Fergie's Tech Blog

McTiernan Jailed in Pellicano Wiretap Case

Ed Pilkington writes in The Guardian:

The director of such blockbuster movies as Die Hard and The Thomas Crown Affair yesterday became the latest casualty of a scandal surrounding a disgraced Los Angeles private detective when he was sentenced to four months in prison for lying to the FBI.

John McTiernan was given the jail term after he admitted last year misleading federal agents investigating the case of Anthony Pellicano, a private investigator charged with setting up illegal wiretaps to pry on several Hollywood celebrities.

McTiernan confessed that he had paid Pellicano $50,000 to bug the phone of the producer of his 2000 film Rollerball, Charles Roven, whom he suspected of undermining him in front of financial backers and studio executives. The director acknowledged that he had lied to the FBI during the course of their investigations, telling agents that he had only called on Pellicano's services to help with his divorce.

McTiernan recently tried to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing through lawyers that when he gave the false information to the FBI he had been exhausted from a long work trip to Asia and from taking antibiotics for a sinus infection. The judge, Dale Fischer, rejected the request, saying he had shown "no remorse, just excuses".

posted by Fergie @ 9/24/2007 06:30:00 PM