Legal News

At Pellicano Trial, Michael Ovitz Squares Off Against Journo

By Dan Slater

The Pellicano trial, which has been puttering along for nearly five weeks, picked up yesterday when entertainment mogul Michael Ovitz (pictured), a founder of Creative Artists Agency, testified that he paid Pellicano $75,000 to dig up dirt on two reporters who he said hastened the collapse of his Hollywood comeback. Ovitz, once a top talent agent and later the president of Disney, said he wanted to know when he was going to be “ambushed” again, and “when the next shoe was going to drop.”

Ovitz testified that a series of 2002 New York Times articles — written by Anita Busch, a freelancer, and Bernard Weinraub, an NYT scribe — had made it “more than difficult” to close the sale of his Artists Management Group. So he turned to Pellicano to get info about the journos and their sources, whom he believed included David Geffen, of DreamWorks, and Ron Meyer, the Universal Studios chief who was also a founder of Creative Artists. (Here’s a report from the NYT, and another from the NYP. Click here and here for past LB coverage of the trial.)

Busch, taking the stand immediately after Ovitz, broke down repeatedly as she testified about what she said were threats on her life orchestrated by Pellicano. She related the June 2002 threat that prompted the Pellicano investigation: a fish and a rose left on her car, next to a note saying “Stop” and a bullet-like hole in her windshield. Busch said two men in a dark Mercedes nearly ran her down outside her own home in August 2002. “I remember thinking I was going to die,” she said through tears. “I thought, ‘This is how it ends.’ ”

On cross, Pellicano, representing himself, questioned Busch over her account of the August threat. “Mr. Pellicano, I was scared for my life, 24-7,” Busch replied. Later, she told of her sources deserting her and her career falling apart. “I saw everything slipping away,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was going to do. There were a number of incidents, one after another. It was a relentless attack, Mr. Pellicano — as you know.”

The prosecution is expected to rest Thursday. Pellicano has indicated he might take the stand at trial’s end.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 10, 2008 (boomark / email).