The New York Daily News reports today that the phone company Verizon has been asked to turn over the private phone records of NYC journalist John Connolly as the Hollywood P.I. prepares his defense for the 2008 trial. Connolly, who's been reporting on the Pellicano scandal for years, is furious at the request which supposedly goes back all the way to 2002 when FBI agents raided Pellicano's offices. Meanwhile, I've heard that The New York Times reporting duo on Pellicano, David Halbfinger and Allison Hope Weiner, are officially off the story for the meantime and have returned to their normal beats.