Tension over the violence in the Middle East spilled into a WME chat thread this weekend when the agent to Matthew McConaughey, Jason Momoa, Kevin Hart and more, lashed out following the Hamas killing of six Israeli hostages wrote, “Screw the left kill all,” TheWrap has learned.
Top WME agent Brandt Joel deleted the text a few minutes later, but not before a number of colleagues upset by the violence of the message took a screenshot.
Despite the deletion, “His tacit (or explicit) endorsement of violence — genocide? — against the Palestinians was shocking,” wrote a fellow agent to TheWrap, who declined to be identified. They noted that they shared Joel’s messages from the private groupchat due to what they described as “Brandt’s virulent racism.”
An individual close to the agency told TheWrap that Joel’s message was referring to killing terrorists.
The agent’s message had been sent in a Jewish affinity group that included WME partner Nancy Josephson and agent Katie Slater, both of whom expressed their sorrow at the death of the hostages. The groupchat shared President Joe Biden’s statement on the hostages’ deaths.
His message left WME colleagues shocked, a source tells TheWrap, with “everyone messaging each other asking what’s wrong with him.”
The message comes as emotions run high following the killing of more hostages nearly a year after Israel was initially attacked by terrorist group Hamas with 1,200 Israelis killed in the initial attack and around 250 hostages initially taken, leading to a protracted military conflict in Gaza. Joel is a U.S. military veteran who spent four years in the Navy and was deployed to the Persian Gulf before pivoting to work in Hollywood.
“The outrage over six dead Israelis (which is AWFUL), and total disregard for what’s happening to tens of thousands of Palestinians, is absurd,” a fellow agent wrote. That source shared with TheWrap that this wasn’t the first concerning message Joel had sent.
Joel previously slammed the agency’s continued representation of some clients via the groupchat, writing, “We have been weak every department has clients we should have fired and we didn’t and it shows we are weak and we have tolerated abhorrent behavior.”
“Thankfully there are very few outliers,” he went on to add, “yet we have not fired one and it’s shameful.”
An individual who spoke to TheWrap said he was referring to clients who expressed support for Hamas.
Actress Melissa Barrera was a high-profile example of someone who spoke out against Israel and in support of Palestine during the continuing conflict, which led to her being fired from her lead role in the forthcoming “Scream” sequel. Barrera is represented at WME, though not by Joel.
Joel’s high-profile clients also include Hugh Laurie, Mahershala Ali, Jonah Hill, John Malkovich, Ted Danson, Matt LeBlanc, Justin Timberlake, Peyton Reed and others.
Both Joel and WME declined to comment for this story.
Sharon Waxman contributed to this story.
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