Hollywood Power Agent's Home Smeared With ‘Bloody' Handprints in Student Protests
The home of United Talent Agency Vice Chairman Jay Sures was vandalized Wednesday by protesters who left red handprints on his garage door among other wreckage.
Sures is an influential figure with an impressive client list. He is vice chairman and one of the four managing directors of the firm, which is known as one of the entertainment industry's premier agencies with some of the world's biggest names in film, comedy, music and sports.
According to his biography, he is also a University of California Regent 'where he chairs the audit and compliance committee.' He also serves on the Los Angeles Police Department Foundation Board as well as other various chairman roles for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory Board of Governors/Directors.
A Los Angeles Police Department report cited by Deadline indicates that officers were called to Sures' Brentwood home at 6:15 a.m. PT in response to a 'large group blocking the street and driveway.' A law enforcement official additionally told Deadline that there were around 50 masked protesters 'banging on drums, making loud noises, and causing disturbance.'
Alongside 'bloody' red handprints on his garage door–an apparent reference to the saying, 'blood on your hands'–protesters also placed caution tape throughout Sures' front yard and a sign that read 'divest now or you will pay.'
Sures told the Daily Beast Wednesday night that the 'whole situation is unfortunate' and that 'threatening my family is so disappointing.' He added that the protesters' behavior was 'inexcusable' and 'scared the living s***' out of his wife.
The protest was organized by the Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine group at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), according to the university's student newspaper The Daily Bruin.
In an Instagram post Wednesday, the group alleged that Sures 'has attempted to intimidate students and faculty who spoke out against the genocide in Gaza' and they refused to 'stay silent.'
Six months ago, University of California (UC) regents voted to ban political statements from university homepages which, per Deadline, Sures largely supported and drove forward. The move sparked criticism, however, for allegedly stifling pro-Palestinian expression and views.
Sures, who was appointed by Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom to serve on the UC Board of Regents from 2019, is an outspoken supporter of Israel. In 2023, he described a letter from the UC Ethnic Studies Faculty Council reprimanding a UC statement on the Oct. 7 Hamas attack as 'appalling and repugnant' and 'rife with falsehoods.' UTA also represents the Anti-Defamation League, an antisemitism organization that is a staunch advocate of Israel.
Sures earlier told Deadline he believes they are the reasons why he was targeted Wednesday. 'I'm Jewish. There are 18 Regents, and I've been outspoken; you can Google me about what I've written, what I've done in the world of the University of California. I've been pretty outspoken about the cause, about protecting our Jewish students, and they don't like it,' Sures said.
'It's one thing to peacefully protest, but to go to an administrator or a Regent's house to violate the hundred foot rule, which is what it is in Los Angeles, to disturb the entire neighborhood by pounding on drums, to surround my wife's car and prevent her from free movement, and to put up signs, threatening my family and my life and vandalize the house, that is a big escalation,' he continued.
An LAPD source told Deadline that no arrests were made Wednesday, however if police are able to identify masked protesters, Sures told the outlet he will press changes.
A few weeks ago, the 15 months of conflict between Palestine and Israel that killed at least 46,000 Palestinians and displaced over a million, and killed over 1,000 Israelis, according to the Associated Press, ended with a ceasefire deal.
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The violence, among the university's darkest chapters, brought change. Those interviewed noted a turning point: Julio Frenk — whose German Jewish father fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s — becoming chancellor on Jan. 1. The university has also overhauled security and hired LAPD veteran Steve Lurie to lead the new Office of Campus Safety. Noting the 'pain and fear' that antisemitism had brought on campus, Frenk said, 'UCLA is unwavering in its commitment to building a campus community in which Jewish students — and all members of our community — feel safe, respected and welcome.' Senior Mia Toubian, 20, who is news editor of Ha'Am, UCLA's student-run Jewish newsmagazine, praised Frenk for banning Students for Justice in Palestine as a campus organization in March following a protest the group held in front of a UC regent's house that was vandalized. 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Lurie said that when police approached the building to arrest those blocking the entrance, they 'ran and kind of scattered.' The protesters' faces were covered, he said, making it impossible to identify them via recordings. But some at UCLA said the changes have been dramatic — for the better. Sharon Nazarian, founder of the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies at UCLA, noted a peaceful UCLA Hillel vigil and walk through campus to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas attack would have been 'unfathomable the previous academic year.' 'That,' she said, 'is a sea change for me.' A few USC students praised university leadership for protecting Jewish students. Ben Sheyman, 22, grew up in San Francisco, but his life as a Jew was partly shaped by his immigrant parents' experience in their home countries: Ukraine and Belarus — places where Jews were persecuted. When his family came to the U.S., it was supposed to be different. 'Here, you are as American as anybody else,' said Sheyman, who graduated this spring. But walking to class in the 2023-24 school year, Sheyman would see signs with slogans like 'End Zionism.' It was, he said, 'really unsettling.' Still, Sheyman felt unsafe just once, when a crowd of masked protesters held items emblazoned with 'Nazi symbols,' he said. The tighter security changed things for the better, he said. Cooper also felt safer in recent months, but related an upsetting run-in. She wears a Star of David necklace, and once, in the months after the Oct. 7 attack, a passerby hurled an extremely offensive Jewish slur at her as she walked near campus. She praised administrators' decision to close the campus gates, even if she has some reservations. 'Whether it's politically correct or not, I do feel safer,' she said. USC said in a statement that it 'continues to publicly and unequivocally denounce antisemitism in all its forms and has taken strong actions to protect all of our students ... from illegal discrimination of any kind.' It also touted the 'enhanced security protocols' and the launch of new mandatory seminars 'devoted specifically to free expression and civic discourse.' For some at USC, though, the fractures in their lives — the loss of friendships, the alienation from peers or professors — linger. People like Wallack. Her time at USC after the Oct. 7 attack was discombobulating. She left her sorority because she felt it did not voice sufficient support for Israel, and moved home. 'I don't really feel like I found my people at USC as a result of Oct. 7,' she said. Sitting in the shade at the USC Village in early May, Wallack touched her Star of David necklace and explained that she would not attend graduation ceremonies. Instead, Wallack departed for Israel. A business fellowship awaited.
