Shandling takes stand at Pellicano trial

The American comedian and star of The Larry Sanders Show, Garry Shandling, told a Los Angeles court on Thursday of his discomfort at realising that police databases had been illegally searched for personal data about him and his friends. The information was needed, he claimed, to help fuel a smear campaign against him after he fell out with his long-time manager, Brad Grey.

Shown a printout of the background checks, Shandling said: "This bothers me as much as the first time I saw this. It's a creepy feeling."

Shandling is the first big name to appear at the trial of Anthony Pellicano, the former "private eye to the stars", who is charged with using wiretapping and other illegal methods to dig up dirt on many prominent Hollywood names, to be used in divorce cases and other legal disputes. His four co-defendants include a former LAPD sergeant, Mark Arneson, who is alleged to have conducted the search of Shandling's files on Pellicano's behalf.

Shandling claims he became one of Pellicano's targets after he fell out with Grey, now the studio boss at Paramount Pictures. Believing Grey had taken commission fees he was not entitled to, Shandling filed a lawsuit.

Shandling then learnt that Grey would be represented by the famous Hollywood lawyer Bert Fields. In court, the comedian recalled a conversation he had had years earlier with Grey. "Grey said, 'With Bert Fields, you get Anthony Pellicano,'" Shandling said. "I didn't quite know what he meant then."

What it meant, he came to believe, was that Pellicano would funnel material to be used in a smear campaign orchestrated by Grey and people hired by him or his lawyer, Fields. "They began a press campaign, a spin campaign, to destroy my character and reputation."

Both Grey and Fields deny any knowledge of Pellicano's methods and have not been charged. The case is expected to last another two months. ·