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It’s a mystery that has transfixed Hollywood:

How did Jeff Shell, who is seven months into his tenure as president of Paramount Skydance, get entangled with a professional gambler with a penchant for controversy?

Shell looked to be on his way to a high-profile comeback after losing his job as NBCUniversal chief executive three years ago over an inappropriate relationship with an underling.

Now he’s facing new scrutiny after his Paramount bosses hired a law firm to investigate his surreptitious dealings with a Las Vegas high-roller and self-styled “fixer.” Investigators are reviewing whether Shell leaked sensitive corporate secrets, according to two people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to comment.

The real-life drama features accusations of betrayal, vengeance and an alleged promise of a TV show deal.

Paramount declined to comment. An attorney for Shell also declined to comment, citing the ongoing review.

How this plays out for Shell remains to be seen, but the ongoing tempest has created a headache for Paramount’s leaders, coming just as David Ellison’s company was clinching its nearly six-month pursuit of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Last week, Paramount toppled Netflix with its $110-billion deal to claim HBO, CNN, Food Network and the storied Warner Bros. movie and TV studios, a key piece of Ellison’s ambitions to create a Hollywood behemoth by combining two century-old firms.

“The timing is terrible,” said Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. “The last thing Paramount wants when closing this deal is for one of its [corporate] officers to be faced with allegations, true or false, from a professional gambler who calls himself Robin Hood.”

An unusual meeting in 2024

This account is based on interviews with nearly a dozen industry insiders who are familiar with the players and details of the increasingly ugly dispute. The Times granted anonymity to the sources, most of whom were not authorized to speak publicly.

According to these people, Shell’s dealings with the blackjack player began with an odd meeting in August 2024.

At the time, Shell was just joining Ellison’s team as the technology scion was preparing to build a new Hollywood empire.

But Shell was facing a serious problem. Someone was trying to plant unfavorable stories about him from his NBC days just as he was poised to stage his second act, two of the sources said.

Enter Patty Glaser, the high-powered entertainment litigator who represents Shell, and, as it happens, the person they suspected was behind the whisper campaign: Robert James “R.J.” Cipriani.

Patty Glaser wanted to defuse the tensions between R.J. Cipriani and Jeff Shell.

To defuse the tensions, Glaser convened a meeting at her Century City offices between Shell and her other client, Cipriani, who is a self-professed whistleblower and high-stakes gambler who goes by the handle RobinHood702 (the Las Vegas area code). Shell attended the meeting at Glaser’s recommendation.

Cipriani wanted to meet the executive. He had been angry ever since Shell sacked his friend Ron Meyer, former vice chairman of NBCUniversal, in 2020.

One of the founders of talent giant CAA, Meyer filled a unique role at NBCUniversal as the self-deprecating and beloved sage in a wool vest who was often called on to finesse frayed relationships with producers, agents and talent.

But Meyer was bounced by NBCUniversal, then led by Shell, after he made a secret settlement to keep a lid on a nearly decade-old tryst with British actor Charlotte Kirk.

Ron Meyer, former vice chairman of NBCUniversal, remains beloved in Hollywood.

(Kevin Winter / Getty Images for AFI)

Kirk had an affair with another studio boss, Kevin Tsujihara, who resigned as Warner Bros. chairman in 2019 after it was revealed that he tried to help her get parts in movies and TV shows.

Meyer had said that after the payment was made, associates of Kirk allegedly demanded more money to keep the affair quiet.

Kirk’s associates denied any wrongdoing, but those dealings ended Meyer’s 25-year tenure at Universal.

Cipriani, according to a source familiar with the situation, was galled that Meyer had been unceremoniously dumped, particularly after it was revealed that Shell also had been engaged in an improper relationship — with a CNBC anchor.

Other Hollywood friends shared the sentiment — a form of schadenfreude — after Shell got his comeuppance nearly three years later.

Jeff Shell in 2015.

(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)

During the meeting at Glaser’s office, the two men discussed their families. Cipriani appeared to have a change of heart.

He told Shell that he would be his friend and personal “crisis PR” agent helping him with damage control, one of the sources said.

It was an unlikely pairing; the two men came from entirely different worlds.

Shell, 60, is a Los Angeles native — a relentlessly driven son of a Cedars-Sinai cardiologist and a teacher turned stay-at-home mom. Although only about 5-foot-9, Shell secured a spot on the University High varsity basketball team after spending long hours perfecting his jump shot.

He earned a degree in economics and applied mathematics from UC Berkeley, then an MBA from Harvard University.

“He’s often the smartest guy in the room,” a former high-level NBCUniversal executive said.

Jeff Shell previously ran NBCUniversal.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Shell has worked in the entertainment business more than 30 years, first at Walt Disney Co., then Rupert Murdoch’s Fox, where he briefly ran its cable networks. The TV executive moved to Philadelphia in 2004 to join Comcast, when its business was selling cable channels to subscribers.

When Comcast bought NBCUniversal in 2011, Shell’s stock was on the rise. He ran NBC’s international operations in London, then moved his family back home to Los Angeles when he became chairman of Universal’s prestigious film unit.

Meyer, who previously ran the studio, was tasked with showing Shell the movie business ropes.

Cipriani, 64, knew Meyer from gambling circles. The two men are friends, the sources said, although Meyer was not involved in the current dust-up, according to several of the people.

Cipriani grew up in Philadelphia, where his dad had worked for the Uniroyal tire company, according to an obituary.

It’s unclear when Cipriani came to L.A., but eventually he became a whistleblower who frequently made contact with journalists. He’s married to a former Brazilian model and actor/musical artist, Greice Santo, who had a small role in the CW’s “Jane the Virgin.”

Cipriani’s name went from the Vegas casinos to the headlines in 2017 when he was a key player in the arrest and conviction of a USC quarterback-turned global drug kingpin, Owen Hanson, who was sentenced to 21 years in federal prison.

Robert James “R.J.” Cipriani in Amazon Prime Video’s 2025 series, “Cocaine Quarterback.”

(Courtesy of Prime Video)

Cipriani tipped off the FBI in the case. Hanson allegedly gave Cipriani $2.5 million to launder but instead Cipriani lost the money in a blackjack game. In a YouTube interview, Cipriani claimed Hanson threatened him.

Cipriani has publicly taken issue with his portrayal as a money launderer in the popular Amazon Prime Video series “Cocaine Quarterback,” which brought the scandal to the screen. It’s a production of Mark Wahlberg and others.

Although Cipriani is often referred to as an “FBI informant,” the moniker rankles him. He prefers being called a “confidential human source for the feds,” who “goes after the bad guys,” according to those familiar with his thinking.

And Cipriani is not afraid to tangle with powerful people.

“Jeff Shell may have [gone to] Harvard Business School but R.J. Cipriani comes from the hardscrabble streets of Philly,” Cipriani’s attorney Steven Aaronoff told The Times. “Who’s going to win that war?”

Cipriani was arrested in 2021 on the casino floor of Resorts World Las Vegas, allegedly for snatching the cellphone of another gambler who Cipriani said was recording his movements.

The charge was dropped, but Cipriani has since brought a RICO lawsuit against Resorts World that alleges the firm allowed “known criminals involved in illegal gambling” and “money laundering” while also spearheading his ban from Vegas casinos.

Cipriani alleged his arrest and subsequent treatment was in retaliation for raising his concerns with casino management and law enforcement. A former president of the casino called the claims “ridiculous,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Cipriani and Shell texted on-and-off for about 18 months, according to the knowledgeable people.

In the first half of last year, as Ellison and his team were waiting for the blessing of President Trump and the Federal Communications Commission to finalize the Paramount takeover, the group was bedeviled by press leaks.

Some were reported by Hollywood newsletters, including a scoop that Matt and Ross Duffer, who created the blockbuster horror series “Stranger Things” for Netflix, were decamping to Ellison’s Paramount. Shell was not aware of the Duffers’ deal before it was announced, said a person close to the executive.

Fallout over a TV show

But Shell and Cipriani had a major falling out when Cipriani began angling for a television show.

According to people familiar with the dispute, Cipriani worked for months without compensation but, at one point, Shell had thanked him for his efforts and offered to help him out. That’s when Cipriani asked Shell to greenlight an English version of a Spanish-language music show that streams on Roku TV, “Serenata De Las Estrellas.”

The TV project, like the Spanish-language version, would be co-executive produced by Cipriani and his wife, Santo.

But Shell failed to deliver, and Cipriani became furious.

“Mr. Shell promised to give my client, to produce the English language version of the show that was already a Spanish language hit,” Aaronoff said. “It was not something that was risky … It was not some crazy idea,” adding that Shell “did not keep his word to my client.”

Cipriani — who also has producer credits on the 2020 documentary about Vegas, “Money Machine: Behind the Lies,” and the 2015 movie, “Wild Card” — had intended to make “Serenata” as a homage to his late mother, Regina.

It was inspired by a song that Cipriani used to sing to her when he was growing up.

Jeff Shell became president of Paramount Skydance last summer.

(Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times)

Cipriani has threatened to file a lawsuit that makes a range of allegations, including that Shell had been slipping Cipriani sensitive corporate information, according to sources who have seen a copy of Cipriani’s draft complaint.

Shell, who officially joined Paramount in August with the Ellison takeover, immediately disclosed Cipriani’s legal threat to Paramount’s top lawyer and his previous employer RedBird Capital Partners, a Paramount investor partner.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Cipriani also filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging Shell alerted him to a then-pending $7.7-billion deal for the rights to UFC fights. But deal details did not leak in advance of Paramount’s announcement.

“We were presented with a draft complaint riddled with clear errors of fact and law,” attorney Glaser said in a statement last week. “We will strongly respond.”

The lawsuit hasn’t been filed, but Paramount hired Gibson Dunn lawyers to investigate Shell’s conduct and allegations contained in the draft, which was sent to Paramount.

On Friday, Cipriani wrote on X that he’d had “a great chat” the previous day with Gibson Dunn lawyers.

As the deadline approaches to file to run for office, veteran Republican Rep. Darrell Issa has decided not to run for reelection in his newly-configured congressional district in San Diego and Riverside counties, according to two GOP strategists familiar with his plans.

An Issa spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment, but the congressman’s decision was confirmed by two veteran Republican strategists who requested not to be named because they were not authorized to speak about Issa’s plans.

Issa, among the wealthiest members of Congress, began telling people earlier this week that he would retire from Congress, those sources said. The Republican congressman is backing San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond to replace him, they said.

Desmond has been running in a neighboring congressional district that straddles Orange and San Diego counties that is currently represented by Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano). Desmond withdrew from that race and filed to run in Issa’s district on Thursday, according to the San Diego County registrar of voters.

Desmond’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

Issa, 72, has represented various San Diego-area districts in Congress for more than 23 years. Issa’s once solidly Republican district had been trending more moderate in recent years. Then, his district was redrawn to favor Democrats in the Proposition 50 redistricting plan voters passed in November to counter President Trump’s efforts to push GOP-led states to redraw their congressional lines to favor Republicans.

Democratic registered voters outnumber Republicans by more than four percentage points in the new district, which spans San Diego and Riverside counties and was reshaped to include liberal communities such as Palm Springs, according to the nonpartisan California Target Book. Issa’s current congressional district had a 12-percentage-point GOP edge in voter registration in 2024.

As soon as the new districts were approved, speculation began swirling about Issa‘s reelection plans. Some of his supporters in Texas urged him to move there to run in a GOP-friendly Dallas-area district, but he said in December that he declined and would instead seek reelection in California.

“I believe that the people of San Diego County, who have elected me so many times, will, in fact, regardless of registration, vote for me,” Issa told the Fox affiliate in San Diego in December. “This is my home, and I’m going to fight for it.”

Several Democrats had already announced plans to challenge Issa.

The high school dropout and Army veteran made his fortune by purchasing a struggling electronics business in 1980 and transforming it into the Viper car alarm system, with Issa’s voice warning potential thieves to “stand back.”

UCLA has canceled an upcoming lecture featuring CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss.

Weiss was scheduled to give the annual Daniel Pearl Memorial lecture on Feb. 27, about “The Future of Journalism.” But according to the university, the program will not move forward as scheduled, after Weiss’ team withdrew from the event.

A source familiar with the UCLA program said the lecture was canceled due to security concerns from Weiss, despite the public university offering to obtain additional security for the event, the source said. The Daniel Pearl Memorial lecture series honors the late journalist and is considered the capstone of the university’s Burkle Center for International Relations. Previous speakers include journalists Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper and Bob Woodward.

According to the source, several employees at both the Burkle Center and the International Institute expressed opposition to Weiss speaking on campus. The university was also expecting a large number of students to protest the event.

Neither Weiss nor CBS immediately responded to a request for comment.

Weiss founded the media company, The Free Press, which was purchased in October by Paramount, CBS’ parent company. Following the $150 million purchase, Weiss was installed as editor-in-chief of CBS News.

Two months after taking on the new role, Weiss made the widely panned decision to pull a “60 Minutes” episode that examined the alleged abuse of deportees sent from the U.S. to an El Salvador prison. The decision earned Weiss heavy criticism and accusations that the move was politically motivated.

The canceled UCLA lecture comes at a time of ongoing organizational upheaval at CBS, which this week made headlines amid an escalating battle with its own late-night talk host, Stephen Colbert, over the FCC’s effort to enact stricter enforcement of the equal-time rule.

Artist Ako Castuera is best known for her work on the award-winning animated series “Adventure Time.” As a writer and storyboard artist, she helped intrepid heroes Jake the Dog and Finn the Human become iconic toon characters.

Though she brought flying rainbow unicorns and a platoon of plotting penguins to life on screen, there’s more to Castuera’s resume than hyper-imaginative animation.

Ceramist, writer and storyboard artist Ako Castuera in her studio.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

The Echo Park-based creative is also a professional ceramicist whose hand-built vessels and sculptures have been on display at the Japanese American National Museum of Art, Oxy Arts and the Oakland Museum of Art.

In this series, we highlight independent makers and artists, from glassblowers to fiber artists, who are creating original products in and around Los Angeles.

While Castuera’s studio is filled with its fair share of playful “Pee-wee’s Playhouse”-themed ceramic charms and anthropomorphic banana figurines, her craft is just as much devoted to highlighting Southern California’s natural resources and Indigenous people, as well as her own Mexican-Japanese heritage.

“‘Whimsy’ is a word that’s been applied to my work a lot. This is not my word,” she said during a recent tour of the Monrovia workspace she shares with her husband, artist Rob Sato, and fellow ceramicist Rosie Brand.

Ako Castuera’s work is anthropological and at times unusual, like her foot box sculptures. She also feels a special connection to her tools. (Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

“Not that whimsy is negative, but I do feel like it doesn’t really get a handle on the substance of what I feel I’m working with, as far as the depth of the clay, the depth of the experience, of the land.”

She sat perched on a stool at her workbench, using a smooth stone to grind soil clumps into fine dust as she talked. She collects the red earth during nature walks around the San Gabriel Mountains area — whether the riverbed of the Arroyo Seco, or the foothills of Claremont, her hometown.

“This is special dirt,” she explained.

To her, it has a presence, a life of its own and a cherished history. She uses it to make anything from trinket boxes to ornate geometric vases to statuettes of quizzical creatures.

Some of her most recent creations stand on a nearby wooden shelf. They’re ceramic depictions of Pacific tree frogs and great herons, both denizens of the L.A. River. The waterway has long been a source of inspiration for Castuera.

Ako Castuera’s work ranges from massive pieces to the miniature, like these figurines.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

“I love the L.A. River,” she said. “It’s my neighbor. It’s my teacher. It’s a place where I walk and bike.”

She regards the river as a muse and wants to inspire Angelenos of all ages to appreciate it. To that end, she teaches youth workshops at the riverside arts hubs Clockshop and Sooki Studio. What’s more, the river was a “main character” on “City of Ghosts,” the L.A.-celebrating, Emmy-winning Netflix animated series she directed. She’s even been known to use some of its water to transform soil into moldable clay.

“The more people who are brought into a sense of kinship with the river, the better,” she said. “Because then, they really feel like ‘The river takes care of me; I want to take care of the river.’”

Castuera’s work has an anthropological bent, as well as an ecological one. For example, her research into Southern California’s Kumeyaay and Cahuilla Indigenous tribes inspired a series of large jars patterned after ollas, traditional pots used for water and seed storage. She plans to incorporate these jars into an immersive installation that will be on view at the Candlewood Arts Festival in Borrego Springs in March and April. And last fall, she hosted a community event with Los Angeles Nomadic Division in which she discussed how soil played a vital role in the societies of both the Gabrielino-Tongva tribes of L.A. and the Ryukyuan people of her mother’s native Okinawa.

Finding the sweet spot where cultures combine is a constant source of motivation for Castuera. She’s created her own twist on shisa, lion-dog statues that are common sights all around Okinawa. And she’s currently working on a collection of small sculptures honoring her patrilineal ties to Puebla, Mexico. Her “taco babies” were inspired by one of the region’s best-known dishes, tacos árabes, which combine flavors from Mexico and the Middle East.

“I was thinking about the beauty of being in a living mix and what that would look like personified,” she said of the wee figures wrapped in colorful tortilla-like blankets.

Ako Castuera makes ceramics for the love of the process, not the final product.

(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)

Some of Castuera’s work makes it into gallery shows and some she sells. But just as often, she smashes it and takes the soil back to where she originally found it. It’s a habit of creating and destroying that she formed as a student at Claremont High School, where she studied the craft for two semesters, yet fired zero pieces.

“I don’t think I could’ve articulated this at 15, but it’s about the process of building, not the process of creating a product. It’s about working with the material — just making the space and the time for that practice,” she said.

“The excitement and the magic is really about the discovery of the unexpected. It’s so engrossing and it really just gets me engaged with life.”