LOS ANGELES - Hollywood gossip columnists and bloggers are buzzing about who may testify in the trial of private eye Anthony Pellicano and what they may reveal about tactics used in movie-industry legal disputes.
A list of 244 names is attached to a jury questionnaire for the trial as "individuals related to this case." They include actors Sylvester Stallone and Keith Carradine, former Walt Disney Co. president Michael Ovitz, and Paramount Pictures Corp. chief executive Brad Grey. The trial begins today.
Pellicano, 63, was indicted two years ago on charges he tapped the phones of Hollywood actors, including Stallone and Carradine, and that he bribed police officers to provide him with compromising information from law-enforcement databases that could help his clients in litigation.
"This trial has the potential to give a rare glimpse of the dark underbelly of Hollywood," said Pierce O'Donnell, an entertainment lawyer. "It can reveal some of the bare-knuckled, no-holds-barred litigation that goes on."
Two months after the Pellicano indictment, The New York Times reported the private investigator had worked on behalf of Ovitz and Grey. Both have said, through their lawyers, that they didn't know about the illegal methods Pellicano is accused of using. Neither has been charged.
Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the US attorney in Los Angeles, said the 244 people were "a list of names that could come up in testimony," not a witness list. The government will provide a roster of witnesses before jury selection begins, he said.
Deadline Hollywood, a blog by LA Weekly columnist Nikki Finke, reported on Feb. 14 that the Pellicano trial isn't "going to disappoint," based on who may testify for the government. Fox News reported Feb. 19 that the trial will be a "hot ticket."
"It's a mixed bag" to call celebrities to testify, said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School and a former federal prosecutor. "It spices up the case and it can make the jury pay more attention, but celebrity witnesses aren't necessarily good witnesses because they can be too focused on themselves."
It's unlikely the government will call on Ovitz and Grey to testify against Pellicano because the charges don't involve them, Levenson said. "They won't have anything to say, and they would be very reluctant to testify," she said.
Ovitz has been subpoenaed but doesn't know whether he will be asked to testify, said his lawyer, Bart Williams. Grey has been informed he might be called to testify, Paramount spokesman Steven Rubenstein said.
Pellicano's codefendants are a former Los Angeles police officer, a former telephone company employee, a software developer, and a Las Vegas businessman.
A lawyer indicted in the investigation, billionaire Kirk Kerkorian's attorney Terry Christensen, succeeded in being tried separately. He is accused of paying Pellicano $100,000 in 2002 to wiretap the phone of the press-shy investor's ex-wife during a child- support dispute. He pleaded not guilty.
A memo filed by the government indicates prosecutors intend to call the ex-wife of Los Angeles real estate developer Robert Maguire, hedge-fund manager Adam Sender, and venture capitalist Alec Gores. All will testify about illegal wiretapping, the memo says.
