Stay Tuned . . .

There’s often a fine line between show biz and the legal biz but rarely is it as hard to locate as in last week’s sequels to the hit movie “Erin Brockovich.”

That film, starring Julia Roberts as legal investigator Brockovich, told the story of a down-on-her-luck single mother whose work on a toxic pollution lawsuit led to a $333-million settlement by PG&E.; Its success has brought the proverbial 15 minutes of fame to Brockovich and her boss, lawyer Ed Masry of Westlake Village.

Then, last week in Thousand Oaks, cameras rolled for Part II.

Ventura County district attorney’s investigators arrested Brockovich’s former husband and ex-boyfriend and their Century City lawyer and charged them with attempting to extort about $300,000 from Brockovich and Masry. Authorities say former husband Shawn William Brown of Simi Valley and ex-boyfriend Jorg Lawrence Halaby of Costa Mesa demanded the money in exchange for not speaking to tabloid reporters.

“The threat was that they were going to go to the press and say that Erin and I had a sexual relationship and that Erin was a bad mother,” Masry told The Times. He and Brockovich said neither accusation is true.

A hidden camera rolled as Brown, Halaby and their attorney, John Jeffrey Reiner, met with Brockovich and Masry at the Thousand Oaks office of attorney Cathleen Drury, who is representing Brockovich in a child custody dispute with Brown. They all signed an agreement calling for the men’s silence in exchange for two checks--one of $30,000 to Halaby and another of $280,000 to Brown. Brockovich and Masry left the conference room, and investigators came in to arrest the three on charges of conspiring to commit extortion and attempted extortion, officials said.

All three were booked into Ventura County Jail, and bail was set at $50,000 each. The case is set for arraignment on May 10. The arrests culminated a two-week investigation by the Ventura County district attorney’s office, with assistance from FBI agents in Los Angeles and Ventura.

Meanwhile, rehearsals began for Part III.

The same day of the arrests, Masry was sued for allegedly firing a woman for rebuffing his sexual advances. Lawyer Kissandra Cohen, 21, claims in her wrongful termination suit that Masry and a number of other lawyers in his firm frequently made inappropriate comments about her dress, appearance and religion.

There are plenty of questions to spice up the scripts for these sequels: When does a clumsy attempt to cash in on a former partner’s success turn into criminal extortion? Is all this merely an attempt to extend Brockovich and Masry’s celebrity for another five minutes? Don’t Ventura County investigators have anything better to do with their time?

Look for the answers to these and other questions as the rest of the the matter plays out in court. And look for the tab in your tax bill.