Would Wasserman Let His Music Division Go to Save His Powerhouse Sports Firm?

As Casey Wasserman navigates the most significant crisis PR moment of his career over 2003 emails to Ghislaine Maxwell, the mogul got a clear vote of confidence from the leaders of the Los Angeles Olympics Committee board of directors he helped assemble. But while that may help shore up his political role in orchestrating the complex machinations of the privately funded 2028 Summer Games, it remains to be seen whether it will quell internal dissent at his namesake Hollywood company.

The Hollywood Reporter hears that some agents at his management firm are still advising clients to take to social media about the issue, which has seen more than 20-plus artists post their stance on the company’s founder. While that’s a fraction of the hundreds of musicians (not to mention talent in other divisions) at Wasserman, it marks a rare action from clients to publicly rebuke the CEO of their own representation firm.

At issue is whether the music division at Wasserman survives under the fold of a company that, until its major buy of talent agency Paradigm’s North American music business in 2021, was mostly known for its sports representation across basketball, baseball, hockey, the NFL and Olympic athlete clients as well as its constellation of marketing firms and boutique, client-focused brand agencies.

In a crisis moment, one line of thinking goes, would Wasserman let a contingent of music agents and clients walk in order to save what may be a more valuable line of his business, the sports division? That’s a question being bandied about by rivals as they speculate about Wasserman’s predicament. Even if that may, in fact, be a longshot scenario.

Another line of thinking goes that maybe this is just a bunker moment for Wasserman, the company, a time when normally it would be promoting a regular cadence of artist and sports star signings but instead it’s scrubbing its corporate website of its vast client roster list and waiting out the news cycle.

Another wild card to consider: How is the leadership of private equity firm Providence Equity Partners, which took a notable stake in Wasserman in November 2022 to fuel growth initiatives at the company, managing this fallout? Providence took the place of two prior investors, RedBird Capital and Madrone Capital Partners, who took ownership stakes in sports teams — football club AC Milan and the NFL’s Denver Broncos — and as such couldn’t own a stake in a sports talent representation firm.

A knowledgable source claims Wasserman is facing new pressure from Providence over the artist revolt. It’s unclear how Providence may be advising the mogul, if at all, to handle the defections from clients who are showing loyalty to their agents regardless of whether they are under the umbrella of his firm. Representatives for Providence and Wasserman did not respond to a request for comment.

Perhaps more concerning, from a financial perspective at least, for Wasserman was the exit of soccer star Abby Wambach as a management client. The sports representation business has been one of the most lucrative areas for management companies and the major talent agencies like CAA and WME which have invested heavily in growth in that space. Those same firms, and others, like UTA and IAG, are as always, looking to pick up clients who may be exiting over the fallout from the PR crisis.

If there is a groundswell among pro athletes to leave Wasserman that could leave the mogul with fewer cards to play than he has now, despite the slew of artist clients (Chappell Roan, Local Natives, Chelsea Cutler, Dropkick Murphys, Sylvan Esso), who have already voiced discontent. “I know what I know, and I am following my gut and my values,” Wambach wrote on Feb. 11, in a widely circulated post that drew a chorus of agreement replies from artists (including Mandy Patinkin).

But, so far, a flood of other athletes have not yet followed suit publicly with posts.

The series of events has escalated in the days since a Jan. 30 tranche of Department of Justice documents on Jeffrey Epstein was released showing Wasserman’s suggestive emails with Maxwell in 2003, three years before Epstein was first arrested in Florida on a count of soliciting prostitution. Maxwell was found guilty of sex trafficking of minors in 2021 and is now serving a 20-year sentence after the conviction.

The DoJ documents showed that in 2003, Wasserman and Maxwell exchanged a series of flirtatious emails, though nothing criminal was mentioned in those emails. Wasserman had also, along with Bill Clinton, Chris Tucker and Kevin Spacey, flown on Epstein’s private jet on what was described as a a 2002 AIDS research trip to Africa. The mogul released a statement on Jan. 31 saying, “I deeply regret my correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell which took place over two decades ago, long before her horrific crimes came to light. I never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane. I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them.”

In response to the DoJ files, the LA28 Olympics Committee board — which includes a who’s-who of powerful L.A. names like Jeffrey Katzenberg, Jeanie Buss and Mellody Hobson along with political figures like Kevin McCarthy and Reince Preibus — stated it enlisted outside law firm O’Melveny & Myers LLP to review the correspondence and, it said on Feb. 11, “We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented.” It also reiterated that the Africa flight marked “his single interaction with Epstein.”

While some L.A. city officials, including two of the five L.A. County supervisors and a third of the L.A. city council, have called for Wasserman’s resignation from the Olympics board, others are more non-committal. Mayor Karen Bass has indicated that the decision is up to the LA28 Olympics Board, while one of her major opponents in the mayoral race, Nithya Rahman, has said that Wasserman should step away from his role in the games.

One potential bellwether, at least politically, over Wasserman’s role in the games and, perhaps, by extension, how much reputational damage his namesake company suffers, may be Gavin Newsom. The California governor is aware of how closely tied the mogul is to the LA28 effort — Wasserman touted in December that he has helped wrangle more than $2 billion in sponsorship revenue so far for the games from blue-chip brands — and that any major shake-up could set back major logistical preparations for the city’s global spotlight.

Asked on Wednesday by reporters about Wasserman, Newsom offered a non-answer, “I haven’t had a chance to sit down with him and I’m looking forward to doing that.”

For now, it’s a wait-and-see moment for Hollywood as well.