Opening a rare window on the inner angst of Hollywood, onetime uber-agent Michael Ovitz testified Wednesday that he hired private eye Anthony Pellicano to get embarrassing information on two entertainment reporters who were writing negative stories about him.
An unrepentant Ovitz said he went to Pellicano because he was convinced that two of his Hollywood rivals -- Universal Studios chief Ron Meyer and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen -- were feeding information to the reporters.
Prosecutors allege that Pellicano wiretapped, harassed and obtained confidential information about one of the reporters, and her complaint to authorities became the flash point of a five-year scandal that has fascinated Hollywood, culminating in his federal trial.
"It was an extraordinarily difficult time for me and the company," said a bespectacled Ovitz, testifying in Pellicano's trial on wiretapping and racketeering charges. "We were in a consistent state of negative press, fueled by rumor and innuendo."
Ovitz testified that he gave Pellicano $75,000 in cash. Pellicano gave his client the code name "Gaspar" to use when he called, Ovitz recalled.
Ovitz was followed to the stand -- and nearly crossed paths in the court hallway with -- former journalist Anita Busch, the co-author of the stories Ovitz testified were making it "more than difficult" to sell his beleaguered Artists Management Group. Busch, in tears, testified that she was intimidated and nearly run down by a speeding car after those stories appeared.
The government alleges that Pellicano, on behalf of Ovitz, also obtained confidential police and Department of Motor Vehicles records on Bernard Weinraub, the former New York Times reporter who partnered with Busch on some of the Ovitz stories.
"Did you know he was doing anything illegal?" asked attorney Chad Hummel, who represents one of Pellicano's co-defendants.
"I assumed that whatever he did, he did legally. And I would never tell him to do anything illegal," said Ovitz, echoing the denials he has made since he was first questioned by the FBI several years ago. Ovitz has not been charged in the case.
Ovitz co-founded Creative Artists Agency, one of the industry's most influential talent groups, but had left the agency for a disastrous turn as head of Disney before starting Artists Management Group in 1999. The business consisted of a film unit, a television production unit and an artists management division.
