Posted on 02/11/2006 11:26:30 AM PST by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Attorneys for a former Los Angeles Times reporter who was threatened while researching a story on an alleged Hollywood extortion plot have subpoenaed agent Michael Ovitz to give a sworn deposition in a civil lawsuit.
The lawsuit filed in June 2004 in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges Pellicano and others, including former Los Angeles police Sgt. Mark Arneson, directed and led threats and attacks against Busch.
Busch was researching a possible link between actor Steven Seagal and a reputed Mafia associate in June 2002 when she found her car's windshield punctured by an apparent bullet hole. A dead fish with a rose in its mouth and a sign saying "stop" were left on her car.
Pellicano and an associate face criminal charges in connection with that case but have yet to enter a plea. Pellicano, Arneson and five others on Monday were indicted in federal court for allegedly participating in a widespread illegal wiretapping scheme.
Pellicano has pleaded not guilty to the charges and remains in federal custody. The others are expected to be arraigned on Tuesday.
Busch's lawyers said Friday that they don't know who threatened their client but are certain that it wasn't instigated by Pellicano.
"We feel very strongly that Mr. Pellicano did not threaten Anita for his own personal satisfaction. That it was done on behalf of somebody," attorney Brian Kabateck said.
A Vanity Fair article in 2002 that featured Ovitz mentioned Busch and two Creative Artists Agency executives, Bryan Lourd and Kevin Huvane. The two men were onetime Ovitz proteges before a falling-out described in the magazine.
Monday's indictment said that Lourd and Huvane had background checks done on them by Pellicano and his associates.
Busch's attorneys hope to find out who might have orchestrated the threat against their client by asking Ovitz to answer questions because they said several people who knew the superagent were looked at by authorities.
"Maybe someone was trying to do this to please Mr. Ovitz," Kabateck said. "To curry favor with him. But we need to find out what happened and that is why we are continuing to ask questions."
The deposition is scheduled for March 22.
Ovitz co-founded Creative Artists Management before leaving to become president of The Walt Disney Co. in 1995. He left that position in a highly publicized fallout that garnered him $38 million in cash and roughly $100 million in Disney shares.
He began Artists Management Group in 1999, brokering film and television deals with its own roster of stars.
FMCDH(BITS)
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