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3 months ago
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If Sage Steele ever does drop by, it’s going to be pretty awkward the next time the former ESPN host goes to visit CAA.
With a wide ranging damages seeking complaint filed today in Los Angeles Superior Court against the agency, that’s part of the blast radius of accusing your reps of lying to you and tossing you under the bus for bigger deals. Even though Steele made her controversy inducing comment’s about ESPN and Disney’s Covid vaccine mandate policy and former President Barack Obama’s biracial identity almost three years ago, this is also the consequence of the ex-co-host of the noon SportsCenter wanting to be rid of CAA, but the uber-agency not letting her go.
No matter how you cut it, with Steele’s lawyers calling CAA “morally corrupt …routinely” and tossing everyone from Harvey Weinstein, Terrance Howard, Cold Case EP and WAA exec Meredith Stiehm, and The Wire creator David Simon into the matter, it’s messy.
“As this Complaint will allege, award-winning ESPN on-air talent Sage Steele sought professional and legal advice from CAA at a time she was being persecuted for exercising her First Amendment rights,” the jury trial seeking filing says (read it here). “Rather than advocate for her or guide her to seek appropriate legal counsel, CAA immediately sided with ESPN and its parent company Disney and sacrificed her so it could continue to reap the benefits from its profitable relationship with the companies,” the breach of fiduciary duty and two claims of declaratory judgment document adds, naming Steele’s agent and CAA’s sports media group co-head Matthew Kramer specifically.
“As Kramer, Steele’s agent at the time, recently testified under oath, he made no attempt whatsoever to stand up to the demand that Steele apologize, or to seek legal counsel on her behalf or advise her to seek independent legal counsel. As it has time and time again, CAA failed to act in accordance with its fiduciary duty.”
With repeated cut and pastes of Kramer’s seemingly damning testimony from a separate case before the California Labor Commission over commissions from Steele, the Bryan Freedman and Theresa Troupson filed complaint puts the blame for the very public punishment Steele underwent from Disney and ESPN after her September 29, 2021 comments questioning “sick and scary” vaccine mandates, Obama and more on former NFLer Jay Cutler’s podcast on CAA. After a short period of behind the scenes arm twisting, Steele put out a statement on October 5, 2021 that said in part: “I know my recent comments caused controversy for the company, and I apologize.”
She was also suspended with pay the same day. When Steele returned to work, she later claimed that ESPN “sidelined’ her. To that, Steele sued ESPN and Disney for retaliation and more in April 2022. Last August, that suit was settled with undisclosed conditions. At the same time, now YouTube host Steele officially exited ESPN so she could “exercise my first amendment rights more freely.”
“Kramer felt no compunction about lying to Steele when he thought doing so would be a convenient way to manipulate her into a more acquiescent mindset,” today’s complaint alleges. “His goal throughout was evidently to keep Steele pliant, docile, and continuing to bring in her lucrative commissions.”
“If CAA had been acting in Steele’s best interests rather than its own, it should have stood up to ESPN on Steele’s behalf rather than pushing Steele, and advising her as her agent, to agree to an apology and a suspension,” the filing also says. “It certainly should have advised Steele to seek legal counsel to understand and defend her rights. If CAA had met its fiduciary obligations to Steele, Steele would never have been forced to make a public apology and submit to a humiliating suspension, and she would not have had to go through a costly and public lawsuit to undo the harm CAA allowed to be done to Steele.”
“Sage’s agency should have advocated on her behalf so that she did not have to apologize for what was clearly protected speech under Connecticut law,” attorney Freedman told Deadline this afternoon.” Instead her agent, did not even bother to ask ESPN or Disney if there was a way she did not have to apologize.”
Though Steele claims that her “long-term career prospects have been immeasurably damaged” by what went down with ESPN and Disney, she’s certainly been busy.
In March, Bill Maher unveiled currently streaming The Sage Steele Show as the first program on his new podcast network Club Random Studios. Back in April, Steele replaced Candace Owens in the voice cast of conservative platform The Daily Wire‘s upcoming animated sitcom Mr Birchum.
As a part of today’s action, Steele wants to part ways with CAA – something she says they won’t allow. “Plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment from this Court that Plaintiffs’ future performance of the agreement between Plaintiffs and Defendants is excused by reason of Defendants’ material breach of the agreement, and that Plaintiffs owe nothing further to Defendants,” the complaint says, while also oddly noting that “CAA also represents a number of athletes, who depend on CAA’s ability to obtain favorable coverage from ESPN.”
CAA has not responded to request from Deadline for comment on Steele’s lawsuit. If and when they do have a response, this post will be updated.
