What’s Tea? Creative Artist Agency Settles Blacklist Case, Fights Against Equity, and Battles Range Media Partners Over Poaching and Trade Secrets
- Chinyere Ibeh
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
The talent agency found itself in legal hot water allegedly putting talent on blacklists and canceling equity owed to former agents.
Creative Artist Agency, a popular talent agency, reaches a settlement in a lawsuit brought on by writer John Musero.
Lawyers for Musero informed the court of a deal to resolve the case prior to opening statements scheduled for this week. Even though Musero sought $25M, CAA will only pay around $500K in the settlement. The agreement depends on the completion of specific terms within 45 days.
“We are glad to finally move on from this meritless lawsuit, which produced no finding of wrongdoing by CAA and was resolved for what amounts to nuisance value,” a CAA spokesperson said.
Musero filed the lawsuit in 2019 in which he alleged that CAA and his former agent Andrew Miller sabotaged his career by not properly shopping his pilot, titled Main Justice. The pilot caught the attention of The Mark Gordon Company, a studio-producer for network television, and he later entered a 14-month partnership with the company.
Once the partnership became official, CAA allegedly stopped submitting him for other writing opportunities. Miller later redeveloped the script with Top Gun producer Jerry Bruckheimer and writer Sascha Penn, who later sold it to CBS. According to the complaint, Miller let Musero’s deal with The Mark Gordon Company lapse.
Judge Kerry Bessinger later ruled in June 2025 that there weren’t similarities between Main Justice and the never-made CBS project.
“After considering Penn’s prior works, the court concluded that the two works do not share substantial similarities,” Bessinger ruled in a 29-page order about the two shows that shared a name.
The trial pivoted to examine two internal CAA lists of its agency, one that deemed Musero an “underperformer” while the other branded him a client his agent was getting rid of. The alleged blacklists circulated in 2016 to TV staffing and other departments within CAA for almost a year.
According to court filings, these lists were accessible through the agency’s internal network. CAA claimed that only four television department heads saw the lists, and the lists weren’t available to other agents.
Musero’s attorney alleged that the agency was going “to great lengths” to keep the contents of these lists under wraps.
“Even now, CAA refuses to show the full decision and underlying evidence. It refuses to let the truth come out,” the Chicago-based lawyer told Deadline. “But if CAA wants to talk about the case then it needs to be transparent about the case. Only then can the public determine whether CAA is being honest — something CAA claims they don’t even owe their own clients.”
As Musero’s lawsuits come to an end, the agency still faces its battle against Range Media Partners.
CAA allegedly breached its contractual duties towards several former agents in 2020 when it cancelled their CAA equity interests, according to JAMS — a company that specializes in resolving business and legal disputes. The agency filed a notice of appeal over the $40M-and-rising decision from JAMS’ mediators.
The agents who were allegedly swindled out of their CAA equities left the agency for Range, leading CAA to file a 2024 lawsuit against its rival. CAA accused Range of poaching, lifting trade secrets, and being “an unlicensed talent agency built on deceit.”
The mass action, spearheaded by Range attorney Bryan Freedman, will include Range founder and ex-CAA TV boss Peter Micelli. Much of the mass action will draw from JAMS’s mediation.
“In connection with the filing of a mass arbitration or a mass action in court, we are currently in the process of representing former and current CAA talent agents who have been forced to sign illegal non-competes as a condition of their membership in CAA’s equity programs,” Freedman told Deadline.
CAA has been quiet on the matter, especially when Deadline reached out for comment. Ultimately, it’s unlikely that JAMS’ verdict on the matter would be overturned.