In Some Cases, Words Do More Than Wound

Can’t anyone keep a civil tongue these days? Heidi the Panderer officially became Heidi the Slanderer. Brian “Kato” Kaelin’s libel suit against a supermarket tabloid crashed and burned, expensively. Elle MacPherson and Lisa Marie Presley sued folks they say wronged them with words.

THE PRICE OF FAME: Brian “Kato” Kaelin’s libel suit against the Globe tabloid has been tossed out of court, and now he’s been ordered to pick up the gossip sheet’s legal fees.

The Globe reported Oct. 31, 1995, that Kaelin had “confessed’ to a friend that he’d helped Simpson get rid of bloody clothing on the night of the slayings, Kaelin’s suit said.

But, saying that Kaelin is a public figure, Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Robert Letteau dismissed the case two months ago. Then, attorney Gary Bostwick said, the judge ordered Kaelin last week to pay the Globe $25,000 under a law originally intended to protect private citizens from expensive nuisance suits by deep-pocket corporations.

‘I can’t win anything,” Kaelin said in an interview. “I can’t understand a law where I’m paying this company’s lawyers while they’re writing libelous stories about me.”

The Globe, like other newspapers, now invokes the law to recover the cost of defending libel actions that are tossed out of court. Globe lawyer Amy Hogue said: “The statute protects the press--all members of the press--from frivolous lawsuits.”

Kaelin, Bostwick said, is “a little guy who became a public figure overnight because he heard some thumping in the middle of the night.”

Kaelin added: “What can I say? It’s killing me inside. I’m the little guy and I’m taking a beating.”

Kaelin is pondering appeal options, but, as his lawyer noted, that costs money too.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: The sideshow Friday at the Carroll O’Connor slander trial had us wondering whether we were in the throes of a 1970s flashback.

Dudley Moore, who has just made up with his ex, showed up to sign legal papers with his lawyer, Allan Sigel. The attorney also happens to represent plaintiff Harry Perzigian, who is suing O’Connor for calling him a “sleazeball” and “partner in murder.” Perzigian, convicted of supplying cocaine to O’Connor’s son, Hugh, claims the “All in the Family” star defamed him by blaming him, on network television, for Hugh’s 1995 suicide.

Sigel announced during a break in testimony that the Moores, who were seen in the courtroom holding hands, had reconciled. Nicole Moore, the lawyer said, even agreed to drop a $10-million civil assault suit she recently filed against the “Arthur” star in Santa Monica Superior Court. Among other things, her suit contended that Moore choked and kicked her, and forced her to take stimulants and dance provocatively for up to 20 hours at a time.

Meanwhile, former child star Todd Bridges, a veteran of several run-ins with the law, briefly appeared as a witness for Perzigian, testifying that Harry was a good boy last year in rehab.

DON’T HATE ME BECAUSE I’M BEAUTIFUL: Actress / model Elle MacPherson filed a $5-million slander suit against the defense attorney for a man accused of hatching an extortion plot against her. MacPherson and her lawyer, Bertram Fields, took issue with attorney Lawrence R. Young’s portrayal of her to reporters as a woman who used his client as a “boy toy,” then dumped him.

Young also told reporters he might invoke an insanity defense for Robert Mischler because being jilted by one of the most beautiful women in the world could drive any red-blooded male off the deep end.

In her suit, MacPherson says she has never met Mischler, 29, who is accused of threatening to reveal an intimate secret and to post nude photos of her on the Internet if she didn’t pay an undisclosed amount of money to him and co-defendant William Holt, 26, of Long Beach.

“These statements were totally false and were known by Young to be false when made,” stated the suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. It alleged that Young made the statements “with reckless disregard for the truth.”

Young, however, maintains he was merely quoting his client, who continues to insist he had a romance with MacPherson. The suit, he added, seems to be “an attempt to silence me.”

HEARTBREAK HOTEL: Kerman Beriker, 61, the man who led the $140-million renovation that brought the Beverly Hills Hotel its first five-star rating, sued the landmark hotel’s owners and management for $2.5 million, alleging age discrimination and wrongful termination.

Beriker, who once was feted with his own “Kerman Beriker Day” in Beverly Hills, also says he was targeted for a “campaign of vilification” as punishment for speaking out about alleged contractor kickbacks, skimming by employees and discriminatory employment practices.

The hotel is managed by others on behalf of the sultan of Brunei--the world’s richest monarch--and his brother, Prince Jefri.

Beriker managed the hotel for eight years. He contends in the suit that he was fired and escorted out of the hotel by the sultan’s agents Jan. 27. Later, he alleges, hotel employees circulated false rumors about him that made it impossible to obtain employment at any other five-star hotel.

“I really perceive Kerman as an older gentleman with experience and judgment who was regarded as knowing too much,” said his lawyer, Max Factor III.

Lawyers for the 51-year-old sultan--whose official title is His Majesty Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Mu’izzaddin Waddaulah, the Sultan and Yang Di-Pertuan of Brunei Darussalam--could not be reached for comment.

ENQUIRING MINDS: Lawyer Daniel Petrocelli, who benefited from the gumshoe work of National Enquirer reporters in the O.J. Simpson civil case, sued the tabloid last week on behalf of Lisa Marie Presley.

Petrocelli says that although the Enquirer helped his case by uncovering photographs of Simpson wearing Bruno Magli shoes, the tabloid fabricated a story portraying Presley as being suicidal on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Elvis’ death.

Yes, Petrocelli says, Presley recently was hospitalized. But her problem was her gallbladder, not her psyche.

“This story completely robbed her of her dignity and privacy,” Petrocelli said. The June 17 article, titled “Lisa Marie Suicide Drama,” quoted unidentified sources as saying that she had been found “crumpled on her bathroom floor, sobbing hysterically after scrawling ‘Nobody loves me, I’m ugly’ ” on her arms, the suit said. Presley is seeking unspecified damages on counts of libel and invasion of privacy.

“We have a high regard for Mr. Petrocelli,” said the Enquirer’s lawyer, Gerson Zweisach. “But virtually every libel suit against the Enquirer begins with a celebrity’s lawyer--in this case, a lawyer who is a celebrity--saying we made it up.”

He added, “They know we didn’t make it up.”

Zweisach said the Enquirer rarely loses a case. Currently, there are four celebrity libel suits against the tabloid: Don Johnson’s, Eddie Murphy’s, Dabney Coleman’s, and now, Lisa Marie Presley’s.

TALKIN’ TRASH: Pandering might have cost her a few years of her life, but slandering is going to hit Hollywood Madam Heidi Fleiss where it really hurts--in the pocketbook.

Fleiss told the listeners of the radio sex chat “Love Line” that Beverly Hills cop Sammy Lee II “dances in chiffon.” Cha-ching. Superior Court Judge Arnold Gold awarded Lee $45,000 in damages, ruling that Fleiss slandered him.

The Hollywood Madam said Lee’s father was “thrown off the Olympic diving team for fooling around with little boys.” Cha-ching, a $250,000 award for slander.

Los Angeles Police Officer Patricia Corso was awarded $45,000 after Fleiss said she was confused about her sexuality. Cha-ching.

Corso and the younger Lee participated in Fleiss’ arrest when her ring of expensive call girls was exposed in 1993.

The judge awarded the $340,000 in damages a week after Fleiss was tried in absentia. Fleiss, who had indicated she would represent herself, was otherwise engaged at the federal prison in Dublin, Calif., where she is serving a 37-month sentence for tax evasion along with her state sentence for pandering. She could not be reached for comment.

Tustin attorney Robert Thompson, who represented Corso and the Lees, said the judgment is in effect for 10 years, and can be renewed for another 10 years after that.

“Should she come into any money in the next 20 years, we’ll be watching very carefully,’ Thompson said.

THE EX FILES: The state Court of Appeal reinstated a palimony suit against O.J. Simpson defender Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., expanding the rights of unmarried partners to sue an ex for financial support. Reversing Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Edward Ross, who had dismissed the suit, the justices found that the clock on the statute of limitations doesn’t start ticking when the couple splits. Instead, the justices found, the clock starts ticking when the support payments stop coming.

Patricia Cochran--court records say she uses that as her last name--had an 18-year relationship with Johnnie Cochran and lived with him until 1986, when he married another woman, the court’s opinion states. She raised the couple’s son, who is now 19.

Her suit alleges that although Cochran promised to support her for life and encouraged her to quit her job, he stopped making the $6,000 monthly payments during the Simpson criminal trial.

“Johnnie Cochran will now be enshrined in legal lore for his role in this relationship,” said Patricia’s lawyer, Tony J. Tanke of Redwood City.

Cochran’s lawyer, Larry Feldman, said his client never agreed to lifetime support. “She’s going to have to prove he’s supported her all this time,” Feldman said. “He’s always supported his son--not her.”

QUOTABLE: “I still don’t know how you can defame a felon.”

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Rita Walters, a prospective juror in the Carroll O’Connor slander case, commenting on plaintiff Harry Perzigian, who has been convicted of furnishing cocaine to O’Connor’s son, who committed suicide. Walters was excused because she didn’t have the time to sit through the trial.