I am a fan of martial art movies and enjoyed Seagal's early movies - Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Out for Justice, Marked for Death, and the two Under Siege movies. He does appear to have let himself go and I believe Jet Li could give him a serious (series) run for his money.
But something about this story doesn't ring right with me. It is public knowledge that Seagal was originally backed financially by Nasso as evidenced by the $60 million lawsuit against the actor. Even the $150,000 per film "tax" extortion ploy has been exposed. A Google search provides hundreds of hits on this mob connection. So what does Seagal have to gain by intimidating another reporter who may write about the scandal?
IMO, the Gotti's are trying to portray the portly actor in a bad light before the upcoming extortion trial. Pellicano is not an honorable man (hence the association with Clinton) and would easily serve two masters. I think Gotti/Nasso are the one's who hired Pellicano and Proctor. Proctor owed the mob $14K and was hired out for $10K - which probably just reduced his principle. I wonder how long he owed them the money and how much interest has accumulated.
Good theory.
I believe the accusation is that Seagal engineered the attack on the reporter to blame it on the mob and make them appear more guilty and ruthless.
I believe the doubt that all of these counter accusations will create in the judge's mind will be enough to affect his decision.
I agree, Jet Li is fun to watch and would be a formidable opponent on the street, or against an overweight and out of shape Seagal.
One of my favorite martial arts movies is 'The Hunted' with Christopher Lambert, Yoshio Harada, Joan Chen, John Lone and Yukio Shimada. Have you seen it?
The sword play by Yoshio Harada was among the most realistic I've ever seen on film. I've never been able to find Yoshio Harada in another film.