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At the end of January, the Justice Department released its largest batch yet of files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the convicted sex offender whose crimes and connections to the rich and powerful have become one of the most headline-generating and controversy-stirring stories of the second Trump administration. With 3 million pages of documents, 180,000 photos, and 2,000 videos to comb through, Epstein chroniclers have had their work cut out for them, and you’ve likely already heard about some of the files’ more noteworthy, and sinister, findings.
But the files also contain a lot of miscellaneous information that is not so much important as it is interesting—I’m talking about things like an email in which Soon-Yi Previn calls Timothée Chalamet a prick, or another one in which Epstein tells Deepak Chopra about a rumor involving one of Marla Maples’ acquaintances being pervy with her shoes. What a guy! With the understanding that you should seek out the more serious news stories first and that I am a sick individual, I’ve taken the liberty of rounding up the bits from the most recent file drop that stood out most to me as a person who processes the world through gossip and famous people (many of whom, honestly, are innocent parties here). Without further ado, and in alphabetical order …
Woody Allen
Ninety-year-old director Allen and his wife, Previn, who has her own entry below, were neighbors of Epstein in New York, and they frequently corresponded and had dinner together.* In 2015 Epstein helped arrange for the two to tour the White House. Though Epstein assumed that the Obama administration wouldn’t want to be associated with Allen, who was accused of sexually abusing his daughter in the early ’90s, White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler invited both members of the couple. (Epstein himself was deemed too risky.) Emails reveal that Epstein spent an exorbitant amount of money on birthday gifts for Allen, including $9,858 for shirts and boxer shorts from Zimmerli, a Swiss luxury underwear brand, as reported by the New York Times. Allen and Previn were also among the many friends to whom Epstein gifted DNA kits.
Tina Brown
Magazine editor and author Brown is on a very short list of people whose reputation has actually been enhanced by appearing in the files. As she detailed in her newsletter, publicist and Epstein friend Peggy Siegal (more on her below) tried to get her to attend a dinner for Prince Andrew hosted by Epstein in 2010, to which Allen and Charlie Rose were also invited. “What the fuck is this, Peggy?” Brown remembers screaming at Siegal. “The paedophile’s ball?” But despite being present for that interaction, Brown didn’t know until this latest release how much scheming Epstein and Siegal were doing behind the scenes in an attempt to “neutralize” her. They never did manage to, and Brown is now getting the last laugh.
Timothée Chalamet
Another person who emerges mostly unscathed: current Best Actor contender Timmy Tim! After Chalamet publicly expressed regret for starring in one of Allen’s movies, A Rainy Day in New York, amid #MeToo reconsiderations of Allen’s past, Previn apparently held a grudge. She wrote to Epstein in 2018, “I’m glad that prick Chalamet’s movie did not get a good review,” adding, “No I’m not vindictive.” In a different email chain, Siegal claimed that her “friend Timothy Chalemet” hadn’t wanted to renounce Allen but was forced to do so by his team. We can probably chalk that up to Siegal being a fierce Allen defender rather than take her word for it.
Deepak Chopra (and Marla Maples)
That aforementioned story about Maples really blew the other details away—after the author asked Epstein over email if he knew Maples, he responded that he did, and that in fact he had lost a $10,000 bet to Donald Trump when Maples revealed to him that she was pregnant, after which point he sent Trump a “truck of baby food.” But Epstein hadn’t spoken to her since then, he added, and “she can tell you the story of her friend who was caught having sex with her shoes.” According to the Daily Beast, he was most likely referring to a scandal in the ’90s that involved Maples’ former publicist going on trial for stealing 70 pairs of her shoes and … doing other stuff with them too. For some reason, I am not at all surprised that Epstein liked bringing up this story. In other emails, Chopra and Epstein discuss women—“Did you find me a cute Israeli?” Chopra asks at one point—and trying to put Leonardo DiCaprio in touch with Allen. Chopra has since apologized for his “poor judgment” but denied any wrongdoing.
Stephen Colbert
This one is pretty innocent: As Colbert recalled on The Late Show this week, he discovered that an unidentified friend of Epstein’s had sent him a clip from Colbert’s old show The Colbert Report. “Well, there’s no such thing as bad publicity!” the host joked, before sharing a mock-up of a Times Square billboard with the friend’s recommendation superimposed like a review: “It’s really funny. Think Jeffrey will enjoy watching.”
Katie Couric
In 2010 Couric attended a dinner at Epstein’s house, and afterward she thanked him, unfortunately calling the lasagna he served “ROCKIN.” The following year, she wrote Siegal an email ironically thanking her for the earlier invitation, saying that it had landed her in a “world of trouble.” Couric has written about the dinner before, calling it “creepy,” but what we learned from this release is that Siegal forwarded her “Gee, thanks” email to Epstein himself, using it to warn him that there was a “witch hunt going on against you and Andrew” (as in Prince Andrew).
Tony Hawk
Hawk’s name came up not in an email but in an FBI tip that was included with the files. In a transcript, a tipster claimed that she had been on Epstein’s island, Little St. James, when Hawk was holding his wedding there. Hawk has since posted on Instagram to clarify that, of his four weddings over the years, none took place on Little St. James, though his third was on an island and photographed by someone named Mark Epstein—no relation.
Mira Nair
Zohran Mamdani’s mom in the Epstein files? Say it ain’t so. Well, it’s so, but it’s not too terrible in the scheme of things: According to an email, film director Nair apparently attended a party at Ghislaine Maxwell’s town house after a film premiere in 2009. Epstein is thought not to have been in attendance. A.I. images circulating that picture Nair, Epstein, and Zohran Mamdani together have been debunked as fake.
Soon-Yi Previn
As we’ve already discussed, she was Chalamet’s hater in chief, preceding Film Twitter by several years. According to the recently released emails, she also thought #MeToo had gone too far and asked Epstein for help getting her and Woody’s kid into Bard. (He complied.)
Peter Thomas Roth
A skin-care guru in the Epstein files!? Yes, believe it or not: Emails reveal that in 2018, Roth sent Epstein a “care package” that included some of his moisturizer and masks. After the release of the most recent round of files, the brand posted a statement on Instagram about its namesake’s appearance, explaining that Roth had known Epstein since he was a high schooler at the Dalton School, where Epstein was one of his teachers, and that the two had stayed in touch casually over the years.
J.K. Rowling
Far be it from me to defend the Harry Potter author, but it looks as if her hands are clean here. She was mentioned in the files because Siegal had attempted to obtain an invitation for Epstein to attend the Broadway premiere of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in 2018. Siegal never shared Epstein’s name in the correspondence (and he couldn’t even get in when he showed up), so it appears that Rowling was telling the truth when she denied any involvement.
Peggy Siegal
Arguably the MVP of the Epstein files, Siegal has had her name already come up a lot. A highly connected publicist who frequently served as Epstein’s connection to the entertainment world, Siegal is one of the all-time name-droppers in her emails, always quick to bring up elites like Julianne Moore, Skip Gates, and George Lucas … something I’m sure they’re all thrilled about, because it means they’re in the Epstein files because of it. In exchange for her fixing services, Epstein seems to have provided Siegal with financial advice and frequent rides on his private plane.
Jon Stewart
Like his friend Colbert, Stewart came up only tangentially, when Epstein and an associate were discussing ways to rehabilitate Woody Allen’s reputation and came up with the idea of “someone like Stewart” narrating a comedy special. “Excuse me? I am offended,” Stewart joked in response. “Somebody like Jon Stewart, or Jon Stewart? My point is, do I have the offer, or is this an audition?”
Martha Stewart
The lifestyle maven was in touch with Epstein several times over the years: In 2013 her assistant emailed Epstein’s assistant to share Stewart’s phone number and the dates she planned to be in St. Croix over the holidays. She was also invited to at least one dinner with Allen and Previn.
Russell Wilson
In 2019 Epstein’s then pilot floated the quarterback’s name as a potential buyer for Epstein’s Gulfstream G-IV private jet when it was for sale. Wilson quickly moved to quash any rumors that he knew Epstein, writing last week on X, “Not TODAY satan! … Some Random plane broker tried to sell me a plane. I had no idea whose plane and never bought the plane.” Don’t you just hate when that happens?
Correction, Feb. 9, 2026: This piece originally misstated that Allen is an octogenarian.
