| Fields, whose clients over the years have included Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson and Kevin Costner, issued a statement Tuesday saying that, like many Hollywood attorneys, he often hired Pellicano as an investigator
Alexander Proctor, an ex-convict and one-time drug dealer, has been charged with threatening the reporter U attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek declined to comment FBI officials did not immediately return a call for comment Tuesday
Pellicano and Seagal have denied any involvement in the threats against the reporter
One of Hollywood's most prominent celebrity attorneys, Bert Fields, also said the FBI questioned him about possible wiretapping allegations involving Pellicano
Seventeen months later, an ex-convict is awaiting trial on charges he made the threats, while the man he says hired him to do it, celebrity private eye Anthony Pellicano, is set to begin serving time for illegally possessing military-style explosives and hand grenades
Hollywood publicist Michael Sands said Tuesday he suspected Pellicano of tapping his phones in 1990 when he was investigating one of Sands' celebrity clients
The private eye, who is to begin serving a 27-month prison sentence next Monday because of the explosives found in his office, declined Tuesday to discuss the investigation
"So they gotta take the same heat that they dish out," he once said Authorities said Proctor told an FBI informant that Pellicano hired him to threaten Busch on behalf of Seagal "
He declined to elaborate
"I have absolutely no information involving Mr
"Anthony Pellicano was one of the detectives all the lawyers in Hollywood liked and they gave him their business," Sands said
A one-time "skip tracer" from Chicago who made a living tracking down people who didn't pay their Spiegel catalog bills, Pellicano gained national attention in 1977 when he found the remains of Taylor's third husband, movie producer Michael Todd, after they were stolen from an Illinois cemetery
But what has Hollywood talking is the fact that the FBI, which in the course of the investigation searched Pellicano's office, apparently turned up transcripts of phone conversations and is now investigating whether Pellicano illegally tapped the phones of some celebrities, their lawyers and their agents Sands acknowledged he could never prove it
Pellicano and illegal wiretapping, and any suggestion that I do is complete baloney," Fields said
The affair began June 20, 2002, with a scene befitting a B-movie: Los Angeles Times reporter Anita Busch, who was looking into actor Steven Seagal's alleged mob connections, found a dead fish and a rose on the hood of her car, along with a cardboard sign with the word "Stop" taped to her windshield
The tough-talking Pellicano cultivated an image akin to novelist Raymond Chandler's hard-boiled, swaggering detective Philip Marlowe
His representatives did not immediately return a call Tuesday There wasn't much of that around anymore
That prompted the FBI to search Pellicano's office S DeLorean was arrested after authorities said he was caught on videotape trying to sell undercover agents drugs to raise millions of dollars to bail out his struggling car company "
He also boasted of digging into the past of his clients' enemies Nasso has sued the actor for breach of contract It was there they found the explosives and, apparently, transcripts of the purported wiretapped conversations Private Eye's Arrest a Hollywood Scandal
Nov 12, 2:53 AM EST
A bumbling attempt to scare a newspaper reporter off a story last year has mushroomed into a federal investigation that has left some of Hollywood's elite wondering if their phones were illegally tapped
At the center of the intrigue is Pellicano, 59, who has provided detective work, security and sometimes acted as spokesman for such stars as Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson and Sylvester Stallone
Comedian Gary Shandling told The New York Times that an FBI agent had contacted him and asked him questions about wiretapping
His next big success came in 1983, when the self-taught expert in analyzing audio recordings and enhancing the quality of surveillance tapes helped former auto maker John DeLorean win acquittal on cocaine trafficking charges His success was said to have won the admiration of Taylor and helped facilitate his transition to celebrity private eye
One of Fields' partners, attorney Norman Levine, added that federal investigators "apparently have spoken to a number of prominent people in the entertainment community
The two were business partners but had a falling out, and Seagal has testified that mobsters threatened his life after he ended the relationship "
Busch was looking into a connection between Seagal â€â€? known for his martial-arts moves in films like "Under Siege" and "Exit Wounds" â€â€? and reputed Mafia associate Julius Nasso when she was threatened "They wanted his old-style muscle He claimed to carry a baseball bat, not a gun, as his weapon of choice and once told the Los Angeles Times: "I only use intimidation and fear when I absolutely have to |