Weeks after his flirty correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein's close associate Ghislaine Maxwell was released for the world to see, Hollywood mogul, superagent, and Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Committee chairperson Casey Wasserman announced that he will sell his eponymous talent agency. In a Friday news-dump memo to the 4,000-odd Wasserman employees, the 51-year-old executive said, "I’m deeply sorry that my past personal mistakes have caused you so much discomfort."
The personal mistakes Wasserman references here include sending Maxwell a bunch of emails in 2003, when he was married to someone else, about seeing her "in a tight leather outfit" and "continu[ing] the massage concept into your bed," among other such constructions. But Wasserman was not just associated with Maxwell; he met her on Epstein's notorious private plane, the Lolita Express. Wasserman and his then-wife joined Epstein, Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey, and others on a two-week "humanitarian" mission to Africa in 2002, a year earlier than any of the released emails from Wasserman to Maxwell.
Wasserman is far from the only public figure to offer a tightly circumscribed apology for very specific conduct only to have to walk it back once further information came to light. Kathryn Ruemmler, former White House Counsel under Barack Obama, was able to retain her position at Goldman Sachs despite popping up in Epstein's emails back in November, listed on Epstein's schedule for a visit to his island in 2017, as well as having sent him a bunch of emails asking for travel advice. Her claim that she basically didn't know what was going on with Esptein crumbled when new emails emerged showing her advising the disgraced financier, whom she called "Uncle Jeff," on how to deal with the media after his 2019 sex-trafficking arrest. Ruemmler has reportedly agreed to depart Goldman Sachs later this year.
Wasserman's documented connections with Epstein and Maxwell are neither as thorough nor as damning as Ruemmler's, but he is a significantly more public figure. His name is on the agency, after all. This past Thursday, Feb. 12, after several artists severed ties with his agency and Wasserman had already issued his first apology, he held his annual pre-NBA All Star reception in Beverly Hills. In attendance, per Page Six, were NBA commissioner Adam Silver, Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin, Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, ESPN chairman James Pitaro, Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, Bill Simmons, and Andre Iguodala, as well as "executives representing 25 NBA teams" and the respective owners of the Atlanta Hawks and Oklahoma City Thunder. I guess all those guys either didn't see the news about Wasserman, or did and thought it would all blow over.
It's embarrassing either way, and even the cynical operator would have seen that the wave had not yet crested by Thursday evening. The campaign against Wasserman reportedly was intensified by people within the agency trying to get their boss out of the paint. "Even after his apology for 2003 suggestive emails to Ghislaine Maxwell," writes Hollywood Reporter's Ethan Millman, "agents had encouraged some of their clients to post publicly abut the scandal to put more pressure on Wasserman."
Wasserman remains the head of LA2028, the organizers of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. His agency will be sold off, probably piece-by-piece rather than altogether, and he says he will step back from other business interests. He and the Olympics, however, remain committed to each other. For now anyway.
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