Multiple artists are seeking to leave the Wasserman Agency after details regarding founder-CEO Casey Wasserman’s connection to late financier and convicted sexual offender Jeffrey Epstein’s associate Ghislaine Maxwell emerged in documents last week, sources tell Variety.
The artists’ agents are said to have presented Wasserman with an ultimatum that he step down and divest or sell the company, which he thus far has declined. However, Wasserman, who is currently in Italy with the Olympics, is said to be meeting with top executives at the company later this week to determine a course of action. He is chairman of the organizing committee for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, where he is also facing pressure to step down.
“It’s a house on fire,” one source says.
Several artists, beginning with Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino and including Chappell Roan and top indie acts Wednesday, Water From Your Eyes and Beach Bunny, have posted social-media messages expressing unhappiness with Wasserman and are seeking or beginning the process to leave.
The agency is one of the largest in the music business, with a roster also featuring Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, Lorde, Phish, Raye, SZA, Joni Mitchell, Janelle Monae, Geese and frontman Cameron Winter, Tyler, the Creator, Wednesday and hundreds of others. Wasserman’s artist roster was taken down from its website at some point over the last couple of days, presumably in response to artists’ requests for their names to be removed.
However, the situation is more complicated for agents, who typically are bound by contracts spanning three to five years, whereas the artists are not. Complicating the situation further, artists often tend to be more loyal to their agents than agencies, and many follow their agents from one company to another over years. Similarly, agents often travel together from one company to another, sometimes over decades.
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The situation was said to reach a “fever pitch” over the weekend, one source says, and has only accelerated from there. The executives, who include such veteran agents as Marty Diamond, Duffy McSwiggin and others, are said to be rallying together in an effort to maintain a unified company in some form. Sources say that several offers have been made for the company, along with the possibility for the executives to buy the division themselves, although it is unclear how serious or realistic any of the proposals are.
Representatives for Wasserman and many of the above artists either declined or did not respond to Variety’s requests for comment. News of the impending ultimatum was first reported by the Wrap late Sunday, although rumors had been circulating since the latest batch of Epstein documents was released.
In a social media post Monday, the band Wednesday wrote, “Last week we were among the hundreds of artists who were aghast to find out about Casey Wasserman’s communications with Ghislaine Maxwell,” it reads in part. “It’s also important that we acknowledge the team of people we work with at the Wasserman agency as decent and trustworthy people with whom we’ve worked several years dating back to a time prior to their connection with Wasserman.”
The agency was formed in 2021 after a number of agents and artists parted ways with Paradigm, and Wasserman merged that company with his existing sports division. That sports division is not said to be at a similar crisis point.
On balance, Wasserman is not currently connected to any of Epstein’s crimes or misconduct and is documented as riding on Epstein’s private jet once (on a 2002 humanitarian trip with a Clinton Foundation delegation), and exchanging raunchy emails with Maxwell while he was married, years before the crimes became public. He has apologized for the connection, saying he was “terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.” He is also the head of several charities.
However, it is the second such scandal in 18 months for Wasserman. In July of 2024 — ironically, during the Paris Olympics — a damning report emerged in which Wasserman, grandson of the vaunted Hollywood dealmaker Lew Wasserman, was accused of having “serial” affairs with junior employees over many years. These reported indiscretions — on which Wasserman did not comment — caused a stir at the time but seemed to fade as weeks went by. Billie Eilish’s departure from the agency was perceived to be connected to the report, although multiple sources tell Variety she was already leaving when it emerged.
Coming so soon after the previous allegations, optics — particularly for a company named after its founder — can matter more than facts.
“As an artist represented by Wasserman, I did not consent to having my name or my career tied to someone with this kind of association to exploitation,” Cosentino wrote. “Staying quiet isn’t something I can do in good conscience — especially in a moment when men in power are so often protected, excused, or allowed to move on without consequence. Pretending this isn’t a big deal is not an option for me.”
Variety will have more on the situation as it develops.
From Variety US