'm gonna need you to come off anon because I'm pretty sure you're like my research soulmate and I need to be able to flirt properly with you goddammit.
Man I completely forgot about booking agent info since the new agency announcement 2 weeks ago (has only been 2 weeks? it feels like 4 months), so to anyone else reading this, me and anon are both going off information from that website and none of it has been wrong so far, although information does seem to be missing. So there's your disclaimer about correct information.
First of all, Melissa Kates does seem to be a veteran in the publicist game, but a fun tidbit from the article you linked:
---KATES You get to a point where you realize that if you’re not giving your client the service they’re paying you for — meaning they’re not hearing certain things you’re suggesting or you don’t have the latitude to express yourself the right way — it’s time. It can be hard to say goodbye and can be very emotional. You’re also running a business so you must ask yourself if it’s a business decision or an emotional decision? If you get to the place where you feel that you’re no longer capable of doing the service the right way, … you have a responsibility to take yourself out of the equation.----
So even she acknowledges that not all her relationships with clients have been fruitful, or more to her point that they hit a wall on how to manage their careers in terms of publicity.
Anon have you not read my magnum opus? My write up on why Taylor attended the Oscars? READ IT PLEASE
Anyway the tl;dr is that Taylor got invited to the Oscars because he's working with a studio that had a Best Picture nomination and Ash S. (the guy he went with) is producing it.
I'm going to clarify that from this point forward this is my theory on why Taylor moved from one publicist group to another, I have no basis for any of it except my own perception of things.
I fully believe Viewpoint had been happy to promote Taylor as a fashion guy, this worked somewhat when his biggest hit was the TKB franchise, which is not really good and he was nothing but eye candy. You'll notice Taylor's instagram prior to end/beginning of this year was mostly fashion posts or personal posts, while I think this worked prior to the released of RWRB, it didn't work after.
Unlike TKB, RWRB was more profound and complex and just generally meant a lot to people, including Taylor, because of the themes it dealt with and in general it's very much Taylor and Nick's, they're the leads and the ones carrying the whole thing and it really doesn't work without them. All that is to say that TKB was good fun and it gave Taylor a boost but RWRB put him on the map and he was no longer a supporting actor that was there for the eye candy, he's now the lead of a successful movie.
I think Taylor wanted to take advantage of this and maybe raise his acting profile in a more serious tone, while I think Taylor loves fashion there is danger of being known as the fashion guy that does acting. Taylor wants to be an actor, is very much so, but being known for only going to fashions shows as promo really hurts him.
While fashion was a great way to sort of promote the movie without actually promoting the movie, it kind of has run its course. I think this is where the divide might have been with Viewpoint, I think they were probably happy to keep him in that box, while Taylor probably wanted to attempt a different approach.
Privately I wonder if Viewpoint had an issue with the China trip.
You'll notice that starting 2024, Taylor has become a bit tad more serious, he's still doing fashion but less of it and more in a quality vs quantity sort of thing, I still maintain he was contractually obligated to attend the KB Hong show since they dressed the entire China trip and well the LV show was massive with stars and Taylor got a really good chunk of PR from it.
I think he's actively trying to tampered down the fashion, instead of being a fashion guy that does acting, he wants to be an actor that loves fashion and Viewpoint probably didn't know how to adjust to that.
I think ultimately this is what Lede is trying to do, I maintain that they had a hand on getting the SAG Ambassador title, not that Taylor didn't absolutely deserve it but it's all politics behind the scenes, you think the sexiest man is actually the sexiest man of the year?
I don't think Lede controls his Instagram but I wouldn't be shocked if maybe they gave him some guidelines, we don't know if the social media break might've been something they suggested after all the appearances he had during the first couple months of the year but the fact that he came back to social media (even other peoples', we truly did not see this dude for 3 weeks) right as the Emmy FYC campaigns started and RWRB was suddenly back on everyone's mouth cannot be a coincidence, it was in fact very much on purpose.
So I think ultimately what happened is that Taylor outgrew Viewpoint and Lede is giving him the publicity that he wants.
So I can't answer your "How did Taylor end up at Lede?" who knows maybe it was Paradigm connecting them, maybe Taylor approached them himself, who could really say but it is encouraging that they picked him as a client.
Also to all those reading this, please remember agents/managers/publicists work on commission (mostly) and is in Taylor's team best interest to get him booked and busy.
This really does make me wonder what project he has on the pipeline that Lede is willing to represent him.
