About to enter into its third week, the Anthony Pellicano trial isn’t living up to its advance reviews.
Yes, Garry Shandling brought a little luster and a little levity to the proceedings with his testimony Thursday in the Los Angeles wiretapping trial of Pellicano, a private detective, and some of his associates.
And Tarita Virtue, the prosecution’s chief witness and Maxim magazine’s “Sexiest Private Eye in America,” is getting some good reviews.
But the federal trial itself has been a disappointment. “Less interesting than a bad episode of Boston Legal,” wrote Marc Graser in Variety.com.
Pre-trial publicity and potential witness lists suggested that the Tinseltown trial would have a star-studded cast, including Sylvester Stallone, Chris Rock and a lot of Hollywood movers and shakers, including former Disney exec Michael Ovitz.
While some headliners could still appear, they may not be needed, according to reports.
Prosecutors seem intent on proving that Pellicano did a lot of illegal wiretapping and information gathering. They seem less interested in the actual dirt that he dug up. “The details of the calls that were recorded aren’t key,” Graser wrote.
On top of this, Pellicano, who is representing himself, is proving to be more Cousin Vinny than Perry Mason.
U.S. District Court Judge Dale S. Fischer has had to remind the non-lawyer to refer to himself in the third person. And Pellicano’s courtroom skills haven’t yet emerged, according to court watchers.
Allison Hope Weiner, a lawyer who has been blogging daily on the trial for Huffingtonpost.com, called Pellicano’s cross-examinations “pointless” and so “mind-numbingly dull” that she has been tempted to stick a pen in her eye.
Given all of this, it’s not surprising that the media perked up when Shandling, allegedly a Pellicano target, took the stand Thursday.
As a matter of routine, prosecutor Kevin Lally asked Shandling, the star of the former HBO series, The Larry Sanders Show, what he did for a living.
“That’s a bad sign,” Shandling responded with a straight face, prompting laughter. “I’m a comedian.”
“Not today,” the judge reminded Shandling, who went on to describe how his former agent, Brad Grey, had allegedly hired Pellicano to gather personal information about him.
Shandling’s appearance followed several days of testimony from Virtue, Pellicano’s former assistant at the Pellicano Investigative Agency Ltd. She’s also the proprietor of a web site that features her in non-courtroom attire.
Given immunity by the prosecution, Virtue testified, at length, that one of her main tasks was to listen to and transcribe illegal wiretaps.
According to Weiner, the attorneys for the other defendants were able to poke some holes in her testimony. Pellicano had trouble doing this, though he often drove his former employee to tears.
Virtue returned to the stand after Shandling. On Friday, a detective from the Los Angeles Police Department and an FBI computer expert testified. The trial resumes Tuesday.
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