A Tel Aviv magistrate court today decided former entertainer Dudu Topaz, who is charged alongside three accomplices, will remain in police cells until further notice.

All are accused of a string of violent attacks directed at high-profile media figures who rejected Topaz's ideas for television programs.

For nearly a month now the Topaz affair has been the story that keeps on giving to the Israeli tabloids and TV news channels.

"It is simply too bizarre to make up" says one Israeli entertainment insider.

Topaz, once dubbed 'the first in entertainment' was a man who had it all.

He commanded the Israeli television ratings through most of the 1990's with his talk show of the same name.

But when his show was taken off the air in early 2001, and after multiple rejections from rival channels and newspapers he offered to write guest columns for, Topaz allegedly went on a revenge spree that reads like something from a Hollywood tale.

According to court papers Mr Topaz sent thugs to beat up the head of Israel's Channel-2 content division, Avi Nir.

He was severely beaten with clubs, and was rushed to hospital covered in blood, suffering a broken nose, cuts to his face, and broken ribs that needed several operations to repair.

The alleged rampage did not stop there. The court indictment details how Shira Margalit, deputy director-general of the Reshet television network, and acting agent Boaz Ben-Zion were also attacked.

Ben-Zion was punched in the face after exiting his home. He had received a threatening phone call minutes before the assault.

Margalit, 40, required hospital treatment after being repeatedly punched by two men near her north Tel Aviv home. Her partner was sprayed in the face with pepper spray after running to her aid.

Meanwhile as he recovered from his ordeal, Nir was sent letters demanding that he pay millions of shekels and take the 'Israeli Pop Idol' show off the air.

After months of investigation Topaz was arrested three weeks ago and apparently confessed during his interrogation.

While in custody he has tried to take his life - and an indictment handed down last week deemed him 'a dangerous violent individual without boundaries who launched a revenge spree simply because his fame was fading'.

Magistrates today decided to keep Topaz in custody until his trial begins. If convicted, the 63-year-old faces up to fifteen years in prison.