The famed Hollywood "fixer" whose star-studded client roster included the likes of Elizabeth Taylor and Tom Cruise is speaking out on one of his more illustrious celebrity clients: Michael Jackson. In an interview the The Hollywood Reporter, Anthony Joseph Pellicano, aka Prisoner No. 347869 at Terminal Island Federal Correctional Institution. Pellicano is currently serving a 15-year sentence for the shady services he provided Hollywood’s A-list—we’re talking things like wiretapping, racketeering, and identity theft.
According to Pellicano, Jackson employed him through his attorney around 1993. He says he fired Jackson as a client “because he was disgusted by truths even darker than those alleged in Jackson’s molestation scandal," THR writes. “I was offered $500,000 to tell the whole story by a tabloid, and I declined, even though, while incarcerated, I needed the money,” Pellicano said. However, he dodged any more questions about Jackson, saying, “All of that would get too close to the truth, so, regretfully, I have to decline.” (If you're in the market for some hot Jackson gossip, Quincy Jones recently spilled some tea over the King of Pop, for which MJ's attorney tweeted out some serious shade.)
Pellicano did, however, dish the details regarding the 2002 FBI raid of his Hollywood offices. “The FBI guys asked if there was anything in there that could hurt them. There were two guns, which I turned over to them,” Pellicano told THR. He also recounts “completely forgetting” about C-4 and two hand grenades that were locked in his office safe, when he obliged the agents and opened it, believing he had nothing to hide. “Well, you can imagine, the result of that,” said Pellicano. Um…actually, no. Most of us don't casually keep military-grade explosive devices around, dude.
One question Pellicano decidedly refused to answer was whether or not he had ever worked for the current President. Same goes for former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Way to leave us hanging.
