Orville Peck is leaving the Wasserman talent agency after its CEO was mentioned in the Epstein files
Emails between the agency’s CEO and Ghislaine Maxwell recently emerged in the Epstein files release
Country musician Orville Peck has announced his departure from the Wasserman talent agency following revelations that its founder and CEO, Casey Wasserman, is named in the Epstein files.
“In light of the recent findings regarding Casey Wasserman, I have made the decision to no longer be represented by the Wasserman talent agency,” the musician said in a statement posted to Instagram. “I leave with a huge amount of compassion for the rest of the agents and staff at the agency, who are being left with a situation that impacts all of our work and livelihoods.”
Related:“People say I’m not country enough. What they mean is that I’m not straight”—Orville Peck on his latest release, Stampede: Vol. 1
Peck’s decision to cut ties with the agency comes shortly after artists including Chappell Roan and Sylvan Esso did the same.
Casey Wasserman has apologized for his long-ago flirtatious communications with Ghislaine Maxwell, who is now serving a prison sentence for sex trafficking in connection to Jeffrey Epstein. “As is well documented, I went on a humanitarian trip as part of a delegation with the Clinton Foundation in 2002 on the Epstein plane,” he said in a statement, adding, “I am terribly sorry for having any association with either of them,” in reference to Epstein and Maxwell.
According to Variety, other Wasserman agents have given the CEO an ultimatum, demanding that he resign and divest or sell the company. He has reportedly declined to do either.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
