Paramount Head Testifies in Pellicano Case

The Hollywood wiretap case is getting more interesting, with big names from the industry expected to testify. Thursday saw Brad Grey, the head of Paramount Studio, testifying as a witness for the prosecution. The case itself involves charges of federal racketeering against 63-year old Hollywood private investigator Anthony Pellicano.

Grey is one of the hundred or so, Hollywood personalities scheduled to appear as witnesses in the trial of Pellicano on charges of bribing and wiretapping. The witness list consists of movie executives and also actors, including the likes of Sylvester Stallone and Farah Fawcett.

During testimony, Grey said he had connections with Pellicano, but was unaware that the sleuth had been involved in criminal activities. He said Bert Fields, a reputed lawyer in Hollywood who represented such high profile personalities such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta, had high regard for Pellicano.

Grey said Fields had hired Pellicano during the course of two civil lawsuits his production company had faced in 1999 and 2000. The suits had been filed by Garry Shandling, a comedian, and Vincent ‘Bo’ Zenga, a screenwriter. This happened at a time before he accepted the chief executive’s position at Paramount, he clarified.

Shandling had filed a $100 million dollar lawsuit, accusing Grey of cheating him of the revenue from ‘The Larry Sanders Show’. Zenga had wanted credit as a screenwriter for Scary Movie, released in 2000. Grey settled the issue with Shandling, while the judge threw out Zenga’s suit, giving the ruling in favor of Grey.

Grey said he knew that Fields had used Pellicano’s services earlier as well, before the time of his company’s civil lawsuits. He said, “I understand Mr. Fields had used the services of Mr. Pellicano many times before that.” He said, since the lawsuits were handled by the company’s attorneys, he was not fully involved in them on a daily basis.

Pellicano has put up a ‘not guilty’ plea to the charges leveled against him – tapping the telephones of rivals of his clients and also performing illegal background checks on people after offering bribes to both police as well as telephone officials. Pellicano has had an impressive client roster over the years, with names like Tom Cruise, Elizabeth Taylor, and Michael Jackson featuring on the list.

Pellicano is not the sole person being tried; there are four other co-defendants as well. They all face trial on over 100 federal charges. If convicted, he could spend his remaining years in prison.