The chairman of the 2028 Summer Olympics is feeling the heat, and it’s not from the giant torch that just arrived in Los Angeles from Paris.
It’s been two weeks since the publication of a damning tabloid report about Casey Wasserman, grandson of the vaunted Hollywood dealmaker Lew Wasserman, in which the talent agency owner was accused of having “serial” affairs with junior employees over many years. These reported indiscretions – on which Wasserman did not comment — set stars, political figures and industry insiders on edge as the Paris games ended last weekend and L.A. took the baton. It has also brought attention to his company, which represents music powerhouses like Kendrick Lamar and Chappell Roan and athletes including Megan Rapinoe.
First and most consequential for Wasserman is the loss of Billie Eilish, a superstar client who jumped ship on Tuesday. The “Birds of a Feather” singer and her brother Finneas will now be represented by competitor WME.
When the U.K.-based Daily Mail published its Aug. 1 report calling Wasserman a “serial cheater” — naming former and current employees he’s accused of having sexual relationships with — they referred to him as the “mastermind” behind the careers of Eilish and bands like Coldplay. Eilish and her team were “horrified” at their inclusion in the story, three top-level sources told Variety.
Eilish has minimal personal knowledge of Wasserman himself, two insiders said. She had long been represented by Tom Windish, an agent who began working with Eilish at Paradigm Talent Agency (Wasserman acquired and ingested the Paradigm music group in 2021). The star and her advisors had no desire to be associated with the agency after the report, the sources added.
“While grateful to their former live booking agents at Wasserman, Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell have opted to have film, TV and music handled by the same agency, WME, moving forward,” a spokesperson for Eilish told Variety. Wasserman had no comment on the matter.
Eilish and team wanted to bail from the Wasserman client roster immediately following the Daily Mail report, the three sources said, but her involvement in the closing ceremony for the Paris Olympics complicated matters. Not only was Wasserman the name on the door at the firm representing her, Eilish had been recruited for a star-studded performance alongside the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg for the splashy NBC closing broadcast. In what one insider called a “handover segment,” cameras cut from Paris to the prerecorded musical acts on the shores of Long Beach, Calif. Two days after Eilish’s performance aired, WME scooped up the rest of her business.
Several sources inside the LA28 organization, a nonprofit, were vexed by the optics of Daily Mail report, sources said. The story specifically named Patricia Feau, a former assistant to NBCUniversal executive Ron Meyer who later ran Wasserman’s office, as one of the employees who had an affair with the latter. Feau denied the affair with Wasserman to the Daily Mail. She spent almost eight years in Wasserman’s employ as his assistant, before being named Vice President of Host City Relations for LA28 in 2019, according to her LinkedIn page. Tax documents revealed, per the Daily Mail, that Feau earns $350,000 per year.
Feau, a native of Inglewood, Calif., acted as a volunteer during L.A.’s Olympic bidding process, a source close to Wasserman said. After the city won the bid, she and two other Wasserman employees were hired as full-time LA28 staffers. Compensation for all three was reviewed by an independent consultant and approved by the LA28 Board of Directors, the insider noted.
A spokesperson for LA28 had no comment on the matter but did confirm that the organization would not be conducting an internal investigation over the Daily Mail report.
For all his decades among the L.A.-based jet set, Wasserman has kept a carefully curated public profile. A booster for the Democratic party just like his grandfather, Wasserman was more likely to be snapped on David Geffen’s yacht The Rising Sun than on any red carpet. Wasserman recently parted ways with his communications advisor of almost 20 years, Melissa Zukerman, who resigned in May.
He’s been especially visible this year. His splashy appearance at the Met Gala in May, which cost about around $750,000 for a table according to one source who cut a similar check, secured a table for Wasserman and girlfriend Jenny Chandler to rub shoulders with models, movie stars and Anna Wintour. Wasserman’s recent 50th birthday, a Gatsby-level bash at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar, was widely covered for its indulgences – including a re-creation of the landmark Beverly Hills deli Nate ‘n Al’s, though this pop-up was named for Wasserman and his grandfather (“Lew ‘n Casey”). Wasserman client Imagine Dragons performed. Bob Iger, Bill Clinton and Nancy Pelosi all showed up to celebrate.
Source Agencies
