*The Vegas Defender

Goodness knows how they made a connection, but when HBO head Chris Albrecht was arrested early Sunday morning for roughing up his girlfriend outside the MGM Grand, attorney David Chesnoff came to Albrecht's defense. Never heard of him? Well, Chesnoff has had all kinds of famous clients, among them Louis Eppolito, the NY cop who was charged with serving as a mob hitmen; Vinny Faraci, longtime manager of the Crazy Horse topless club in connection with a racketeering probe (his father is reported to be a ranking member of the Bonanno crime family); Britney Spears, who had her marriage annulled after less than 55 hours; and Nicky Hilton, who tried to maintain control of her wedding photos. Oh, and he's a big-time poker player. "Like anything else, there shouldn't be a rush to judgment," Chesnoff said of the Albrecht case, telling the WSJ that he was still "gathering facts."

*Update: I guess the facts have been gathered. Albrecht announced this afternoon that he was taking a leave of absence, contending that he was an alcoholic and that the incident resulted from a lapse in his sobriety. "I had been a sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous for 13 years," he wrote in an email to HBO employees. "Two years ago, I decided that I could handle drinking again. Clearly, I was wrong. Given that truth, I have committed myself to sobriety." Richard D. Parsons, Time Warner's chairman and CEO, said "We take these matters very seriously and will monitor the situation closely."