Anthony Pellicano, the former investigator known as Hollywood’s private eye to the stars, goes on trial on Thursday in a case of wiretapping and skullduggery that is expected to reveal the dark side of the glitzy world of the movie industry.
Actors Sylvester Stallone, Keith Carradine and Farrah Fawcett, along with movie studio executives Brad Grey and Ron Meyer and former powerhouse talent agent Michael Ovitz, are among the 120 prosecution witnesses called to testify in a case that has kept Hollywood on tenterhooks for almost six years.
Pellicano, 63, is accused of illegally wiretapping the telephones of opponents of his powerful clients and of bribing police officers and telephone company workers to run illegal background checks on the targets of his investigation.
Pellicano is representing himself at his trial and has pleaded not guilty, along with his four co-defendants, to the 111 federal charges they face together. The trial in Los Angeles federal court is expected to last up to 10 weeks.
Pellicano’s colorful past includes working for lawyers who represented Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor.
Most of his celebrity clients have denied knowing that Pellicano was breaking the law but the investigation has already resulted in seven guilty pleas.
They include “Die Hard” director John McTiernan, who was sentenced to four months in prison last year for lying to the FBI about having asked Pellicano to wiretap producer Charles Roven, with whom he worked on the 2002 film “Rollerball.”
Sandra Carradine, Pellicano’s ex-girlfriend, admitted lying about Pellicano’s alleged wire-tapping of her ex-husband Keith Carradine during a child custody dispute. She is thought to have been cooperating with investigators.
Court papers allege that Pellicano was hired by lawyers and wealthy clients to dig up dirt on estranged spouses, business rivals and defendants in criminal cases.
One of the Los Angeles police officers charged with him is accused of running police database searches on 300 people and former employees of Pellicano have told prosecutors they listened to thousands of intercepted calls. Stallone is one of the alleged wiretapping targets.
The initial probe into Pellicano’s activities was sparked by an incident straight out of a Hollywood movie. In June 2002, Anita Busch, then a Los Angeles Times reporter, reported finding a dead fish, a rose and a note saying “STOP” in her car, which had had its windshield smashed.
Busch had been investigating action star Steven Seagal and according to court papers her name had also been raised in a conversation between Pellicano and Ovitz about what Ovitz believed were negative press stories about him at the time.
Tags: Anthony Pellicano, gossip news, hollywood gossip, Hollywood private eye on trial for mass wiretapping, John Travolta, Keith Carradine and Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson and Elizabeth Taylor., Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise
