Category: Celebrities

Alas, the stars may not come out in number at the long-awaited trial of Anthony Pellicano, known throughout the media as “the private eye to the stars.”

Pellicano, 63, goes on trial Wednesday in Los Angeles. He’s accused of racketeering, illegal wiretapping and other charges.

He supposedly worked as a sleuth for Chris Rock and Stephen Seagal, among others. (Story continues below interactive map.)

He and his associates also allegedly dug up dirt on lots of celebs, including Garry Shandling, Kevin Nealon and Sylvester Stallone.

There’s always a chance that these and other household names could be called to testify at Pellicano’s trial.

However, David M. Halbfinger of The New York Times reported Saturday that the key witnesses may come from the board room rather than the big screen.

He drew his information from a 129-page brief filed by prosecutors Thursday. It omits many names that had appeared on a 244-person witness list obtained by Fox News earlier in the month.

The first witness list included Shandling, Nealon and Stallone. Bert Fields, the “lawyer to the stars” who frequently employed Pellicano as an investigator, was also on that list, as was Michael Ovitz, former president of the Walt Disney Company.

Halbfinger reports that hedge fund billionaire Alec E. Gores will be called on behalf of the prosecution.

Gores allegedly listened to Pellicano-obtained wiretaps of conversations between his then wife, Lisa Gores, and his brother Tom Gores. Alec Gores had hired Pellicano because he suspected the two were having an affair.

The founder and chairman of The Gores Group, Alec Gores had a net worth of $1.5 billion in 2007. That placed him at number 317 on the Forbes list of 400 Americans.

His brother Tom, the founder and chairman of another hedge fund, Platinum Equity, did even better in 2007. Setting his net worth at $2.2 billion, Forbes ranked him number 204 on the Forbes 400.

Halbfinger also reported that Adam D. Sender, the manager of Exis Capital Management, another hedge fund, will testify that he hired Pellicano. The private detective allegedly wiretapped a movie producer to gain information for Sender.

In addition to running his hedge fund, Sender is an art collector and investor. Recently, he has been quoted as saying that his investing in art is a better bet than investing in the markets.

The world of real estate could be represented at the trial by Susan Reddan Maguire, the former wife of Robert F. Maguire III. He’s the CEO and board chairman of Maguire Properties, a company that owns several skyscrapers and other properties in the Los Angeles area.

Susan Maguire is expected to testify that Pellicano wiretapped her husband while they were going through a divorce.

The Times reports that there will be at least one movie connection during the trial. Sandra Will Carradine is expected to testify that Pellicano wiretapped her then husband, actor Keith Carradine, during their divorce.

Sandra Carradine, who was also romantically involved with Pellicano, pleaded guilty in 2006 to perjury for testifying she didn’t know about the wiretaps.

In 2006, a grand jury indicted Pellicano and six other people on several charges relating to their information gathering.

Two of the defendants, Daniel Nicherie and Robert Pfeifer, subsequently pleaded guilty.

In addition to Pellicano, who will represent himself at trial, the other remaining defendants are:

Mark Arneson, a former Los Angeles police detective; Rayford Earl Turner, a phone company worker; Kevin Kachikian, a computer programmer; and Abner Nicherie, Daniel Nicherie’s brother.

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