Home Affairs Committee chairman Keith Vaz told MPs the "huge number" had been revealed to him in a letter from South Yorkshire Police's chief constable.
Pellicano was convicted of 78 crimes at two separate trials in 2008 for obtaining the private records of a number of Hollywood stars including Sylvester Stallone, Keith Carradine and Garry Shandling.
Many people succeed at producing innovations because they churn out a very large number of ideas, both good and bad, says Dean Keith Simonton, a psychology professor at the University of California, Davis.