Ovitz To Testify in Wiretap

The net continues to be cast wider in the Hollywood wiretapping case against celebrity detective Anthony Pellicano. Big names that some in the entertainment community have been waiting to see dragged through the mud might already be wading in it.

Creative Artists Agency co-founder and ex-Walt Disney Co. president Michael Ovitz has been subpoenaed to testify as a “person of interest” in a civil lawsuit connected to the Pellicano probe.

In addition to the civil case, Terry Christensen, an attorney who represented billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, has been arraigned in connection with the criminal case against Pellicano.

The former private investigator to the stars is one of three targets of a 110-count criminal indictment unsealed February 20th alleging racketeering and conspiracy, wiretapping, identity theft, witness tampering and destruction of evidence.

Former Los Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch is suing Pellicano, an unnamed client of his and an unnamed law firm in connection with threats made against her in 2002.

While researching an alleged connection between actor Steven Seagal and New York organized crime figures, she found a dead fish with a rose in its mouth and a sign that said “stop” on her car, along with what appeared to be a bullet hole.

The timing of the threat appears to coincide with the period in which investigators allege Pellicano was illegally wiretapping victims on behalf of clients and, in some cases, even wiretapping the clients themselves.

Busch attorney Brian Kabateck told The New York Times that her legal team subpoenaed Ovitz because “there seems to be a direct connection between Mr. Ovitz and the timing of the articles that Anita was working on and the other people that were being investigated” by Pellicano.

In a 2002 Vanity Fair article, Ovitz reportedly mentioned Busch and two other CAA execs, all of whom reportedly were investigated by Pellicano.

The timing also reportedly includes a period during which Ovitz retained entertainment mega-lawyer Bert Fields, who has already been interviewed by the FBI in the case.

“We see a connection with the lawyers, and we want to ask Mr. Ovitz about that,” Kabateck told the Times. He stopped short of saying he believed Ovitz was involved in the threat against Busch but added: “We view Mr. Ovitz as a person of interest, not yet as a defendant.”

A lawyer for Greenberg, Glusker, Fields, Claman, Machtinger & Kinsella rejected any connection between the firm or Fields and the Busch threat.

“While the firm may have historically done some work for Mr. Ovitz, neither the firm nor Mr. Fields was involved in any way in the Anita Busch matter,” Brian Sun told the NYT. Sun is a criminal attorney representing the firm.

Christensen is one of 13 people facing federal charges, including former Hollywood Records exec Robert Pfeifer, in the alleged wiretapping scheme.

Prosecutors contend that Pellicano illegally wiretapped the phones of Hollywood stars such as Sylvester Stallone and bribed police officers to run the names of more than 60 people through government databases.

They contend that Christensen paid Pellicano at least $100,000 to illegally wiretap the phones of Kerkorian’s former wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian. The attorney allegedly sought details about Bonder Kerkorian during a nasty child support battle in 2002.

Bonder Kerkorian sought $320,000 a month in child support from the 88-year-old MGM Mirage founder for her daughter, who was 4 years old at the time. She later admitted that she faked a DNA paternity test. The couple had been in a romantic relationship for a decade but were married for only a month in 1999. The judge ultimately awarded the child $50,316 a month.

If convicted of both single counts of conspiracy and intercepting wire communications, Christensen faces up to 10 years in the federal pen.