Pellicano Is Wed on Verge of Prison

Beleaguered private investigator Anthony Joseph Pellicano, who has worked for some of Hollywood’s best-known stars, was married in a small chapel at the Bellagio Hotel on Saturday -- two days before he is due to start a federal prison sentence for possessing illegal explosives.

Pellicano, 59, is at the center of an FBI investigation and federal grand jury inquiry into alleged illegal wiretapping, which has rattled some of Hollywood’s legal elite.

Saturday’s low-key, private ceremony began at noon. It ended 40 minutes later when the couple and their eight guests emerged from behind closed doors. The wedding party was briskly escorted by security guards outside the hotel through emergency exits.

Pellicano’s marriage to 42-year-old Teresa Ann DeLucio marks his fifth trip down the aisle -- and the bride’s first -- according to the Nevada marriage license obtained by the couple Thursday. He divorced Kat Pellicano of Oak Park in September 2002. He has four children with her and five adult children by other wives.

Pellicano arrived at the hotel’s east chapel an hour before the wedding and told the Bellagio wedding coordinator he was the groom. After getting a gardenia affixed to his lapel, Pellicano bought mints at the hotel gift shop, where he refused to answer a reporter’s questions about the wedding or his upcoming prison sentence.

For the ceremony, Pellicano wore a dark double-breasted, pinstriped suit with a white shirt and multicolored pastel tie. The bride was dressed in a long white V-neck gown and veil, with her long hair in loose curls.

Reached by phone, Pellicano’s lawyer, Don Re, refused to comment on the wedding. Pellicano needed special permission from federal officials to go to Las Vegas for the wedding. He is expected to surrender to federal authorities Monday to begin serving a 27- to 33-month prison sentence.

Pellicano submitted a surprise guilty plea to charges of illegally possessing plastic explosives and hand grenades as part of a deal with prosecutors in October. The weapons were seized last year in a search of his Sunset Boulevard offices as investigators sought evidence related to threats made against a Los Angeles Times reporter. He was not charged in the threats.

In the wiretapping investigation, federal agents have approached several actors and producers who have been engaged in litigation, cases for which Pellicano was hired as an investigator.

In recent months, a grand jury in Los Angeles has summoned witnesses whose conversations were allegedly recorded by the famed private detective as part of investigations he was conducting for at least one top entertainment lawyer.

Investigators want to know what, if anything, the lawyers who hired Pellicano knew about his alleged activities. Pellicano has worked for lawyers who represent such stars as Michael Jackson, Tom Cruise and Sylvester Stallone.