Sylvester Stallone will have to steal the spotlight another time.
The prosecution in the Anthony Pellicano wiretapping case rested Thursday after a federal judge agreed to dismiss 28 counts of the 70-plus count indictment against the former private-investigator-to-the-stars and one of his codefendants after the U.S. Attorney's Office informed the court that certain key witnesses would not be available to testify to those charges.
Before today, Pellicano and four alleged cohorts were collectively facing 107 counts that included wiretapping, racketeering and conspiracy.
While the high-profile trial has already seen such Hollywood bigwigs as Chris Rock, Garry Shandling, Keith Carradine, former superagent Mike Ovitz and Paramount chairman Brad Grey take the stand, the earlier-than-expected end to this half of the trial means Sylvester Stallone, Farrah Fawcett, Die Hard director John McTiernan and various other studio execs—all of whom were listed as possible prosecution witnesses at the start of the trial—will in all likelihood not be appearing in court.
Stallone, who had once told reporters he was willing to testify, was there in spirit, however.
Before prosecutors called it a case, a former attorney for the Rambo star who once represented him in a lawsuit against the actor's business manager testified Thursday that the only way Pellicano could have known so much about the case (which involved Stallone's Planet Hollywood restaurants) was through an unwarranted wiretap on Stallone's phone.
Prosecutors played a tape of Pellicano speaking with the business manager, Kenneth Starr, during which he told Starr he had in his possession a list of potential witnesses from Stallone's camp.
"I'm finding out everything they got," Pellicano said.
Referring to the tape, attorney Lawrence Nagler said on the stand that a particular woman Pellicano mentioned could only have been found out about by listening to his calls with Stallone.
"I don't know how [Pellicano] could know I was after her" otherwise, Nagler said, referring to the woman who at the time had allegedly complained to Starr about her investment in Planet Hollywood. (Stallone started the chain with fellow big-screen action heroes Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis and Willis' then-wife, Demi Moore.)
A private investigator he hired to sweep Stallone's phones for bugs didn't find any, Nagler admitted, but federal authorities have alleged that Pellicano used special software, rather than traditional "bugs," to obtain much of his inside info.