Cruise Wins, Ovitz Loses

While former celebrity sleuth Anthony Pellicano remains in a Texas prison for his 2008 conviction on racketeering and wiretap charges, the legal fallout continues in the form of civil cases in Los Angeles Superior Court.

One-time entertainment journalist Anita Busch, who alleges she was threatened by Pellicano over her reporting on Hollywood power players, filed suit in 2004 against the P.I. and others, including CAA co-founder Michael Ovitz, for infliction of emotional distress.

It now appears Busch may get her day in court with at least Ovitz. According to The Hollywood Reporter, another publication that once employed Busch, Judge Elihu Berle rejected the one-time super-agent’s bid for summary judgment in the case. Busch accuses Ovitz of hiring Pellicano to intimidate her in a series of mob-like threats more than a decade ago.

Ovitz failed to prove the statute of limitations had run out on Busch, according to THR. A status conference in the case is now scheduled May 31.

In a related case, Elihu granted summary judgment to Tom Cruise and attorney Bert Fields in their case against Bold editor Michael Davis Sapir, who accused them of similarly hiring Pellicano.

In their case, the judge ruled the statute of limitations did run out.

Sapir offered a $500,000 reward in 2001 to anyone who could produce video evidence that Cruise was gay, according to The Wrap, and subsequently claimed to have obtained it. Cruise filed a $100 million defamation suit, which was settled in November 2001.

Sapir reportedly later claimed Cruise, at the urging of Fields, hired Pellicano to investigate him. He alleged Pellicano wiretapped his phones but failed to file his $5 million suit against the star and his lawyer until December 2009.