Private investigator Anthony Pellicano and attorney Terry Christensen were found guilty, guilty, guilty today of illegally wiretapping the ex-wife of billionaire Kirk Kerkorian.
Christensen was Kirk Kerkorian’s lawyer, digging up the dirt during a nasty divorce. He hired Pellicano, who was known to get the goods.
I know this stuff is important, but it is the essence of anti-climax. This trial was supposed to turn Hollywood upside-down; supposed to doom the career of power attorney Bert Fields (remember?); supposed to undo dozens of verdicts in high-profile cases in which Pellicano played a role.
In the end, Pellicano wouldn’t talk. Christensen, the only attorney implicated, will lose his law license. Having already been convicted for similar shenanigans, Pellicano will serve his sentence – not likely to be more than a decade – concurrently with his current ones. (Here’s the L.A. Times story.)
So: two felony convictions. Now stay tuned for the civil lawsuits. Also not very interesting.
Actually, stay tuned for a post I am preparing about the far more interesting, but complicated and decidedly unsexy investigation into guild and studio complicity in keeping money that should have gone to members of the Hollywood guilds for foreign levies.
