Chappell Roan and Wednesday are among the artists who have announced the termination of their relationship with the Wasserman agency, after the name of its director, Casey Wasserman, appears in thousands of documents published from Epstein’s files.
“As of today, I am no longer represented by Wasserman, the talent agency run by Casey Wasserman,” Roan said in a statement, adding that “no artist, agent or employee should ever be forced to defend or overlook actions that conflict so deeply with our own moral values.”
Wednesday, the indie-rock band fronted by Karly Hartzman and MJ Lenderman, has written that “continuing to be represented by a company run by and named after Casey Wasserman goes against our values and cannot continue.” Beach Bunny and Chelsea Cutler have also ended their professional relationship with Wasserman. “At a time when many of us feel especially angry, helpless and exhausted by the climate in our country, it is simply inconsistent with my values not to speak up and take action,” Cutler said in a statement.
The Wasserman agency includes clients the likes of Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Imagine Dragons, Lorde and Pharrell Williams. In addition, Wasserman is the president of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games and has already received calls for him to resign from the position.
Wasserman has stated that he “deeply regrets” the “flirting” messages he exchanged with Ghislaine Maxwell in 2002, but explained that they took place “more than two decades ago, long before his horrible crimes came to light.”
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and trafficking teenage girls for Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse them. Epstein committed suicide in 2019 while in federal custody.
Wasserman has also stressed that “he has never had a personal or business relationship with Jeffrey Epstein,” and that his link with Epstein and Maxwell is limited to a humanitarian trip he made in 2002 as part of a delegation from the Clinton Foundation.
