Deal between Jimmy Fallon and Tommy Mottola falls through after Epstein files mention

Call it the first culinary casualty of the Epstein files.

Sources tell Page Six Hollywood that Jimmy Fallon was poised to announce a pasta sauce line with music mogul Tommy Mottola but has hit pause given that Mottola is all over the Epstein files. Reps for Fallon did not comment. Mottola’s spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

“Nobody wants to be within 50 feet of anyone in the Epstein files,” says a source familiar with the pasta sauce plans. 

Tommy Mottola was about to release a brand of pasta sauce in collaboration with Jimmy Fallon — but the business deal fell through due to Mottola’s inclusion in the Epstein files. Photo by Johnny Nunez/Getty Images for The Recording Academy

It turns out Mottola had at least a decade-long relationship with the late, disgraced financier. And their relationship was in full swing after Epstein’s high-profile prison stint from 2006 to 2008 for soliciting sex with minors including a 14 year old.

According to dozens of documents in the files, the onetime CEO of Sony Music Entertainment and the impresario behind former wife Mariah Carey as well as Celine Dion, Jennifer Lopez and Gloria Estefan, appears to have visited Epstein’s Upper East Side mansion multiple times. (Epstein was a registered sex offender at the time.) 

From 2010 up until Epstein’s second arrest in 2019, Mottola who has been married to Mexican actress and pop star Thalia since 2000, was in frequent touch with the mysterious billionaire.

Over that decade, Epstein’s assistant repeatedly wrote her boss rather urgently: “Please call Tommy Mottola.” In 2012, Epstein’s assistant sent a message to a redacted recipient: “Did Tommy Mottola come over early today? just wondering.” According to the exchanges, Mottola solicited from Epstein the type of recommendations only the 1 percent can access, like where to “rent a Sikorsky, 6 seater, twin engine helicopter” to ferry his family from Anguilla to St. Barts” in 2014. And Mottola was cozy enough with Epstein that he sent him “a huge box of Bridgewater Chocolates” in December 2011 and a “gift basket” in September 2017. Mottola apparently badgered assistants when calls to Epstein’s Paris abode went unanswered. In one exchange, Epstein asks someone: “does Tommy Mottola know enrique inglesias” [sic].

The most damaging exchanges between the two men take place in the wake of the MeToo movement in 2017, which seemed to leave Mottola rattled. 

Mottola was in regular contact with Epstein via email from 2010 up until his arrest in 2019. US Department of Justice/AFP via Getty Images

In direct exchanges between the two men, they discussed a woman hiring a lawyer. Epstein wrote: “Itou [sic] are safe.” Mottola responded: You’re sure?.. I don’t have to do anything just shut up and Lay low.” A few months later, following a Les Moonves expose in the New Yorker, Epstein wrote to Mottola: “did you see the massage section in the monves piece. we should thank our lucky stars.” 

The reverberations of the files have hit all industries, with everyone from CEOs to ambassadors stepping down from their posts as a result of their associations with Epstein or his sidekick Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking minors. In Hollywood, the main focus has been on mogul Casey Wasserman, who owns management companies that represent a broad swath of musicians and A-list actors including Lorde, Emma Stone and Sydney Sweeney. So far, there have been more than a handful of artists who have publicly severed ties with Wasserman after thef files revealed some type of relationship between the mogul and radioactive Maxwell that involved sexually charged exchanges. The most notable artist to leave so far is Chappell Roan.