In 2016, when Dick Cavett was dining at Jeffrey Epstein’s home, the discussion turned to a possible PBS documentary about the storied talk-show host. The financier expressed an interest in helping to find money for such a project.
Mr. Cavett had been introduced to Mr. Epstein through a mutual friend, Woody Allen, and came to exchange friendly emails and attend several salon-style meals at his home with other prominent entertainment figures.
According to emails collected amid a sex-trafficking investigation into Mr. Epstein and recently released by the Justice Department, there were rounds of conversation in which the financier, Mr. Cavett’s wife and a producer of documentaries discussed the possibility of such a film.
“So very happy to think there is more interest in making this happen,” Mr. Cavett’s wife, Martha Rogers, wrote to Mr. Epstein in late 2016.
The conversations occurred as Mr. Epstein used philanthropy and connections to high-profile figures to rebuild his social network after felony sex crime convictions, including one count of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
In an email to Mr. Epstein, Ms. Rogers estimated the budget for such a film at about $500,000. At one point she sent Mr. Epstein a detailed outline of how the money might be spent and who might direct such a project, envisioned as an episode of “American Masters,” a landmark PBS series that profiles admired artists, writers and celebrities.
According to the emails, Mr. Epstein twice spoke with Michael Kantor, the executive producer of the series, which is produced by WNET, the New York public television nonprofit.
The emails do not include information about what became of the project. But a spokeswoman for the nonprofit, Kellie Specter, said in a statement that the documentary was never made because WNET completed a background check on Mr. Epstein and decided it did not want him involved.
Through his wife, Mr. Cavett, now 89, declined to be interviewed. Ms. Rogers said that she and her husband had known about Mr. Epstein’s convictions and his 13-month stint in jail, but that they did not know about the severity of the broader accusations against him. They never witnessed anything concerning in his Manhattan townhouse, she said.
“What we knew at that time was that he had been prosecuted, he had been convicted and that he’d gone to prison,” Ms. Rogers said, “and therefore he had paid his dues, we thought.”
Then, she said, they were apprised of WNET’s concerns.
“They said, ‘Martha, you don’t realize who this guy is,’” Ms. Rogers said of the nonprofit. She said she was told “there’s no way in the world that we can take any money from him.”
The Justice Department documents that have been released relate to the investigation that led to Mr. Epstein’s 2019 indictment on charges that he had been running a sex-trafficking operation between 2002 and 2005 that lured dozens of underage girls to his opulent homes in New York and Florida. He died by suicide that same year while awaiting trial in a Manhattan jail.
The documents outline how, despite Mr. Epstein’s convictions in 2008 in Florida, all sorts of celebrities, scientists, academics and business leaders continued to keep company with him. And all manner of charities and arts groups, often scraping around for donors, continued to accept his money, including some in the film world.
One recipient was the nonprofit that runs the Gotham Awards, which celebrates independent films. Between 2011 and 2017, Mr. Epstein donated at least $27,000, public records indicated, and discussed larger gifts in emails.
In another case, in 2017 and 2018, Mr. Epstein gave $650,000 to a nonprofit that produces “Closer to Truth,” a television series about science and philosophy.
The nonprofit that operates the Gotham Awards declined to comment.
Robert Kuhn, the co-creator and host of the “Closer to Truth” series, said he accepted the money because he was impressed by the scientists Mr. Epstein knew and he trusted the judgment of prominent figures who had become part of Mr. Epstein’s circle.
“If you ask me, was I happy that the series got done?” Mr. Kuhn said in an interview. “I have to tell you honestly, I’m happy the series got done. Am I happy to have been associated with Epstein? I think it’s the worst possible thing I can imagine.”
At the time of his interactions with Mr. Epstein, Mr. Cavett was several decades removed from his heyday in the 1960s and ’70s, when he built a reputation as the thinking person’s Johnny Carson, with his witticisms and in-depth interviews with guests such as Katharine Hepburn, Jimi Hendrix, Muhammad Ali and Mel Brooks.
Mr. Cavett’s last talk show, on CNBC, ended in 1996, but he remained an active presence in media and the arts, including by writing occasional columns for The New York Times.
He had been introduced to Mr. Epstein in 2012 by Mr. Allen, who was a regular guest along with his wife Soon-Yi Previn at the financier’s townhouse for several years, according to the emails released by the Justice Department.
The Justice Department files indicate that Mr. Epstein invited him half a dozen times to lunches and dinners, including one on the financier’s birthday. Typically, there were other invitees, people such as Mr. Allen; Bobby Slayton, the comedian; Ehud Barak, the former Israeli prime minister; and David Blaine, the magician.
Though Mr. Cavett once called Mr. Epstein a “good amigo” in an email, Ms. Rogers said that her husband and Mr. Epstein were never friends.
But they did correspond a bit by email. After Mr. Cavett enjoyed the chicken served at Mr. Epstein’s townhouse, the financier directed assistants to send the dish — coq au vin — to Mr. Cavett’s home.
“Your salon lunches are a great pleasure,” Mr. Cavett wrote to Mr. Epstein in February 2017. “And the food! My god, how you, with all you do, find time to spend in the kitchen preparing those fine dishes is beyond me. Do you have a favorite apron?”
Ms. Rogers, who co-founded a management consulting firm, recalled attending two dinners at Mr. Epstein’s townhouse. She went the first time, she said, because it was one of the biggest homes in Manhattan and she is interested in architecture.
At one of the dinners, she said, the group discussed the possibility of a documentary about Mr. Cavett. Ms. Rogers said the couple was interested in the “American Masters” series, which had profiled Mr. Carson, Bing Crosby and other luminaries. When she suggested that PBS would need funders, Mr. Epstein said he might be able to help, recalled Ms. Rogers, who was under the impression he was going to look for donors.
She later wrote to Mr. Epstein in January 2017: “We are thrilled and delighted that someone you know may want to support this effort. And if that support can only come at half that level (250K), we are still thrilled and delighted.”
Ms. Rogers said that later, when they began to realize the depth of the accusations against Mr. Epstein, she and her husband distanced themselves. But Mr. Epstein invited Mr. Cavett to a dinner and exchanged emails with him late in 2017, though the records contain no interactions between them beyond that.
In 2022, the “American Masters” series did release a different documentary that chronicled the relationship of Mr. Cavett and Groucho Marx. Ms. Specter said Mr. Epstein played no role in that production.
Ms. Rogers said that in her and her husband’s dealings with Mr. Epstein, she had come away with the impression that he had been “rehabilitated,” in part because she saw his wide circle of friends and financial success.
“He’s got a lot of really smart, interesting people around him, and you know, they can’t all be wrong,” she recalled as being her mind-set at the time. “But we all were.”
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
Michaela Towfighi is a Times arts and culture reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for early career journalists.
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