Whispers Down The Line

Today's Studio Briefing fills us in on what's been going on in the Pellicano Wiretapping Case of late:

The Department of Justice and the FBI will investigate who leaked confidential FBI memos in the...case to the New York Times, the legal newspaper The Los Angeles Daily Journal reported Wednesday, citing sources close to the case.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys are blaming each other for the leaks, made in violation of an order by U.S. District Judge Dale S. Fischer that the information be kept confidential.

Meanwhile, Daily Variety reported today... that director John McTiernan, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI when he said that he had no knowledge of Pellicano's alleged wiretapping, had been sued by Bauer Martinez Studios for failing to disclose his involvement with Pellicano when he was hired to direct Crash Bandits. The breach-of-contract suit demands that McTiernan return $2 million already spent on preproduction.

McTiernan tries to mount one legal hurdle and gets another one thrown at him. Sheesh!

And Then There's This:

Universal Studios President and COO Ron Meyer has been identified as the "studio president" referred to in a Vanity Fair article who offered to help support Anthony Pellicano's children when the detective was incarcerated on weapons charges.

L.A. Weekly columnist Nikki Finke also identified Madonna's one-time manager Freddie DeMann as the "producer" who also agreed to contribute to a Pellicano family fund. The VF article said that Pellicano gave the studio president a list of 20-30 Hollywood power players who he thought might contribute as well, but none agreed to do so except the studio exec and the single producer.

The VF article commented: "As pressure grows on Pellicano to testify against his former clients, a lot of people may wish they had been more charitable."

A lot of folks in tinseltown are probably quaking in their expensive footwear...

Still waiting for more shoes to drop...So that I can be here to catch 'em.