Latest in Ovitz

UPDATES Shame On Mike Ovitz… This morning, Mike Ovitz tried to go through a NYC power publicist (Steven Rubenstein, who doesn’t rep him) to get back to me. But I needed to hear the words directly from MO’s mouth. So he just phoned me from a plane to explain why he was a no-show at Mike Rosenfeld Sr’s memorial service…

UPDATES Mike Ovitz Explains: “Nobody Called Me” Today was the memorial service for Mike Rosenfeld Sr, the William Morris agent who became one of the five founders of Creative Artists Agency and then moved to Sonoma County before passing away on March 25th. All of the other original partners were there given the…

Sandy Litvack used to be one of Michael Eisner’s most trusted advisers at the Walt Disney Co. He’s now one of the U.S. government’s. That’s because the Justice Department has hired the Century City lawyer with Hogan & Hartson as an outside consultant on a possible federal antitrust challenge to Google’s proposed…

My sources within the Hollywood legal community tell me that producer Cathy Schulman, who was sued by Michael Ovitz and at one point facing a terrifying $4 million judgment, has won her appeal and now a new arbitration so that she owes the Hollywood has-been nothing. Nada. Zilch. I don’t have many details because…

When I last left this litigious twosome, a judge had just dismissed billionaire Ron Burkle’s lawsuit against Michael Ovitz after ruling that the duo had been more friends than business partners on some Internet ventures. Which gives new meaning to the term “frenemies” considering the pair absolutely and positively…

This is a photo of Michael Ovitz arriving at Camp Allen. Look closely at his T-shirt. (FYI, I reported three weeks ago about his renting the I.M. Pei building, the ex-home of CAA, to Sony BMG. Embarrassing for Variety to be so late on…

I keep forgetting to report that the old CAA building designed by I.M. Pei, complete with its Roy Lichtenstein mural, is back in the hands of Michael Ovitz. Both his ex-partners Ron Meyer and Bill Haber recently sold to him their financial interests in the Beverly Hills landmark at the corner of Little Santa Monica…

Here is DHD/LA Weekly trial correspondent Steven Mikulan’s wrap-up: “Prosecutor Daniel Saunders got the last word in during the government rebuttal argument. Saunders, who'd been lumbered during his  closing argument by the need to enumerate most of the 78 counts involved in the RICO case, got to unload on the five…

So the trial that would not end is finally ending with closing arguments. Not much of a Hollywood angle to report, except for the lawyer for LAPD Sgt Mark Arneson, who is accused of doing all those illegal law enforcement database investigations.  I’ve been reading the coverage – anxiously awaiting the verdict on this…

Today the retired FBI agent who led the Pellicano investigation testified that he believed Ovitz’s hiring of the Hollywood private-eye led to that June 2002 fish-rose-&-note warning left on Anita Busch’s Audi. But Stan Ornellas stopped short of saying Ovitz specifically ordered the June 2002 threat against the…

2ND UPDATE: Michael Ovitz on the witness stand at the Pellicano trial today pointed an accusatory finger at his former friend and CAA partner Ron Meyer, now president/COO of Universal Studios, and at his longtime nemesis David Geffen, the billionaire co-founder of DreamWorks. Ovitz testified that he suspected they…

I’m told he showed up at the Roybal federal building although his lawyer shooed away reporters. No, he didn’t take the witness stand today and was left cooling his heels. Supposedly, Mike testifies tomorrow. Speaking of the former CAA co-founder and fired Walt Disney Co president, he was the butt of a joke today at a…