Ex-Superstar Agent At Pellicano Trial: Mike Ovitz!
By John Nazarian, (c) www.artharris.com, all rights reserved
LOS ANGELES, April 10–It’s 8:50 a.m. and guess who walks into the Anthony Pellicano federal wiretapping trial… Hollywood Superagent Michael Ovitz, nicely dressed and with two lawyers,”Suits!”
He is well spoken, but does the “my lawyers took care of it” routine.
On Thursday, lucky Anthony Pellicano had 28 charges against him and a co-defendant dropped, but he’s still facing more than 35 other counts dropped by prosecutors, and Hollywood superstar clients like Ovitz keep the revolving star door spinning at the courthouse, all of them rather dismayed the guy they hired to snoop on others recorded their conversations, too.
Ovitz was the founder of Creative Artist Agency and after 21 years moved to work at Disney in October 1995. The big move would cost Disney millions as things did not work out, and they paid Ovitz to leave…and leave he did with the bank he towed behind his car!
This pay out has to be the reason why it costs so much to get into Disneyland! He comes across as a decent guy, but no one believed it. The story is that he is a miserable person who knows he is very rich. He tells the court that it was his lawyers who brought Anthony in and paid $25,000 for each separate issue they wanted him to look into, $75,000 in all.
It was in the spring of 2002 that Ovitz first called Pellicano. Bernard Weinraub and Anita Busch were the New York Times reporters who had really gotten on his nerves.
He was tired of the negative articles being written about him, and he was upset that these articles might prevent him from selling his management business, AMG. So he turned to the Pelican, who recorded the phone call while they spoke.
And there it was, Mr. Ovitz sitting in the hot seat and his voice being heard through the courtroom! He wanted embarrassing information on both of these pains in his ass.
Mr. Ovitz tells us all that the articles were “wildly embarrassing to me and my family” and all he was looking for was “a graceful exit from the business,” AMG. Ovitz was sitting on the hot seat and gulping water like an old goldfish with a bladder problem.
I bet a good martini would have helped with his anguish!
This guy does not like being in the public arena when he has no control, and today he had none. At the break when many left the courtroom, he and his two lawyers never left the safety of the courtroom. To hell with the restroom…especially if it might mean having to deal with more reporters, who might not be too happy about the way he treated their comrades!
Among high-profile Hollywood figures called during the prosecution’s case were Chris Rock, Garry Shandling, Keith Carradine, Paramount studio head Brad Grey and Michael Ovitz, the former superagent and Disney executive.
…for the rest of the story, go to desperateexes.com.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:33 pm
Just glad that this trial is getting a little more publicity.Some of these guys really need to be put in their place somehow.It sure seems like the ones that wanted things done or people to be harassed or terrorized by what this man could and did do are getting off more or less scott free.Sure Pellicano or his cronies did the dirty deed but who hired them to do it??They are just as guility IMO