It sounds like a “Saturday Night Live” skit: Some poor, paranoid guy from Long Island is convinced a big-city producer is eavesdropping on his personal life and stealing the material for his TV comedy show.
Only this is a real-life Manhattan stalking case – and the alleged victim is “SNL” creator Lorne Michaels himself.
Evans Pidhajecky, 31, of Oyster Bay, LI, has been charged with mailing, calling or visiting Michaels at least six times last year in hopes of “chatting” with the Emmy-winning writer and producer.
Pidhajecky’s issue? That the “SNL” creator had somehow “overheard” his private “conversations, singing and/or other utterances” and used them on the program without his consent, according to a letter prosecutors say Pidhajecky sent Michaels in December.
Michaels, 63, won the first round of the kooky misdemeanor case this week when Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Marc Whiten refused Pidhajecky’s attempt to get the misdemeanor stalking charge against him tossed.
Defense lawyer Peter Brill had argued that all his client did was peaceably try to speak to a public personality.
“Just because you’re Lorne Michaels doesn’t mean nobody can get in touch with you,” Brill said yesterday.
“He didn’t threaten him,” the lawyer said.
“He wrote him a couple of times. Then he visited the concierge” at Michaels’ Central Park South apartment building “and spoke to him in a very nice voice.”
Brill said he’ll advance the argument again at trial.
“You don’t get extra protection because you’re a celebrity,” he added.
But the judge countered that given the unfortunate prevalence of celebrity stalkings – many of them involving escalating, even violent behavior – “Lorne Michaels had ample reason to be in fear.
“The defendant’s purpose was not legit,” Whiten wrote in his decision.
“Indeed, the defendant’s purpose – discussing with Lorne Michaels the use of defendant’s personal thoughts without his permission – was a factor creating a likelihood of reasonable fear on the part of the complainant.”
Pidhajecky is also charged with misdemeanor resisting arrest.
The case is back in court a week from today.