Jared Leto's Agency Is Not Dropping Him Despite Even More Allegations

This week, the BBC revealed the details of its report into multiple allegations of sexual abuse and misconduct by actor Jared Leto. Four women accused him of committing sexual offences against them when they were teenagers. Six other women shared their experiences with Leto as adolescents and young women. The report, which is featured in a documentary you can watch an abridged version of on YouTube, came a year after Airmail published an expose detailing nine women accusing the actor of impropriety.

Now would be a great time for WME, the mega-powerful Hollywood agency that represents Leto, to drop him. He’s an accused sex criminal who’s a proven liability to work with and whose films repeatedly flop at the box office. Why keep him around? Well, apparently, someone at WME is eager to have Leto on their books. A spokesperson for WME told Tatiana Siegel from Page Six that he remains a client and that won’t be changing any time soon.

“When asked if the agency’s client advisory committee was reviewing the very serious sexual assault allegations made in a documentary by a premiere broadcaster (the BBC), an agency spokesperson said no. (Leto has denied any sexual impropriety, stating, “I have never sexually assaulted anyone in my entire life. These claims are absolutely and categorically false.”),” wrote Siegel.

This is so weird but also deeply predictable. The old rules used to state that, even if these institutions of power weren’t bothered by abusive figures (and they largely haven’t been for some time), you’d at least drop them once they stopped being useful. It would be garbage to keep Leto around if he were some commercial draw or on the awards trail, but he’s box office poison. Very few of his films have been well-received since his (undeserved) Oscar win. He’s not beloved by some acclaimed auteur or blockbuster maven. Working with him is a tedious nightmare of faux-method jackassery. I assume he has some allies in his corner but what’s the business benefit of it? What dirt does Leto have on them all?

There’s also the other sad reality of situations like this: it’s now a marker of pride for institutions to publicly side with alleged and proven abusers. It’s the new way to show how you’re super anti-woke, to stick it to the libs by giving big-money deals to people like Louis C.K. Maybe there’s someone in WME who thinks having an accused abuser who’s also a financial drag who everyone avoids at parties is somehow the ultimate “I’m not owned” display. I wouldn’t be surprised, alas. They’ll just wait for it to blow over. It probably will. The Airmail investigation from last year floated into the ether after a few days. The post-#MeToo era is smothering in its toxicity.