In February 2013, the Motion Picture and Television Fund hosted its splashy fundraising gala “The Night Before” at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Held each Oscar season to support the fund’s hospital and senior-care facilities, including the Wasserman Campus in Woodland Hills, the gala attracts A-list actors and top entertainment executives.
One ticket buyer for that year’s gala did not attract much scrutiny at the time: Jeffrey Epstein.
The disgraced financier had arranged, through a shell firm, to purchase a $15,000 ticket for Hollywood publicist Peggy Siegal to attend the 2013 event, according to bank statements and emails between Epstein’s team and the MPTF reviewed by The Times.
The Feb. 28 check for the fundraising gala was described in emails as a tax-deductible donation to the century-old Hollywood charity founded by Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and others. Although the ticket was in Siegal’s name, key MPTF staffers were aware Epstein paid for it, according to the emails.
The publicist’s participation in the gala came at a pivotal time for Epstein, who was seeking to rehabilitate his image, which had been badly damaged by his 2008 conviction. Siegal features heavily in the Epstein files, which describe her role in helping to reintroduce him to societyafter his time in prison.
The communications provide a glimpse into Epstein’s efforts to maintain ties with influential figures in Hollywood and beyond — years after he was convicted.
“Thank you so much for bending the rules and selling me a ticket,” Siegal wrote, “for such a worthy cause.”
The MPTF has been a favorite charity of the sports and future music mogul Casey Wasserman, whose family name has adorned the MPTF’s main campus in Woodland Hills since 1998. Wasserman recently announced he would sell his namesake talent agencyamid the fallout over his ties to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
Although Wasserman serves on the charity’s board of directors, he did not oversee the 2013 fundraising efforts, which were led by longtime benefactor and DreamWorks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. There is no evidence that Wasserman or Katzenberg, who also serves on the board of directors of LA28, were aware Siegal was attending on Epstein’s behalf, or that they interacted with the publicist at the event.
Wasserman declined to comment, but a source close to the mogul who was not authorized to comment said he did not know about Epstein’s purchase of the ticket, and did not know Siegal or speak to her at the event.
The latest batch of Epstein documents released by the Justice Department showed Wasserman had exchanged sexually charged emails with Epstein’s co-conspirator Maxwell in 2003, after flying on Epstein’s plane with her and former President Clinton on a humanitarian trip to Africa in 2002.
Wasserman has apologized for his correspondence with Maxwell and recently told The Times the Africa trip was the only time he met Epstein. He retains his position as the leader of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games, whose organizing committee has stood by him.
Representatives for Katzenberg, the MPTF and Siegal did not immediately return messages seeking comment.
At the time of Siegal’s outreach to the MPTF, Epstein and his team had begun a campaign to renew his ties with powerful people in the worlds of finance, science and entertainment.
In June 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of one count of soliciting prostitution and one count of soliciting prostitution from someone under the age of 18.
Under a secret arrangement with U.S. Atty. Alexander Acosta (later President Trump’s Labor secretary), the Justice Department agreed not to prosecute Epstein federally. Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in jail, mostly served on a work-release program that allowed him to leave jail daily.
Years later, Epstein, with the help of Siegal and longtime assistant Lesley Groff, made fresh overtures to the Hollywood elite.
“I have no idea what the reaction will be to your re-entry into society,” Siegal wrote to him after his release from jail. “But take it slow and stay quiet. Your friends are there for you.”
In September 2012, Epstein attended a conference at the technology company Esri’s headquarters in Redlands, where Katzenberg interviewed television legend Norman Lear.
That same month, emails between Epstein’s and Katzenberg’s teams, with the subject “JEFFERY KATZENBERG invite,” show that on Sept. 6 Epstein accepted an invitation to a New York dinner at Monkey Bar and a screening of the DreamWorks Animation film “Rise of the Guardians,” described as “an epic and magical adventure that tells the story of Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy” and other childhood characters, according to the invitation.
Siegal was familiar with the MPTF’s “The Night Before” gala, and the kind of access to celebrities and executives it might provide. Her PR career often found her throwing lavish parties for Oscar-hopeful films.
In 2012, she wrote a dispatch about that year’s MPTF gala for the Huffington Post, titled “Vive L’Oscars,” where she mentioned that “Jeffrey Katzenberg had already secured $200 million of a $350 million fundraising goal that included money from him, Tom Cruise, Steve Bing, Casey Wasserman, [George] Clooney and [Steven] Spielberg. Every nominee showed up.” The dispatch appeared in the Epstein files.
The 2013 gala came during a key period for the organization. The year before, it reopened its Woodland Hills nursing home after incurring millions in losses amid fears of bankruptcy. Fundraising for its $275-million campaign was a top priority.
“It’s been long and it’s been hard and very difficult at times, but the good news is that the bad news is behind us,” Katzenberg told The Times in 2012. “Now I feel like this is really a new day.”
On Jan. 31, Epstein received an email about the MPTF gala from a redacted address, asking if he “agreed to pay $15,000 for a ticket for Peggy if she gets into a party.”
On Feb. 14, Siegal wrote to MPTF representatives to purchase a ticket to the gala.
Siegal then wrote to Epstein’s assistant Groff, with the MPTF’s special events manager Jessica Milten and others from the organization cc’d.
The Feb. 15 email read: “On behalf of Jeffrey Epstein … Barrie [Robinson] will email us the payment form for Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ‘Night Before’ party at the [Beverly Hills Hotel] on Saturday, Feb. 23rd. It’s a tax deductible donation which allows me to attend. Thanks so much. I will be at the BHH Thursday. xoxo Peggy.”
Nikki Bernstein, special events coordinator for the MPTF Foundation, replied to Siegal: “Hi Peggy, Thank you so much for your recent commitment to support the 11th Annual Night Before the Oscars benefiting MPTF. We are so appreciative of your support and are thrilled that you will be joining us this year!”
Epstein’s team then wrote the check through a company called “Enhanced Education.”
That’s an alias for the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation in the Virgin Islands.
Times staff writer Meg James contributed to this report.
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