A tabloid scandal surrounding talent agent Casey Wasserman is beginning to have consequences for his agency as news reports indicate that superstar Billie Eilish has left Wasserman Music for rival agency William Morris Endeavor (WME).
According to a Billboard report, Eilish and her brother, Finneas O’Connell, have signed with WME for touring and live events worldwide.
Eilish and O’Connell had already been represented by WME for film and TV.
“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 representative for the two artists told Billboard.
The move comes following an August 1 report in the Daily Mail that described Casey Wasserman as a “serial cheater”. The Mail said it had 11 unnamed sources for the report, “including some of [Wasserman’s] mistresses.”
The article described Wasserman as “the man behind such music greats as Coldplay and Ed Sheeran – and brought Billie Eilish into his roster by acquiring music agency Paradigm in 2021.”
According to a report at Variety, citing three “top-level sources,” Eilish and her team were “horrified” at being included in the article.
Two of these sources said Eilish had “minimal personal knowledge” of Wasserman, as she was represented by Tom Windish, an agent who had begun working with the Ocean Eyes singer at Paradigm prior to Wasserman’s acquisition of its North American and UK businesses in 2021 and 2022, respectively.
Sources further told Variety that Eilish wanted to depart Wasserman immediately after the Daily Mail story broke, but the matter was complicated by her involvement in the Paris Olympics closing ceremony.
Casey Wasserman, grandson of the legendary talent agent Lew Wasserman, also has a connection to the Olympics – he is chairman of LA28, the committee organizing the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Several sources inside LA28 were “vexed by the optics” of the Daily Mail report, Variety reported. Several Wasserman employees are reportedly involved in LA28, but a source inside the non-profit told Variety that it won’t be conducting an internal investigation over the Mail’s report.
Wasserman Music represents numerous prominent artists including BLACKPINK, Blur, Calvin Harris, Coldplay, Drake and Kendrick Lamar.
At WME, Eilish will be joining a roster that includes Adele, Bruno Mars, Justin Timberlake, The Killers, Shakira and Snoop Dogg.Music Business Worldwide