FOXLIFE
Hollywood Scandal: Was Studio Exec's History an Issue?
Friday, May 05, 2006
By Roger Friedman
Hollywood Scandal: Was Studio Exec's History an Issue?
What, if anything, does private investigator Anthony Pellicano know
about Universal Pictures president Ron Meyer that could embarrass the
studio chief?
That's the question people have been asking all week since the story of
Meyer's frequent jailhouse visits to Pellicano and their odd friendship
have been revealed in The New York Times.
The answer may be a police report filed in Malibu in 1988 but never
pursued. The report, made on Oct. 27, 1988, was made by Meyer's
then-girlfriend Cyndy Garvey charging "spousal assault." It's a nasty
report, with a police sergeant detailing Garvey's many bruises and
wounds.
Even though the report was never followed up on, its mere existence is
of interest. First of all, it's hard to get. The Malibu police
department was not computerized in 1988. There was no publicity about
the incident either. Second, on its face, it looks true. Without
checking it fully, the accusations would seem terrible and substantial.
At the time, Meyer was a partner with Michael Ovitz in Creative Artists
Agency. He told me in an interview today that after the incident he
went to Ovitz, who immediately hired Hollywood attorney Howard Weitzman
to handle the matter.
Weitzman, of course, was the man who'd brought Pellicano to Hollywood
several years earlier in the John DeLorean case. It's likely, then,
that Weitzman used Pellicano as an investigator in the matter.
Garvey — ex-wife of Los Angeles Dodgers star Steve Garvey —
tells me she didn't pursue the case because she received a threatening
phone call one night advising her to drop it.
But Garvey is not a reliable witness: she's been involved in several
domestic abuse claims over the last 20 years, some resulting in
litigation.
She's also been the subject of two damaging magazine articles that
outline her odd behavior. A Los Angeles magazine story called "Look
Who's Stalking" detailed her contentious relationship with a Los
Angeles restaurateur. She wound up paying him $25,000 when he sued her
for harassment.
In Garvey's police complaint in October 1988 against Meyer, she cited
his neighbor, a man named Bilal Baroody, as a witness. The police state
in the report that they couldn't reach Baroody and that was the end of
it.
In 1997, Meyer says he loaned Baroody — a man supposedly of
substantial wealth — $300,000. Subsequently, Meyer, according to
sources, complained to Pellicano that he couldn't get his money back
because Baroody had vanished.
Two years later, according to Pellicano's federal indictment, the
jailed P.I. illegally ran a police background check on Baroody, who was
then in a dispute with another Pellicano client, the late attorney Ed
Masry.
Baroody remains a mysterious figure in this story. In 1992, he was
celebrated on the floor of Congress by California Rep. Mervyn M.
Dymally as a model citizen worthy of respect.
Dymally cited Baroody's business dealings with producer Dick Clark and
his contributions to the Los Angeles County Museum of Modern Art.
But today, Baroody is merely a distant memory to his Los Angeles
friends. According to people I've spoken with, he now lives abroad.
The episode in Malibu would also be a distant memory if the Pellicano case hadn't revived it.
According to sources, both Meyer's and Garvey's recollections of the
incident are similar to a point, then diverge into different outcomes.
She showed up at Meyer’s house in the middle of the night, and
was out of control, “going at 100 miles an hour,” says a
source.
Meyer slapped her almost as a defense, as she was "flailing away at him.”
Both parties apparently agree that Baroody’s driver drove her
home, and Meyer followed in his car to make sure she got there. They
each agree that a female friend of Meyer’s who was staying in
house witnessed everything.
But the police report is graphic, including a swollen and bruised eye and cheek. Could the slapping have caused that?
"I don't think so," said Meyer, who was interviewed by the police
subsequently. "Anything like that she would have done to herself."
Another ex-boyfriend of Garvey says she has a history of self-inflicted bruises. Either way, the matter was then dropped.
Could Pellicano have made the matter “go away,” I wondered?
Says Weitzman: "I do not believe Anthony Pellicano had any impact on
the results of the investigation into Ms. Garvey's allegations. I
personally talked with the Sheriff's investigator and the District
Attorney reviewing her assertions, and was told that after they
interviewed Ms. Garvey and other witnesses they did not believe there
were sufficient facts to charge Mr. Meyer with any wrongdoing. Any
inference that Mr. Pellicano was responsible for charges not being
filed is just wrong."
Weitzman, however, did concede that it was likely that Pellicano
interviewed the witnesses on Weitzman’s behalf. He could easily
have intercepted the police report — and banked it for future use.
And that police report could have been devastating to Meyer if it had
fallen into the wrong hands back then. Without an explanation of
Garvey’s litigious history and false previous and subsequent
claims against boyfriends, Meyer could have been severely hurt, at
least professionally.
He's been in charge of Universal since a nasty corporate divorce from
Ovitz in 1995. Over the years, the two have had a few public run-ins.
Meyer, like other CAA execs, has done much to distance himself from his
vengeful former partner. According to reports, Ovitz has felt hurt and
abandoned by people whom he made rich and powerful early in their
careers.
Was the Garvey matter on Ovitz's mind when he told Pellicano, according
to the Times piece, to get "embarrassing information" about Meyer in
case he caused trouble for Ovitz?
Ovitz knew the Garvey story; Pellicano no doubt did, too. Sources tell
me that Ovitz probably used Pellicano to spy on everyone he worked
with, at CAA and then at Disney, during his short tenure there in
1995-96.
"All I know is, he knew a lot about everyone," says a Disney source.
"The people there were very intimidated. How would you like it if
someone came to you with a folder about all the things you'd done in
your life?"
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,194445,00.html