Some in Hollywood’s recording industry fumed. So did progressive politicians. But the racy messages LA28 Chairman Casey Wasserman sent more than two decades ago to convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell were not enough to cost him his job.
Unlike the Hollywood recording artists quitting Wasserman’s talent agency and agents who reportedly also want him out, the board of directors overseeing the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles largely is composed of establishment institutionalists with a decidedly different view. Many of the 34 lawyers, philanthropists, entrepreneurs and executives in control of Wasserman’s fate view the sexually charged allegations against him as dated and less serious than depicted by some. They also view the L.A. mega-agent as indispensable to pulling off a successful Summer Games.
That’s the view I got from speaking to several people familiar with the inner workings of LA28, interviews I had begun just as the board’s executive committee announced Wednesday that it reviewed Wasserman’s interactions with Maxwell and her companion, fellow convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The LA28 leaders issued a statement saying Wasserman should continue with his “strong leadership” of LA28.
“I don’t think the emails are as damning as some people think,” one person with close ties to the Olympic organizing group said. “There was some flirting and possibly more with some woman who turned out to be a very horrible person. But what he did had nothing to do with klds, to my knowledge. Wanting to see [Maxwell] in a leather outfit? I mean, people have their tastes. Is that shady as a husband? Definitely. But is it disqualifying from being involved in the future of the Olympics here? I don’t think so.”
That individual agreed to be quoted only with the promise of anonymity, to preserve relationships with people at the Olympic organization. The source and two others with an understanding of how LA28 operates suggested that the 34 community leaders who serve on the board of directors with Wasserman also see him as crucial to landing the corporate sponsorships needed to make the Games succeed, without taxpayer subsidies.
Casey Wasserman and President Trump look at Olympic medals during an executive order signing ceremony at the White House.
(Kent Nishimura / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I think there was a pragmatism involved in their thinking,” said another person close to some board members, who requested anonymity for the same reason. If Wasserman was forced out, the source said board members wondered, “then who is going to finish raising the $7 billion” needed to stage LA.’s third Olympics?
The 51-year-old agent is the wealthy and connected grandson of Lew Wasserman, an agent who was a major force in the entertainment industry in the 20th century. Among those who sit on the LA28 board with him: Hollywood mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg, Lakers governor Jeannie Buss, construction executive George Pla, former U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Olympic track great Allyson Felix.
The individual who called Maxwell “a very horrible person” said the board viewed Wasserman as “the only person who can successfully bring the Olympics to fruition,” adding: “He has dedicated a large portion of his life to getting this done. Any changes in leadership at this point could lead to a failed Games.”
The statement from the LA28 executive committee said it took allegations of misconduct seriously and appointed lawyers from O’Melveny and Myers to review Wasserman’s “past interactions” with Epstein and Maxwell. “Mr. Wasserman and his then-wife flew on a humanitarian mission to Africa on Epstein’s plane at the invitation of the Clinton Foundation. This was his single interaction with Epstein,” the committee said. “We found Mr. Wasserman’s relationship with Epstein and Maxwell did not go beyond what has already been publicly documented.”
Casey Wasserman and then-wife Laura Ziffren in 2015.
(Jesse Grant / Getty Images for National Football Foundation)
Wasserman faces another set of challenges with his eponymous agency, with performers like Chappell Roan quitting him and some within the agency reportedly calling for him to get out of the business.
But those familiar with LA28’s operations had another fear, should he be forced out: that President Trump might try to fill the vacancy with his own candidate. The Los Angeles Games organizers are counting on roughly $2 billion in federal support for security and transportation and fear Trump might try to use that as leverage to play a greater role in the Games, not unlike his takeover of the Kennedy Center board in Washington, D.C.
LA28 previously added former Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former Trump chief of staff Reince Preibus to the board. But they remain in a marked minority on a body dominated by Democrats.
Said the source close to the LA28 operation: “If there’s an opening, I think that the president would exert himself.”
Robert Port attends a screening of “Twin Towers: Legacy,” a film he directed, in New York City last year.
(Santiago Felipe/Getty Images)
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- Opponents say it could lead to bloated labor costs and would cede too much power over the county budget.
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Adjaruli khachapuri, the open-faced, cheese-filled bread that’s shaped like a canoe, is finished with an egg yolk and butter for stirring into the center. Break off the ends and dip in.
(Rebecca Peloquin/For The Times)
Nearly 4,000 Writers Guild of America members and supporters picket and rally along the Avenue Of The Stars in Century City in front of the Fox Studios plaza. The WGA went on strike from November 2007 to February 2008.
(Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times)
On Feb. 12, 2008, the 100-day Writers Guild of America strike, which halted production on numerous Hollywood films and television shows, officially ended.
The Times wrote about the strike’s winners and losers in February of that year.
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