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Politics : Piffer Thread on Political Rantings and Ravings -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alan Smithee who wrote (12022)	11/18/2003 3:05:04 PM
From: MulhollandDrive	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14610

found this... was jackson being blackmailed? (google is so much fun, don't you love "racist police officer Mark Furhman"<g>) :) telegraph.co.uk Stars questioned by FBI over phone taps (Filed: 14/11/2003) Mysterious case of the dead fish may reveal Hollywood secrets, reports Oliver Poole The actor Warren Beatty has been questioned by the FBI as an inquiry that began with a dead fish threatens to spiral into a Hollywood expose. As well as Beatty, the comedian Garry Shandling and the lawyer who represents Tom Cruise and Michael Jackson have been interviewed, along with many more as yet unidentified figures from the entertainment industry. It appears that they may have been victims of a vast phone-tapping operation run by Anthony Pellicano, a private investigator known as "The Pelican". The case started when a Los Angeles Times reporter investigating a Mafia attempt to extort money from the action star Steven Seagal returned to her car to find a dead fish on the bonnet and "Stop" scrawled across the windscreen. A former drug dealer told police he had been paid $10,000 (£6,250) by Pellicano to warn her off. Both Pellicano and Seagal denied any involvement but it was enough for a search warrant to be issued for the gumshoe's offices. There, police discovered two unregistered hand grenades in a safe and enough plastic explosive to blow up a plane. There were also transcripts of a series of allegedly illegal phone taps on Pellicano's computer. The investigation is now the subject of secret grand jury hearings. The FBI is not officially commenting on what it unearthed but Hollywood is awash with speculation about who has been found saying what to whom, and who has been questioned. Pellicano helped to defend John DeLorean, the car-maker, against cocaine racketeering charges in the early 1980s. A decade later he was working for the racist police officer Mark Fuhrman during the OJ Simpson trial. When Michael Jackson faced child abuse allegations, Pellicano was called in. The FBI has questioned Shandling, the star of the TV comedy The Larry Sanders Show. Shandling went through a bitter dispute with his manager, Brad Grey, whose representative is alleged to have hired Pellicano. Bert Fields, a lawyer whose clients have included Cruise, Jackson, John Travolta and Kevin Costner, has hired his own criminal attorney after being interviewed. Mr Fields has admitted that he had often hired Pellicano as an investigator but insists it was only for lawful operations. Beatty was also approached by FBI officials, it was widely reported yesterday. Dozens more people, including celebrities, are understood to have been questioned but have declined to go public. Pellicano, 59, was renowned for approaching people with sleaze on his clients and threatening to reveal unsavoury details from their past. He carried a baseball bat and once told the Los Angeles Times: "I only use intimidation and fear when I absolutely have to." Pellicano's business is now in ruins, his second wife is divorcing him and on Monday he will start a 27-month jail term after pleading guilty to illegal possession of the plastic explosives and grenades. He is taking his secrets with him to the penitentiary - for now.