It's hard to believe it's taken six years for the Feds to bring their case against wiretapper-to-the-stars Anthony Pellicano to court. Along the way, the promise of dirt the likes of which Hollywood has never seen was dangled before us like a Sprinkles cupcake lowered by fishing line in front of Kirstie Alley, only to then be cruelly snapped away: The investigation turned up nothing juicier than some false statements made to the FBI by Die Hard director John McTiernan, regarding his hiring of Pellicano to tap his Rollerball producing partner's phone conversations. (He said he didn't, but it turns out he did. Oopsies!)

With today marking the official start of jury selection in the government's case against this real-life Harry Caul, we thought all of us could use a little refresher on how some of the boldface pieces of the puzzle fit together. For starters, The Smoking Gun has a copy of the prosecution's witness list. It's definitely worth a browse, as page 3 alone offers Bert Fields, Brad Grey, Kevin Huvane, and Bryan Lourd, while page 5 lists noted Pellicano victims Chris Rock, Garry Shandling, and Sylvester Stallone. And while the Kenneth Starr listed near Stallone is actually the Rambo star's former business manager, not the Clinton impeachment investigator, it's easy to see from this list how confusing things in this game of celebrity cat and wiretapping mouse can get. We therefore recommend the LAT's Pellican-O-Matic, a handy interactive feature that does all the heavy logarithm lifting for you. Great for visual learners!

• Pellicano trial a story made for Hollywood [LAT]
• Pellicano Witness List Unveiled [TSG]
• Jury Selection for Private Eye's Trial [AP]

Tags: anthony pellicano | celeb jurisprudence | pellicano notebook