EXCLUSIVE: When Anthony Pellicano walks out of a California prison tomorrow, the once notorious Hollywood P.I. will be welcomed by some of the biggest names in Hollywood with dual gifts of deep appreciation and cold hard cash. Ending a 15-year sentence behind bars on his 75th birthday, the soon-to-be former inmate of…

This week's whirl of parties celebrating awards season constitutes "an over-caffeinated exercise in suppressed schadenfreude," an analyst friend confided to me. In coming days scores of runners-up will be called upon to celebrate the triumphs of a tiny group of winners. The reality: Most of us will take greatest…

Michael Ovitz was ever the master of both confession and concealment — the shared confidence that really wasn't, or the backdoor whisper that had to be denied. When I was pursuing him, in a reportorial sense, for a 1986 Wall Street Journal profile, for instance, he struck a pose of complete resistance. But he also had…

Book titles posing a question are considered risky in the publishing business, especially if they're widely hyped. A case in point: Who Is Michael Ovitz? published this week by Portfolio/Penguin. The book was, in fact, written by Ovitz, prompting some of his former colleagues and clients to propose an alternate title…

Heading to a book party for screenwriter-novelist Tom Epperson's latest, a South American journalistic thriller called Roberto To The Dark Tower Came, I got to wondering: Will there ever be another great Hollywood book? You know, the kind that makes you catch your breath, slap the beach chair, and gasp, "Did they…

Michael Ovitz is suing Fireman’s Fund Insurance over a legal settlement recently reached with Deadline editor Anita Busch, claiming the carrier is refusing to pay its fair share of the proceeds to end the matter. The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court today, alleges breach of contract. Ovitz agreed to the Busch…

Almost 16 years after Anita Busch discovered a dead fish on the shattered front window of her car, along with the threatening word “Stop”, the journalist has come to a settlement with former CAA boss Mike Ovitz. “The matter has been resolved between our client and Michael Ovitz,” Busch attorney Evan Marshall told…

"I have no intention of appealing anything," Anthony Pellicano told a federal judge today as the disgraced former Hollywood private investigator was re-sentenced. In a short hearing in front of U.S. District Judge Dale Fisher on Monday morning, Pellicano joined in via videoconference to learn he will remain in the big…

"The bottom line is the Malibu thing is completely his fault," joked Michael Ovitz, to a capacity crowd at the DGA Theatre tonight for a Live Talks Los Angeles event. Appearing for the first time in more than 20 years alongside his one-time partner in the founding of CAA, Ron Meyer, Ovitz was setting the record…

Proving it’s possible to have not just two but three acts in the business there’s no business like, Canadian impresario Garth Drabinsky announced today that he’s coming back to Broadway next fall, following an unanticipated 15-year hiatus. His production of a new musical based on the novel behind the 1988 Shirley…

A highly anticipated chat between former CAA partners and longtime rivals Michael Ovitz and Ron Meyer scheduled for September 7 has now been postponed to September 29 due to Ovitz recovering from recent back surgery. The duo will be meeting for a live discussion of James Andrew Miller’s Powerhouse: The Untold Story Of…

"History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it," runs the amended version of a thought once voiced by Winston Churchill. Michael Ovitz, Ron Meyer and friends must have had Churchill in mind when they decided to collaborate with James Andrew Miller on his massive oral history of the Creative Artists Agency, Power…