Meet Dave’s head may be big, but his paydays are getting smaller… The NYT recently took on an ongoing trend story that New Medici has brought up in relation to the talent agencies: the downward spiral of A-list (with grade inflation forcing some B-listing) talent compensation. It’s definitely a “starpower brownout” in terms of how talent is being relegated to the coach seats of the Hollywood pay-or-play bus. Star vehicles, aka films, from the likes of A-listers Jim Carrey, Tom Cruise, Adam Sandler, John Travolta and even Denzel Washington have fallen in audience regard. Studios while not necessarily going “indie” in terms of concept, are definitely benching high-end talent in favor of niche and sometimes, ensemble casting. Witness the JJ Abrams, Judd Apatow (minus his latest), Quentin Tarantino, Michael Bay’s successes of late. Yes, Inglourious Basterds (Acterds?) leveraged Pitt’s name, but people went for Tarantino’s take on WWII. Bay’s career has been resuscitated via Hasbro and one assumes some behind-the-scenes’ producing from Spielberg. Abrams’ Cloverdale and Apatow’s use of young, gross-out talent is assuredly making studios and talent agencies rethink their strategies.

How is Hollywood reacting to the power brownout? Studios, struggling to cut costs after a 25 percent drop in DVD sales, aren’t giving up on top-tier stars — their presence can make a huge difference overseas and factor heavily into the sale of movies to television channels — but they are trying to pay them less or looking for less-expensive alternatives.

These battles are normally fought in strict privacy — no stars want it known that their paycheck is in retrograde, and their agent wants it known even less — but studios are starting to become bolder.

At the recent Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ Emmys judging event I attended, the NBC digital think tank talked about Jimmy Fallon being a real gamechanger in the late night space.

His pre-broadcast website went up 3 months in advance of the show with video blogs, he twitters like an Ashton Kutcher lieutenant and has made something of his show that no other late night talent has - he’s social, accessible and breaks the wall between media hire and individual personality.

Fallon addresses UGC - user-generated content or “contact” - while nearly everyone else hopes their management or PR team is helping keep them relevant.

Such relevancy though is not just a hire-out, even with every PR company worth its salt hiring anyone with a social media resume they can find. Similarly, the studios have little interest in growing audience around individuals, as opposed to seizing on any actor momentum they can grab.

Kutcher brings a ten million person social media megaphone to his Katalyst company and tv/film releases. The studios latch on, exploit properly within certain windows, then let the film’s following disperse. But, and this is big, they are realizing that Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social platforms are affecting their marketing costs and opening weekend awareness. Just look at Bruno, and the Twitter response. The Inglourious Basterds’ premiere was heavy with Twitter celebs who twittered for free. Miramax/Mike Judge’s Extract has a very robust social marketing presence even.

“Stars and success as a corollary is largely a myth,” said S. Abraham Ravid, an economics professor at Rutgers University who has conducted several studies on movie business practices.

At the start of the decade, summer still belonged to names: Cruise (“Mission Impossible II”), Crowe (“Gladiator”) and Clooney (“The Perfect Storm”) were the top three in 2000. But the three biggest films of this summer season, a crucial period from May 1 to Labor Day that typically accounts for 40 percent of annual ticket sales, have been “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “Up” and “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.”

The biggest names attached to those films: Shia LaBoeuf, Ed Asner and Daniel Radcliffe.

As stars become more “social” and look for audience connection well before a film becomes publicized traditionally, perhaps they will re-earn their ability to open films and have studios double down.

On the other hand, if the talent model continues to spiral, expect Jim Cameron’s Avatar and other films like Peter Jackson’s The Lovely Bones to cast digitally or more quietly.