Brandt Joel, a top agent at WME who represents the likes of Jason Momoa and Matthew McConaughey, has been embroiled in a firestorm of intolerance within the company after he sent, then deleted, an inflammatory message to a WhatsApp group in response to the killing of six Israeli hostages over the weekend.
The Israeli military said on Sunday it had recovered the bodies of six hostages killed by Hamas militants in Gaza, including an Israeli-American prisoner.
In a group chat showing solidarity with Israel that contains WME employees but is not officially affiliated with the company, news of the hostage deaths was discussed after someone shared President Joe Biden's official statement on the incident. In screenshots of the group chat obtained by The Hollywood ReporterWME's Nancy Josephson and Katie Slater weigh in on the tragedy of the murders. Joel later wrote a message in response to the news: “Fuck the left, kill everyone.”
A source said DAY that Joel deleted the message a few minutes later.
Joel, a senior partner at WME who also represents Idris Elba, Justin Timberlake and Mahershala Ali, spent four years in the U.S. Navy and served in Iraq before becoming an agent.
A source told THR that this isn't the first time Joel has sent divisive messages in the group chat, sharing a previous text in which Joel said WME had been “weak” with clients who spoke out about the ongoing war in Gaza. “We've had clients that we should have fired in every department and we haven't and it shows that we are weak and have tolerated abhorrent behavior,” Joel wrote, though it's unclear which clients he was referring to directly and what behavior he deemed “abhorrent.”
Joel added: “This is all poliana bullshit. No one has spoken out in this chat, as far as I know, except Richard, and spoken out. Fortunately there are very few isolated cases, but we haven't fired anyone and that's shameful.”
The bloody and brutal war in Gaza has created a lot of tension in Hollywood, with controversy following those who have spoken out about the conflict. In October, just weeks after the October 7 Hamas-led terror attack in southern Israel, in which around 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken prisoner, the CAA was engulfed in a firestorm after power broker Maha Dakhil posted comments on her personal Instagram. On October 18, Dakhil reposted a statement from an account called Free Palestine that read: “You are currently finding out who supports genocide.” Dakhil added: “That’s my joke.” She then posted a photo with the caption: “What’s more heartbreaking than witnessing genocide? Witnessing denial that genocide is happening.”
Dakhil quickly apologized and remained at the company, but was fired by her client Aaron Sorkin over her social media comments, and soon after the incident she was forced to step down from her role as co-head of CAA films and resigned from the agency’s internal counsel. She has since regained a leadership role at the company.
In November, actress Melissa Barrera, a WME client, was fired Scream VII after a series of social media posts about the situation in Gaza. “Gaza is currently being treated like a concentration camp,” she wrote in an Instagram story post. “Putting everyone in a corner, with nowhere to go, with no electricity or water… People have learned nothing from our stories. And just like our stories, people are still watching this happen in silence. THIS IS GENOCIDE AND ETHNIC CLEANSING.”
Reports at the time suggested that WME was also considering dropping Barrera for her position, but the actress said DAY in a March interview that she has always felt supported by her representatives. “It’s definitely tough, because I was in such a foggy state of mind, but I’ve been very fortunate,” she said through tears as she recalled the turbulent time. “I’ve had a lot of support from the people around me: my team and especially my publicists, they’ve just been so supportive.”