Casey Wasserman Exits Telemundo’s Playmakers Event Amid Epstein Files Fallout

Casey Wasserman will no longer participate in Telemundo’s Playmakers event in Los Angeles this week.

The mogul, who serves as CEO of Wasserman and as chairperson and president of the LA28 Olympic committee, was set to headline the event, scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 12, alongside NFL Hall of Famer and sports analyst Tony Gonzalez. He had been featured in the promotional materials for the event as well as on the invite for Playmakers which was billed as an “evening of insightful conversations with sports industry leaders.”

On Tuesday afternoon, NBC Universal’s Telemundo events team sent out an “updated invitation” and Wasserman is no longer featured on the program. The new invite features Gonzalez as the headliner on a program that will also feature Carlos Eric Lopez, a photographer and founder of Cura Lita, WME basketball agent Stephanie Mejia and LAFC chief brand officer Rich Orosco. The event is due to take place on the Universal Studios lot.

“We were informed by his office that unfortunately he’s no longer available to join us at The Playmakers event,” a Telemundo spokesperson tells The Hollywood Reporter, confirming that it was Wasserman’s decision to opt out this week.

Wasserman’s exit from the event comes amid fallout over his two decades-old suggestive emails with Ghislaine Maxwell coming to light following the Department of Justice’s release of a trove of documents related to convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Wasserman issued an apology on Jan. 31, saying, “I am terribly sorry for having any association” with Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for her role in conspiring to sex trafficking minors with Epstein.

The situation has led to artists represented by his firm to speak out and denounce his association with Maxwell, like Bethany Cosentino, frontwoman of rock duo Best Coast. Others, like Chappell Roan and the band Dropkick Murphys, have gone a step further to exit Wasserman altogether. “No artist, agent or employee should ever be expected to defend or overlook actions that conflict so deeply with our own moral values,” Roan wrote in an Instagram post on Feb. 9. “I refuse to passively stand by.”

As The Hollywood Reporter noted yesterday, multiple artists are considering cutting ties with the management firm, which greatly expanded its footprint into music representation five years ago with a major buy of Paradigm’s North American live music unit. The company has a large A-list client roster that includes Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Kasey Musgraves, Lorde, Pharrell and more.