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WME

Susan Plagemann, Anna Wintour

Susan Plagemann’s WME Exit & More Vogue Succession Theories

Inside the latest fashion industry convulsions: Susan Plagemann’s departure from WME Fashion and the group’s next moves, the latest names to emerge in the U.S. Vogue succession race, and a close look at Mark Guiducci’s first month at Vanity Fair.
Lauren Sherman • August 11, 2025
Eriq Gardner • July 15, 2025
The Silver Lake–Endeavor Deal Cage Match
Ari Emmanuel, Mark Shapiro
Today a court in Delaware began considering who would steer the appraisal challenge over the price that the private equity firm paid to take Ari Emanuel’s media and representation business private. It’s as messy—and as lucrative—as it sounds, and has two prominent law firms vying for fees as high as half a billion dollars.
Kim Masters • April 1, 2025
Ari’s New Entourage
Ari Emanuel, Dana White
How does the creative community square the righteous Ari Emanuel—the feminist, Democratic megadonor, and #MeToo advocate—with the real-life, ethically flexible MAGA-era version? “That is the ultimate hypocrisy of this town,” as one source put it.
Patrick Whitesell Ari Emanuel
Matthew Belloni • March 25, 2025
Ari Finally Set Patrick Free
The most interesting element of Endeavor’s finally consummated go-private is the departure of both Ari Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell from the day-to-day of the talent agency wars. Now Patrick is setting up his own shingle in pro football, among other things, and poaching from his former shop.
it ends with us blake lively justin baldoni
Matthew Belloni • December 24, 2024
Hollywood’s Villains of the Year Are the ‘It Ends With Us’ Publicists
Blake Lively’s legal complaint against co-star Justin Baldoni and his team of operators exposes the sinister subset of the crisis communications industry that seeks to attack and misinform, even as Lively’s own tactics, and the role of notorious publicist Stephanie Jones, come further into focus.
bryan lourd
Matthew Belloni • October 4, 2024
CAA’s Scare Tactics
An agency founded by a group of William Morris agents is now trying to shut down its own defectors over the legal definition of “talent managers.” But CAA’s battle with Range Media Partners isn’t just about preventing former agents from taking clients like Bradley Cooper to a new company.
Jon Winkelried
Matthew Belloni • September 17, 2024
The Plan to CAA-ify Talent Managers
TPG leveraged its investment in an agency into a $7 billion sale and $2.4 billion return. Can it run the same playbook in the management space?
New York Fashion Week 2023 tory burch
Lauren Sherman • September 5, 2024
What Is Fashion Week Worth?
As Ari Emanuel and Silver Lake take Endeavor private, the operating assumption is that all the non-core assets (basically everything outside of live sports and representation) is on the table. A number of investors are kicking the tires on New York Fashion Week. But what are they actually buying? (Plus, some news on The Row mystery…)
billie eilish
Matthew Belloni • August 16, 2024
Ari Emanuel vs. Casey Wasserman: Behind the Poaching of Billie Eilish
The tabloid drama preceding Billie and Finneas ditching the Wasserman talent agency for WME has exacerbated an only-in-Hollywood frenemy feud between two of the industry’s biggest egos, with potentially major business repercussions.
Susan Plagemann
Lauren Sherman • May 9, 2024
The Plagemann Year
News and notes on the micro-controversy, real or imagined, stemming from Susan Plagemann’s restructuring of WME Fashion.