Much to the disappointment of some readers, What I’m Hearing generally doesn’t concern itself with who’s shtupping whom in town. But when Billie Eilish took her lucrative touring business from the Wasserman talent agency to rival WME this week—soon after its founder and L.A. Olympics chair Casey Wasserman was the subject of a Daily Mail exposé on his “serial” affairs—the WIH curiosity was piqued. Turns out there’s a backstory here. 

Yes, Eilish and her mother are indeed telling people they were upset by the article, and that it I.D.’d Casey as the “mastermind” of her career when Eilish’s actual agents since she was 14 have been Sara Bollwinkel and Tom Windish, who only joined Wasserman via its 2021 acquisition of Paradigm. But multiple sources told me today that Eilish and her brother/collaborator, Finneas, have been unhappy at Wasserman for a while, even minimizing the agency in a recent Live Nation deal. The duo signed with financial advisor Paul Wachter and his Main Street Advisors during the pandemic, and they’ve since made several changes to their team—for instance, hiring Don Passman as their new lawyer (his clients also include Taylor Swift and Beyoncé). Wachter apparently endorsed the move to WME.