In Court Files, Hollywood’s Mr. Fix-It at Work

The New York Times ^ | May 21, 2007 | DAVID M. HALBFINGER and ALLISON HOPE WEINER

[libstripper]

LOS ANGELES, May 20 — Just hours after a raft of articles suggesting the impending collapse of his business hit the papers on April 11, 2002, Michael S. Ovitz did what Hollywood moguls had done for a generation: He called Anthony Pellicano.

“I need to see you,” Mr. Ovitz said, asking for a private meeting at an out-of-the-way spot. “This is the single most complex situation imaginable.”

They all went to Mr. Pellicano when their situations seemed too complex, or the stakes too high, to leave anything to chance: executives and actors, studio bosses and their jilted spouses, the hottest and the has-been. In nearly 20 years in Los Angeles, he had made himself into the rightful owner of that breathless title, “Detective to the Stars,” the one man who would, and seemingly could, do anything to clean up any mess.

So when federal agents raided Mr. Pellicano’s office in November 2002, his case became a local obsession: who would be fingered next, people wondered anxiously, as investigators gathered evidence and listened to Mr. Pellicano’s wiretap tapes.

Perhaps the case has not lived up to its advance billing as the biggest Hollywood scandal in decades. More than a dozen people have been arrested, including a movie director, the head of a Century City law firm and a cast of minor characters.

[libstripper]

A very interesting, long Slimes article about Anthony (The Pelican) Pellicano. However, there's one small omission--it says absolutely nothing about the Pelican's work for the Clintons. That certainly couldn't reflect bias on the part of the Times, or could it???

[rod1]

Yeah. Pellicano (primo Clintanoid) is working end (watch out the pets) of the Bruce Lindsay -(the head-honcho Mr. Fix-It) Clinton Brigade.

His grime was well on display for them.

[Fixit]

You rang?

[an amused spectator]

You can bet that Halbfinger and Weiner's long list of the professions of "potential buyers" would have included 'politics', if a Bush had used Pellicano.

David Halbfinger and Allison Weiner want to be able to work after 2008...

[cloud8]

What the article does *not* mention is even more interesting. Perhaps the Times could tell us what the Pelican was doing with the grenades and the C-4 in his office? From a DOJ site:

December 17, 2002

PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR ANTHONY PELLICANO INDICTED ON FEDERAL WEAPONS CHARGES RELATED TO HAND GRENADES, C-4 PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles this morning indicted private investigator Anthony Pellicano on weapons charges related to hand grenades and plastic explosives that were found at his firm last month.

Pellicano, 58, who owns Pellicano Investigative Agency, Ltd. in West Hollywood, was charged with one felony count of possessing unregistered firearms, specifically two MK26 military practice grenades which had been modified to function like real hand grenades. Anyone who possesses such explosives is required to register the weapons with the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, which Pellicano allegedly had not done.

The indictment also charges Pellicano with one misdemeanor count of unlawfully storing explosive material, specifically military-grade plastic explosive known as Composition-4 or C-4.

[Sensei Ern]

I expected an article about Ty Pennington recovering from his DUI last week.