Sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein’s social graph mostly centers on international politics and finance, with a particular interest in science. But like many ultra-rich power brokers, he hobnobbed with Hollywood, too. His contacts ranged from A-list talent to entertainment moguls to some of the industry’s top fixers. Some of these figures were close to him. Others were casual acquaintances. The Justice Department’s drip-drip-drip of documents in his case have provided suggestive, incomplete peeks into these relationships and these individuals’ contemporaneous knowledge of Epstein’s wrongdoing. None are alleged to have been part of his criminal enterprise.
Yet Epstein’s dropping a name, or having one dropped to him, raises eyebrows. He emailed the high-level British government official Peter Mandelson in 2009: “can you think of anyone in India china, japan„ etc, that might want the endorsement of Leonardo DiCaprio… he is looking for non-u.s. products to endorse to make some momey [sic.]” Six years later, a redacted correspondent wrote Epstein, simply and inscrutably, “Jared Leto did very well ;)”
DiCaprio declined to comment. A spokesperson for Leto tells The Hollywood Reporter: “Jared has never met, spoken to or corresponded with Epstein and has absolutely no connection with him at all.”
Much of what’s most recently surfaced is colorful minutiae. Mick Jagger sending his regrets that he can’t attend a dinner party. Richard Branson finalizing a head count for lunch at his private Caribbean island not far from Epstein’s own. Maer Roshan (now The Hollywood Reporter’s editor-in-chief) discussing the terms of the closure in 2006 of Radar magazine, which Epstein co-published.
Here are some the most notable figures in media and entertainment to have been caught in the Epstein maelstrom:
Woody Allen and Soon-Yi Previn
The couple, Upper East Side neighbors of Epstein, grew close to him, sharing meals and grievances over their embattled public personas. The DOJ’s latest doc dump revealed that he arranged a private White House tour for the couple at the end of the Obama administration and helped their daughter get into Bard. (“Woody said when Bechet sets fire to the school they’ll have you to thank,” wrote Previn.) Allen wrote to Epstein in 2016 of the latter’s dinner parties that “it’s always interesting and the food is sumptuous and abundant. Lots of dishes, plenty of choices, numerous desserts, well served. I say well served often it’s by some professional houseman and just as often by several young women reminding one of Castle Dracula where [actor Bela] Lugosi has three young female vampires who service the place.” Months after Timothée Chalamet announced he was donating his salary to charities including Time’s Up for Allen’s A Rainy Day in New York following renewed scrutiny of Dylan Farrow’s allegations against the director, Previn wrote Epstein of a pan for the actor’s Hot Summer Nights: “I’m glad that prick Chalamet’s movie did not get a good review. No I’m not vindictive. :-)”
Peggy Siegal
The latest tranche of Department of Justice files shows how the well-connected New York-based film publicist worked to usher Epstein back into elite social circles following his release from prison in 2009. Months after a judge categorized him in 2011 as a Level 3 sex offender with a severe risk to re-offend, Epstein wrote to Siegal to help him “find me a baby mama.” She replied, “A baby Mama…if I wasn’t 102 I would take that job in a nano second.” (Siegal was 64 at the time.) The new DOJ documentation shows her financial history with him included $50,000 for five months of services in 2011, and that Epstein bought her a $15,000 ticket to the MPTF’s “The Night Before” Oscar party in 2013 and gave her a $30,000 birthday gift in 2018.
Barry Josephson
The veteran producer — who spent much of the Nineties as a top production exec at Columbia Pictures — maintained a long, close, symbiotic relationship with Epstein. This included assistance with personal loans for the former and help with auditions for young women among the latter’s retinue. Josephson was aware of Epstein’s alleged predations. Following the publication of Filthy Rich, James Patterson’s 2016 non-fiction investigation, he wrote, “Fuck that book!” adding, “You ok?”
Michael Ovitz
The onetime superagent and Epstein were acquainted. In January 2013, Ovitz wrote him that he was hanging out with a top tech executive “and we both are raving about you” as well as “your outstanding multiple talents.” Months later, Epstein wrote Ovitz, “great to see you smiling again.”
Chelsea Handler
In 2021, the comedian recalled attending a 2010 dinner party at Epstein’s Manhattan mansion with Katie Couric, Charlie Rose, Prince Andrew — and Allen and Previn. She said she asked the pair “what I would ask any other couple”: how they met. “But as it came out of my mouth I knew that it was too late and I was like, ‘Oh.’”
Casey Wasserman
The media mogul and czar of the upcoming L.A. Summer Olympics has been under fire from elected officials and has announced he will sell his namesake management firm over revelations of his intimate 2003 e-mail correspondence with Ghislaine Maxwell, which took place the spring after he took a trip to Africa on Epstein’s plane. The exchanges are full of charged banter. After she wrote she’d “thought of you at inappropriate moments,” the then-married Wasserman responded, “I think of you all the time… So what do I have to do to see you in a tight leather outfit?”
Chris Tucker
The comedian joined Epstein’s 2002 private plane journey through Africa, along with President Bill Clinton, Kevin Spacey, Wasserman and several young women. In 2013, an aide to Epstein told him on repeated occasions that Tucker had been inquiring about socializing again. “You don’t know what people do in their private lives,” he said of Epstein in 2025.
Matthew Hiltzik
The top Hollywood crisis PR specialist, whose clients have included Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt, began working for Epstein in 2017. (He was listed in the financier’s contacts as “Michael Wolff’s friend.”) His firm’s monthly retainer fee was $25,000. The scope of the work is unclear, although he was looped in for input on a proposed Washington Post op-ed in 2018 by Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr which would’ve defended Epstein, and in 2019 Epstein forwarded the messaging advice of left-wing intellectual Noam Chomsky, whose specialty is linguistics, not to respond to public attacks. “I think that is wise,” Hiltzik replied.
Dr. Peter Attia
Soon after CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss heralded the hiring of the longevity influencer as a network contributor, the doctor’s chummy relationship with Epstein came to light. In one e-mail, he asked, “Have you decided if you’re interested in living longer (solely for the ladies, of course)?” In another, he wrote, “Pussy is, indeed, low carb. Still awaiting results on gluten content, though.”
Brett Ratner
The Department of Justice released a series of undated images which featured the director embracing a partially redacted young woman while seated beside Epstein. This was on the same day Ratner debuted his documentary Melania, about the wife of President Donald Trump, the full scope of whose own ties to Epstein has yet to be revealed. Ratner — who’d receded in Hollywood since Olivia Munn, Natasha Henstridge and other women accused him of sexual misconduct, which he denies — has since said the female in question was his then-fiancee and he “didn’t have a personal relationship” with Epstein. In a 2012 email, Siegal wrote to Epstein that she was with Ratner at the Cannes film festival: “Brett says hi and he loves you!”
Barry Diller
A 2003 message in Maxwell’s inbox shows that “Bary Diller would like to take a hike on the island.” The media titan and owner of Eos, one of the largest sailing yachts in the world, told Page Six Hollywood on Feb. 12 that “I am probably the only one who went to the island to see the architecture rather than the inhabitants.”
David Copperfield
An FBI investigation and later scuttled DOJ prosecution of the magician two decades ago for sexual misconduct involving female attendees at his shows was linked in the latest batch of files to Epstein’s own then-ongoing federal probe. The feds found overlap between the two men, who knew each other. (A photo released by the Justice Department shows Copperfield embracing Ghislaine Maxwell while both wear robes.) In 2024, Copperfield denied accusations from 16 women who accused him of inappropriate behavior.
Tommy Mottola
The new trove reveals that the former Sony Music CEO was chatty with Epstein. After Les Moonves resigned as CBS head after being accused by a group of women including masseuses of sexual misconduct in 2018, Epstein wrote Mottola of recent press coverage: “did you see the massage section in the monves [sic] piece. we should thank our lucky stars”
Steve Tisch
The film producer and Giants co-owner communicated about unidentified females in Epstein’s orbit. (The financier wrote to him: “I am happy to have you as a new but obviosly [sic] shared interest friend.”) Tisch inquired whether one potential paramour might in fact be a prostitute: “pro or civilian?” Since the release of the documentation he’s denied visiting Epstein’s island and said, “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments.”
Tom Barrack
In Fire and Fury, Michael Wolff described him, Trump and Epstein as “a 1980s and ’90s set of nightlife Musketeers.” Now the U.S. Ambassador to Turkey and Special Envoy for Syria, billionaire Barrack was previously the founding head of Colony Capital, which bought Miramax from Disney and Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch out of foreclosure. The pair admired each other. In 2012, Epstein forwarded a Colony investor prospectus to Barrack, approvingly remarking, “do you ever rest,” to which Barrack replied, “Not until you hire me as ur butler. How is my role model?” The latest DOJ records indicate that through the years, and into the first Trump administration, the pair exchanged geopolitical business introductions: sultans, princes and sheiks.
Naomi Campbell
The DOJ tranche shows that the supermodel maintained a relationship with Epstein following his conviction and imprisonment. Two of Campbell’s reported romantic partners, each wealthy businessmen, had their own documented interactions with the financier. In 2016 she repeatedly inquired about chartering his private plane. Unnamed victims have previously told federal investigators that Epstein introduced her to them at social events. Her lawyer has since issued a statement contending that she didn’t know he was a registered sex offender and, in fact, “Prior to Epstein’s 2019 arrest in New York, my client knew nothing about his appalling criminal conduct.”
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