L E T T E R F R O M L . A . TALK OF THE TOWN It looks as if the wiretapping investigation consuming L.A. may bring down some of the town’s top names. From the details of Anthony Pellicano’s electronic “War Room” to the P.I.’s most damaging cases, to the impact of his divorce and his delusions of Godfather grandeur, the authors have a road map to the biggest scandal in Hollywood history BY BRYAN BURROUGH AND JOHN CONNOLLY E V STORMY WEATHER A R The famous Hollywood G R A sign transformed. H Y Inset, Anthony Pellicano E L T in Los Angeles in S E W December 2002. Y B T E S N I ack before everything went Most every night Pellicano, the swagger- wrong, before they discovered the wiretap ing 62-year-old “private detective to the Btranscripts and the hand grenades and the stars,’’ the man who handled sensitive jobs plastic explosives in his o! ce, before he for everyone from Michael Jackson and spent more than two years in federal prison, Tom Cruise to onetime Hollywood super- before a storm of indictments sent waves of agent Michael Ovitz, left his o! ce on the fear cascading through the Southern Califor- third floor of a Sunset Boulevard high- nia entertainment and legal communities, rise and hopped into his black, two-seat before the investigation into the ham-" sted Mercedes. He drove home to suburban intimidation of a reporter helped trigger the Oak Park, where he and his fourth wife, greatest scandal in Hollywood history, An- Katherine “Kat” Pellicano, raised their thony Pellicano was a family man. children—three daughters and an autistic 8 8 V A N I T Y F A I R P H O T O I L L U S T R A T I O N B Y M I C H A E L E L I N S L E T T E R F R O M L . A . son named Luca. Kat was expected to have house for good, the detective began living a dark Mercedes displayed a # ashing light dinner waiting on the table, complete with in the condominium full-time. The turmoil in his rearview mirror. When Zeman rolled dessert. Afterward, she might give Pellicano in Pellicano’s private life, Kat and oth- down his window, the Mercedes pulled up a massage or have sex with him. ers speculate, made him sloppy, made beside him. The passenger rolled down his For the Pellicanos, a pleasant evening him do things he wouldn’t ordinarily do. window and rapped a pistol on the side might mean watching The Sopranos or one “He was de! nitely distracted,’’ says Rich Di- of his car. Then he pointed it at Zeman. of the Godfather movies. Ma! a rituals fas- Sabatino, a Beverly Hills private investigator “Stop,’’ he said, and pulled the trigger. cinated Pellicano, who grew up in Al Ca- who probably quali! es as Pellicano’s clos- The gun wasn’t loaded. “Bang,’’ he said. pone’s hometown of Cicero, Illinois, and est friend. “He was, in his mind, a family A few weeks later the aging detective’s once listed the son of a reputed Chicago man, and he was losing his family.’’ divorce went through, and he lost his fam- Mob boss as a creditor. In business, where In fact, the famous incident in which ily for good. Two months after that the he crafted a tough-guy persona designed to that dead ! sh was left on the hood of Los F.B.I. raided his o" ce, and nothing in Hol- appeal to a clientele weaned on Jake Gittes Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch’s silver lywood will ever, ever be the same. and Sam Spade, he was a man who playful- Audi came as Pellicano was desperately try- ly brandished baseball bats, allegedly had a ing to re-unite with Kat. Two months later, o scandal in Hollywood history can dead ! sh left on an opponent’s windshield, in August 2002, she allowed her husband compare to the Anthony Pellicano and told clients they were joining his “fam- to come home for a single Sunday, to see if Nwiretapping scandal. Not the Fatty ily’’—and no one hurt his family. He named he had really changed. In the old days, Sun- Arbuckle murder trials, of the 1920s, not his son after Don Corleone’s favored assas- day was a time of ritual in their household. the killing of Lana Turner’s lover Johnny sin, Luca Brazzi. On occasion Kat felt he Pellicano had his weekly massage promptly Stompanato, in 1958, not director Roman took the ma! oso shtick a tad far. “There at six P.M., during which the children were Polanski’s statutory rape of a 13-year-old were times when he would make my chil- ordered to remain silent, and afterward he girl, in 1977, not even the late-1970s In- dren kiss his hand like he was the Godfa- would watch The Sopranos, a rite so sol- decent Exposure embezzlement scandal ther,’’ she says. “He started to think he was emnly observed “it was like he was going to involving producer David Begelman. “Peo- Don Corleone.’’ church,’’ Kat remembers. ple out here, they’re talking about this end- Her husband could be controlling and It took only a few hours for Kat to real- lessly,’’ says media magnate Barry Diller. temperamental, according to Kat, but for ize that her husband hadn’t changed. He “If you’re talking to people in L.A. right years she put up with his moods, in part remained prickly and cold. Finally, she now, it’s the only topic.’’ because he had no one else. “I was his only says, “my oldest daughter came to me and The details are being uncovered by a con! dante,’’ Kat says. “He had no friends whispered, ‘Say the magic word, Mom, say federal investigation into the tactics of to speak of. On the weekends we rarely, the magic word.’ ” The magic word was “ass- dozens of Los Angeles attorneys, who in and I mean rarely, had any friends over, hole,” which always caused him to leave the turn represented over the years more than and they were my friends—he had none. house when Kat called him one. “Eventually, a hundred directors, producers, and movie He just wanted to be with me. It was so I said that magic word that day, he left, and stars, from Steven Spielberg, Nicole Kid- bad that for years he would not let me talk I have not regretted it since.’’ man, and Stevie Wonder to Chris Rock, on the telephone over the weekend.’’ That same August, Vanity Fair’s Ned Kevin Costner, and Demi Moore. History By 1999, after 15 years of marriage, the Zeman, who was investigating one of Pel- suggests that only a few are likely to be in- Pellicanos were squabbling. That Decem- licano’s former clients, actor Steven Seagal, dicted, but until the case concludes, a wide ber, Kat encouraged her husband to buy a was driving through Laurel Canyon when swath of Hollywood’s legal and entertain- condominium on Doheny Drive, near his o" ce, telling him to sleep over there when he was working late. A few months after- ward, when she threw Pellicano out of the “THERE WASN’T A DAY THAT I DIDN’T HEAR THE WORDS ‘ANTHONY PELLICANO’ COME OUT OF BRAD [GREY]’S MOUTH,” SAYS A FORMER BRILLSTEIN-GREY EXECUTIVE. ment establishments is living in abject fear. ; Why? Because every disagreement in N A M Hollywood—every divorce, every baby R E Z born out of wedlock, every contract dis- S A K pute, every squabble between studios and Y C talent agencies—involves attorneys, and N A ) N S for the last 20 years when things got E Y T B A nasty, L.A. lawyers turned to Antho- , T G H T ny Pellicano, who monitored, inves- G N I U PLAYERS R ; tigated, intimidated, and in some O I Brad Grey and M C A cases wiretapped their opponents. C R Garry Shandling. U A B P After months of anticipation, the tip ( E C N of this very dirty iceberg finally N O I S V P I hove into view in February, when Pelli- Y L B K , T cano and six of his flunkies, including R F A E two policemen, were indicted on vari- L M 9 0 J U N E 2 0 0 6 L E T T E R F R O M L . A . ous charges, including illegally accessing of Paci! c Bell, on 112 charges of wiretap- ment suggest that all three stand squarely law-enforcement da ta bases. A week later ping and of paying the policemen to ille- in the U.S. attorney’s crosshairs. the billionaire ! nancier Kirk Kerkorian’s gally access law-enforcement databases. Pellicano, several sources say, worked for longtime attorney, Terry Christensen, be- Pellicano remains in custody while rumors Grey off and on for years while Grey was at came the ! rst high-pro! le L.A. lawyer to ricochet that he will begin “ratting out’’ Brillstein-Grey. Ovitz was facing the collapse be indicted, for allegedly paying Pellica- his clients. of his post-Disney start-up, Artists Manage- no $100,000 to tap the phones of Ker- Those attorneys who used Pellicano’s ser- ment Group, when, in 2001, he reportedly korian’s ex-wife, Lisa Bonder, during the vices and who have cases known to be under hired Pellicano to probe several members of couple’s child-custody case.