NY Post Reports - ‘Donovan’ credit dispute

On August 7, 2013m The NY Post printed this article....

Private eye Richard Di Sabatino — who has protected Robert De Niro, Nicole Kidman and other high-profile clients — claims “Ray Donovan” creator Ann Biderman took the idea of the hit Showtime series from him six years ago.

Di Sabatino was working with director Michael Mann at the time on a movie for Universal. “They brought Biderman in as the writer,” Di Sabatino told The Post’s Richard Johnson. The hero of the story was “a fixer” in the LA area who works through a law firm and clashes with his father, who was a former cop in Di Sabatino’s story. “She changed the father from a cop to a hoodlum,” the private eye said. Jon Voight plays the gangster father of the fixer Ray, played by Liev Schreiber. “He’s a guy who fixes everyone else’s problems, but can’t fix his own,” Di Sabatino said. Biderman, who produced the NBC cop show “Southland,” claimed she needed more time to develop the story, and the project stalled. Biderman stopped returning Di Sabatino’s calls. He also says she allegedly appropriated a scene from Anthony Pellicano, the LA private detective doing hard time for wiretapping. “Before sitting down with me, she had worked with Pellicano on a show for HBO,” Di Sabatino said. “In one scene, the fixer catches a stalker and, with a baseball bat in his hands, tells him, ‘the bat or the bag.’ ” The stalker picks the bag, which has packages of green dye, and he is forced to dye himself in the bathtub. “Biderman used the same scene in the opening episode of ‘Ray Donovan,’ ” Di Sabatino said. His lawyer, Tom Harvey, is mulling a suit against Biderman, and Di Sabatino is planning to write a book, “The Real Ray Donovan.” Showtime had no comment. But at a junket last winter, Biderman told reporters: “I know a number of private investigators and did a tremendous amount of research and did extensive interviews with people.”

VH1 News, October 2002, Celebrity Obsession"
NY Daily News, November 15 2001, pg. 41, by William Sherman, "DeNiro Doubled Reeled In"
NY Daily News, June 15 2001, pg. 18, by: George Rush, "Kidman's Been His Primary Interest"
NY Post, March 16 2006, "Kidman Quizzed in PI Case"
Internet Movie Data Base
Frontline September 2001
NY Daily News, May 18 2007, Rush & Molloy
Tom Cruise An Unauthorized Biography

Richard Di Sabatino's IMDB Credits:

- 2001 The Score (technical consultant - uncredited)

- 2000 Survivor (TV series) (technical consultant)

- 1999 Entrapment (technical script consultant - uncredited)

- 1998 SpyTek (TV documentary) (technical consultant

- 1998 Safe House (technical advisor)

- 1998 The Replacement Killers (technical advisor)

- 1997 Total Security (TV series) (technical consultant)

- 1997 The Saint (technical electronic surveillance advisor - uncredited)

- 1997 CIA: America's Secret Warriors (technical consultant)

- 1996 The Long Kiss Goodnight (technical advisor)

- 1995 Heat (technical electronic surveillance advisor - uncredited)

Actor:

- 1997 CIA: America's Secret Warriors - Guest Host

Articles:

- VH1 News (USA) October 2002, "Celebrity Obsession"

- NY Daily News (USA) 15 November 2001, pg. 41, by: William Sherman, "De Niro double reeled in"

- NY Daily News (USA) 15 June 2001, pg. 18, by: George Rush, "Kidman's been his primary interest"

 (View IMDB Profile)