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On the Lot: Epstein fallout in Hollywood, and a surprise strike

Also in this issue: Confessions of A-list casting director Francine Maisler.
Casey Wasserman at an NBC Universal Team USA event ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif. on May 21, 2025.
Casey Wasserman at an NBC Universal Team USA event ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif. on May 21, 2025. Patrick T. Fallon / AFP via Getty Images
By Rebecca Keegan
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Welcome back to ON THE LOT, our weekly newsletter with fresh reporting and analysis on the biggest storylines in Hollywood.

In today’s edition: Casey Wasserman’s latest cancellation, Hollywood’s ironic new labor pains, confessions of A-list casting director Francine Maisler and this week’s recommendations.

Got tips (On L.A. Olympic committee gossip or how to get Springsteen tickets at the Forum)? You can reach me at rebecca.keegan@nbcuni.com or on Signal at thatrebecca.82.

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PUNTING ON WASSERMAN

If you want a simple example of how the icky fallout of the Epstein scandal is playing out West, take a look at a decidedly evolving event that was supposed to happen at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 26 honoring mogul Casey Wasserman and L.A. Lakers team governor Jeanie Buss.

At the beginning of this week, the splashy event, called “The Wallis Delivers: Cheers to the Home Team,” appeared to be on. This is even after Wasserman announced he is selling his namesake talent agency because of fallout from his communications with Ghislaine Maxwell and after L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said Wasserman should step down as chair of the LA28 Olympics committee.

Sponsored by the Tom Gores Family Foundation — the Detroit Pistons owner’s philanthropy — and chaired by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, the gala had a power-packed list of donors, including soon-to-retire Disney CEO Bob Iger, basketball legend Michael Jordan, Paramount Skydance President Jeff Shell, music manager Irving Azoff, former Paramount CEO Sherry Lansing, Kardashian momager Kris Jenner, comedian Jay Mohr, actor Debbie Allen and her husband, former NBA player Norm Nixon, and many, many others.

The Los Angeles Olympics organizing committee’s board continues to stand by Wasserman after it said an investigation was conducted, and Wasserman hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing.

But by Wednesday, as Wasserman’s perceived toxicity grew, I happened to notice the Wallis Center had quietly eliminated his name from the webpage for the event, which otherwise looked to be proceeding as normal in honoring Buss. Interestingly, Buss, who sits on the LA28 board and who has made a personal brand out of empowering women in the male-dominated sports world, is one of the names I’m hearing floated as a possible replacement for Wasserman as the LA28 chair should he step down or be ousted.

By Thursday, both Wasserman and Buss had been struck from the event’s description. The website now says the event is being rescheduled to May 21—perhaps by that time the matters of the Olympics and of Wasserman’s place in polite society will have been decided? Representatives for Wasserman, Buss and the Wallis Center didn’t respond to requests for comment about the event over the week. But tables are still available, in packages up to $250,000. And to all those VIPs who suddenly have next Thursday night free … see you at the Kings game?

LABOR PAINS

In a plot twist even the Writers Guild of America’s talented members couldn’t script, the WGA West’s own staff is out on strike just one month before the writers and studios are set to bargain over their next contract. The staffers I spoke to say the WGA has surveilled them, fired people for joining a union and engaged in bad-faith bargaining, including being unwilling to talk to them about artificial intelligence protections for their jobs. You read that right.

Outside the WGA West building in Los Angeles, members of WGA West’s staff picketed on Wednesday.
Outside the WGA West building in Los Angeles, members of WGA West’s staff picketed on Wednesday.Courtesy Rebecca Keegan

The WGA — which made a strong case to the studios to protect writers from AI encroachment in 2023 and is expected to do so again when talks start March 16 — is not, its staffers say, willing to talk about doing the same for them. WGAW President Michele Mulroney didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The guild’s communications officer is also out on strike.

All of this is unfolding, meanwhile, as the Screen Actors Guild is winding up its second week of bargaining with the studios, so far with its media blackout holding firm, usually a sign that those talks are going well.

As a result of the guild staff strike, which started Tuesday, the WGA canceled a planned in-person meeting with members to talk about its upcoming contract negotiations. Inside the guild building this week, writers’ paychecks were piling up, unprocessed by the union’s roughly 115-person staff. Outside the building, picketers were shouting “shame!” at people who entered and carried signs that read “A Union Should Act Like a Union” and “It’s Giving AMPTP,” a reference to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the studios’ collective bargaining representative and the writers’ traditional adversary.

We’d expect similar labor values to translate into our work culture,” Chris Milliken, who works in the WGAW’s contracts department, told me. Missy Brown, who works in the agency department and has been at the guild for 17 years, said, simply, “I’m embarrassed.”

AN OVERDUE CLOSEUP

Francine Maisler has devoted more than 30 years to staying out of the spotlight while pushing actors into it. Now, Maisler, who cast Ryan Coogler‘s “Sinners,” is one of the five nominees in the motion picture academy’s inaugural best casting category, alongside the casting directors for “Hamnet,” “Marty Supreme,” “One Battle After Another” and “Secret Agent.”

“It’s a little surreal,” Maisler told me recently of the newfound attention she’s getting as an Oscar nominee. “I’ve had to work on feeling comfortable.”

The push for an Oscar category for casting began in the late '90s and gained steam after the academy created a casting directors branch in 2013. “I don’t see this as just an honor for the five of us, but for the colleagues who fought so hard for this recognition,” Maisler said.

Francine Maisler attends the Casting Directors Panel during the 41st Santa Barbara International Film Festival at The Arlington Theatre on February 7 in anta Barbara, Calif.
Francine Maisler attends the Casting Directors Panel during the 41st Santa Barbara International Film Festival at The Arlington Theatre on Feb. 7, 2026, in Santa Barbara, Calif.Tibrina Hobson / Getty Images for Santa Barbara I

Maisler, who broke into the industry casting “The Larry Sanders Show” and went on to find the award-winning actors in “12 Years a Slave,” “The Revenant” and “Succession,” is known for discovering talent. She looked at more than 1,000 actors for the role of “Sinners” protagonist Sammie, a young blues musician hanging out with his twin gangster cousins (Michael B. Jordan in a dual role), and found Miles Caton, a 20-year-old R&B singer who was opening for singer-songwriter H.E.R. in Europe at the time. It was Caton’s first-ever audition, which he taped in his basement.

“Out of this dark room came this voice, which just stopped us in our tracks,” Maisler said. “I sent it to Ryan and the producers, and they also fell in love. Although Ryan did say, ‘Francine, could you ask him to go back on tape, turn the lights on and do it again?’”

Maisler’s next two projects are Aaron Sorkin‘s “The Social Reckoning,” for which she recruited “Sinners” actress Wunmi Mosaku, and Michael Mann‘s “Heat 2,” a follow-up to his 1995 crime drama. Although she has long sought out and prefers trained actors, Maisler told me she is trying to keep an open mind about a new talent pipeline — online creators — and has staffers in her office devoted to keeping tabs on that demo. Asked whether she would ever consider casting an AI actor, à la Tilly Norwood, Maisler said: “I really hope we don’t let that happen. At least I won’t be a part of it.”

THE HYPE

Why get your recommendations from an algorithm when you could get them from a comedy legend, an Oscar nominee … and me, a living, human entertainment journalist? I asked a couple of folks around town what they’re watching, reading and listening to.

“Airplane!” co-director and “Naked Gun” director David Zucker, who is about to launch a podcast called “Naked Comedy,” is watching the TBS reality show “Impractical Jokers,” because “they’re funnier than anything on movie screens today,” and the Richard Linklater film “Blue Moon,” “because of the tight script and Ethan Hawke‘s fantastic acting.”

Kate Hawley, the Oscar-nominated costume director of “Frankenstein,” who hails from New Zealand and has her own flock of sheep there, says her “go-to comfort watch” is a long-running New Zealand documentary show called “Country Calendar,” which she described as “tales of sheep, sheep dog trials, farming and agricultural- the people who work the land in the heartland of NZ.”

And I’m watching Amazon’s “Crime 101,” because “Heat 2” isn’t out yet, and reading Shelby van Pelt‘s “Remarkably Bright Creatures” ahead of the bestselling octopus novel’s Netflix adaptation starring Sally Field due in May.

THE DIALOGUE

“Now this is a surprisingly small piece of paper, considering how many butts it’s trying to cover.” — Late-night host Stephen Colbert while holding up CBS’ statement about his unaired interview with Texas state Rep. James Talarico, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate.

“Given the egregious nature of Seedance 2.0’s outputs and the complete lack of observable copyright guardrails at launch, SPE can only conclude that ByteDance’s infringements are willful.” — Jill Ratner, general counsel of Sony Pictures Entertainment, in a cease-and-desist letter sent to ByteDance about its new video model. (Disney, Paramount, Warner Bros. and Netflix have also issued similar letters.)

“I believe strongly that the proposed sale of Warner Brothers Discovery to Netflix will be disastrous for the theatrical motion picture business that I have dedicated my life’s work to. Of course, my films all play in the downstream video markets as well, but my first love is the cinema.” — “Avatar” director James Cameron in a letter to Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah.

That’s a wrap — see you next week!

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Rebecca Keegan

Rebecca Keegan is the senior Hollywood reporter for NBC News Digital, where she covers the entertainment industry.