Suit links Ovitz to Pellicano case

The L.A. Times reports:

A former Los Angeles Times reporter has alleged in a civil lawsuit that onetime Hollywood power broker Michael Ovitz participated with indicted private investigator Anthony Pellicano and others to intimidate and threaten her.

The former reporter, Anita M. Busch, originally filed a civil suit in 2004 that identified Pellicano, several of his associates and numerous unnamed defendants as responsible for an alleged campaign of "threats, intimidation, harassment and invasion of privacy for the purpose of deterring … and retaliating against [Busch] for investigating and writing articles about the entertainment business."

An amendment to the civil complaint, which was filed Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, states that one of those unnamed defendants — identified earlier as "Doe 4" — is Ovitz, a co-founder of one of Hollywood's best known talent agencies, Creative Artists Agency.

Other than naming Ovitz, Busch's filing details no alleged actions by Ovitz.

The suit says only that he was one of dozens of defendants who were involved in "directing, organizing, commanding, employing and/or hiring individuals to engage in the unlawful and tortious conduct."

Busch and her attorney, Ian Herzog, could not be reached for comment.

In a brief statement, Ovitz's attorney, James Ellis, said: "My client had nothing to do with this. It's unfortunate that Ms. Busch has chosen to involve him in this matter."

Ovitz previously has acknowledged that his outside law firm hired Pellicano to assist in the defense of three lawsuits filed in 2002 against Artist Management Group, a second talent agency established by Ovitz. Pellicano was paid $75,000 for that work.

The Pellicano saga continues.