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When your clients stir up drama, who needs adversaries?
Renowned Hollywood attorney Patty Glaser finds herself at the heart of a heated controversy involving Paramount Skydance president Jeff Shell and noted gambler RJ Cipriani.
Page Six Hollywood previously revealed that Glaser is representing Shell, but she also has ties to Cipriani, as she was the one who introduced the two men last year. However, Glaser’s connection to Cipriani is more intricate than it appears.
Insiders reveal that Glaser has been deeply involved with Cipriani for over a decade. Known as an old-school Hollywood fixer, Cipriani, along with his actress wife, has been part of several cases involving Glaser and her elite clientele, which includes industry heavyweights like Ron Meyer and David Geffen.
(Glaser dismisses this characterization as “inaccurate” but chose not to provide additional details.)
That longstanding relationship blew up last week when Cipriani sent a draft complaint to Shell and several top executives at Paramount and RedBird, expressing his intent to sue Shell.
Sources say Cipriani was furious at Shell for allegedly reneging on a promise to distribute a TV series at the studio produced by the gambler with a stranger-than-fiction life as a liaison for the FBI and law enforcement.
Sources familiar with the matter say Cipriani wasn’t looking for a monetary settlement, but instead wanted the project to be released on Paramount+, which home to such TV hits as “Yellowstone” and the “Star Trek” franchise.
In the draft complaint, Cipriani claimed that Shell divulged confidential internal deal information to him, including on “South Park” and the UFC. That triggered an internal investigation into Shell, a man already enjoying a second lease on life after he was fired by NBCUniversal in 2023 for having an affair with a staffer. (Reps for Shell and Paramount declined comment.)
But here’s where it gets messy. Glaser also represented Cipriani’s pal Meyer in 2021 after the latter was fired from his top perch at NBCUniversal for a previously undisclosed affair with actress Charlotte Kirk. In addition, Glaser’s firm repped marketing executive Josh Goldstine after he was fired by NBCUniversal in what was later dubbed a #MeToo misfire. (Goldstine was awarded $20 million for the wrongful termination.)
In both the Meyer and Goldstine cases, Shell was the one who did the firing, and then negotiated with Glaser on each of their massive settlements.
(Meyer’s settlement was also said to be in the tens of millions.) So, when Shell was ousted three years ago, he turned to Glaser. But Shell walked away from the Burbank lot empty handed because he was fired for cause.
When Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison tapped Shell for the president post of the newly merged studios, the town raised its collective eyebrows. After all, Meyer, for one, remains an extremely popular figure with Hollywood’s old guard, and Shell believed Meyer might make problems for him in his new job, sources say. (In another twist, Shell also would be working with Goldstine, an executive he fired and who now has a top marketing job at Paramount. Naturally, the two don’t get along, according to insiders.)
On the Meyer front, Shell began trying to repair the relationship with the Hollywood godfather. Enter Glaser, who enlisted Cipriani to broker a détente, whichhas held. But somewhere along the way, things went sour between Cipriani and Shell.
Now, the firm of Gibson Dunn is investigating the claims that Shell leaked info to the gambler-fixer with a long history of courtroom battles. Sources say the law firm has reached out to Cipriani to interview him. It is unclear if he is cooperating.
Cipriani did not comment for this story.
Adding to the labyrinthine sitch, Cipriani is being represented by Glaser’s former mentee Steven Aaronoff, once a junior partner at her Century City law firm.
Meanwhile, Shell and Cipriani are currently in confidential mediation. But the drama, which continues to leak in the press, comes at a precarious time for Paramount, which has prevailed in its battle versus Netflix to acquire Warner Bros., pending government approval.
It also has put Glaser in a tight spot given her relationship to Cipriani. One source familiar with the action says that settling this mess is the endgame. “If she can fix this, she will get all of Paramount and now Warner Bros.’ lawyer business,” the source says. “It’s not about saving Jeff.”
Meanwhile, Glaser appears to be distancing herself from Cipriani. But there’s some coverage in the public domain about their relationship. In a 2017 Daily Mail article in the immediate aftermath of Harvey Weinstein’s firing, Cipriani said he was appalled to learn in the media that his lawyer was representing Weinstein.
“He said: ‘Patty and I spoke by phone after I heard she was working for Weinstein,” the article notes. “’Patty is a dear friend and I expressed my complete shock and displeasure of what I heard. Although she wouldn’t confirm or deny anything, I tried and tried to dissuade her from taking his case and even went as far as to offer her $1 million not to take it. I believe, although I cannot confirm, I might have changed her mind in terms of her going after the girls involved in this. From what I’m hearing she is only representing him in the matter against The Weinstein Company.’”
That same year, Glaser represented Cipriani’s wife, “Jane the Virgin” actress Greice Santo, in a matter involving a movie financier.