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Who’s who in the Pellicano case

The trial of Anthony Pellicano, Hollywood's so-called 'private eye to the stars', finally begins in Los Angeles this week. He faces more than 100 charges of alleged muck-raking, illegally wiretapping celebrities' phones, bribing police officers and threatening witnesses. It is expected be the most high-profile court case in town since the 1993 trial of 'madam to the stars', Heidi Fleiss.

The 'big three' witnesses are the lawyer Bert Fields, studio chief Brad Grey and super-agent Mike Ovitz, all of whom deny any knowledge of Pellicano's tactics. With nearly 250 potential witnesses listed, and four co-defendants in the dock with Pellicano, the trial is expected to last ten weeks.

The First Post offers this handy A-Z guide to the key characters:

MARK ARNESON
Co-defendant. Former LAPD detective accused of illegally searching police databases on behalf of Pellicano some 2,500 times.

STEVE BING
Film producer. Liz Hurley's ex-boyfriend is one of several former Pellicano clients who could be called as a witness.

ANITA BUSCH
Reporter for the LA Times. Her experience triggered the case. She was investigating stories about Michael Ovitz and Steven Seagal when she found a dead fish on her smashed car windscreen and a note warning her to 'stop'.

KEITH CARRADINE
Actor. His ex-wife Sandra Will is expected to testify that she listened to Pellicano's illegal recordings of her husband's phone calls during a property dispute in her divorce case.

TERRY N CHRISTENSEN
Lawyer. He is to be tried separately on charges that he paid Pellicano $100,000 to wiretap the former wife of his top client, the billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, in a child-support dispute. His trial is likely to start two weeks after the conclusion of the Pellicano trial.

TOM CRUISE
Actor. His lawyer, Bert Fields, is said to have hired Pellicano to help end a gay blackmail threat against the star.

BERT FIELDS
Lawyer to Tom Cruise and at various times Mike Ovitz, Brad Grey and Adam Sender. He has retained Pellicano's services many times. He has not been charged with anything, but he has been advised he is a 'subject of interest' in the case.

DALE FISCHER
US district judge. She is due to begin hearing the trial on March 5.

ALEC GORES
Founder of the Gores Group, a private equity company. He is prepared to testify Pellicano wiretapped his wife and his younger brother to confirm his suspicions about an affair.

BRAD GREY
Head of Paramount Pictures and formerly head of management-production company Brillstein-Grey. A client of attorney Bert Fields and of Pellicano when he was fending off lawsuits from producer Bo Zenga and comedian Garry Shandling.

MICHAEL JACKSON
Pop star. When Jackson faced child abuse allegations in 1993, Fields allegedly employed Pellicano to unearth material that helped settle the case.

KEVIN KACHIKAN
Co-defendant. A computer programmer accused of designing and building devices for analysing tapped calls, which he and Pellicano tried to trademark as Telesleuth.

KIRK KERKORIAN
Film and property mogul who once owned MGM and is one of the richest men in Beverly Hills. His former wife, Lisa Bonder Kerkorian, was allegedly wiretapped by Pellicano.

ROBERT MAGUIRE
Property developer. He was allegedly wiretapped by Pellicano during his divorce from Susan Redden Maguire. She will testify that Pellicano played intercepted calls for her, including conversations Maguire had with his psychiatrist and girlfriend.

RON MEYER
Head of Universal Pictures and a former partner in CAA with Michael Ovitz. He was reported in 2006 to have made frequent visits to Pellicano in jail.

ABNER NICHERIE
Co-defendant. A businessman who is accused of hiring Pellicano and then translating the tapped calls, many of them in Hebrew.

MICHAEL OVITZ
Hollywood super-agent, founder of the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) and former head of AMG. Prosecutors allege that Ovitz and Pellicano discussed in 2002 the agent's belief that New York Times reporter Bernard Weinraub had "been recycling negative stories about him," sometimes with the assistance of Anita Busch of the LA Times. Busch's phone line was allegedly tapped.

ANTHONY PELLICANO
Private detective. He was arrested in 2002 after FBI agents raided his office and found hand grenades and plastic explosives in his safe. They also uncovered a vast cache of illegal wiretaps. Against the advice of the trial judge, he is representing himself.

CHRIS ROCK
Comedian who recently received rave reviews for his first stand-up tour of the UK. He reportedly hired Pellicano after a former model, Monika Zsibrita, started a paternity suit against him. The suit was dropped. Rock has denied knowledge of any illegal activity.

DANIEL SAUNDERS
Prosecutor. He is expected to call up to 100 people from a list of 244 potential witnesses.

ADAM SENDER
Head of Exis Capital, a hedge fund at one time valued at $1.5bn. He will testify that Pellicano wiretapped a movie producer he accused of cheating him out of more than $1m. Sender is expected to admit to listening to wiretapped calls.

GARRY SHANDLING
Comedian and star of The Larry Sanders Show. An alleged victim of Pellicano's wiretapping in the course of a 'conflict of interest' lawsuit he brought against Brad Grey concerning his TV series. Shandling and his girlfriend Linda Doucett were allegedly subjected to illegal background checks.

SYLVESTER STALLONE
Actor. He was allegedly wiretapped by Pellicano in February 2002 at a time when the actor was suing his former business manager, Kenneth Starr.

RAYFORD EARL TURNER
Co-defendant. A retired Bell Pacific phone company employee accused of installing wiretaps.

BERNARD WEINRAUB
Hollywood beat reporter for the New York Times until 2004. Michael Ovitz and Pellicano had allegedly discussed his "recyling of negative stories" about Ovitz in 2002.

BO ZENGA
Producer. He once tried to sue Brad Grey, when he was running the Brillstein-Grey company, for profits from the film Scary Movie. Grey's legal team hired Pellicano to work on the case. Hundreds of Zenga's phone calls were intercepted over a three-month period.

MONIKA ZSIBRITA
Hungarian model who started a paternity suit against comedian Chris Rock. The suit was later withdrawn, allegedly following Pellicano's involvement.

FIRST POSTED MARCH 3, 2008

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