But today, in defense of Louis C.K. and Woody Allen, she finds the movement can go "too far the other way."
For years, ICM partner Toni Howard has dined out on a line: "Sherry Lansing slept her way to the top, and I slept my way to the middle." It's the kind of cheeky comment the 4-foot-10, 75-year-old agent drops to disarm someone in the midst of a negotiation or to make a client chuckle. Lansing, one of Howard's closest friends, has heard it umpteen times, as has Howard's husband, producer David Yarnell.

When pressed recently — does she really attribute any of her career success to well-chosen trysts? — Howard looks up from a framed photo of Yarnell she's holding, one of about a dozen of him displayed around her Century City office. They sit beside pictures of her with some of her clients, like Samuel L. Jackson, the highest-grossing actor in the world, Oscar nominees Laura Linney and Michael Keaton and newly minted Oscar winner Spike Lee.

"That is a pure joke," Howard says, pausing for a beat. "Because I wasn't that ambitious."