Holm Long-Distance Loser in Alimony Bout

The case of Peter Holm vs. Joan Collins--or, can a former Swedish rock star live on less than $80,000 a month?--took unexpected turns Wednesday when:

- Holm phoned in sick from southern France, missing a crucial court hearing in Los Angeles in his bid to win $80,000 a month in temporary alimony from Collins, the TV actress who is his former wife.

- Superior Court Judge Earl F. Riley accused Holm of “playing games” with the court and removed his case from the calendar, effectively erasing six months of potential alimony valued at $480,000.

- Flamboyant attorney Marvin M. Mitchelson, representing Collins, vowed to seek evidence from France that Holm was remarried several days ago to a 26-year-old Los Angeles woman named Cathy Wardlow, described as a former secretary to owner Jerry Buss of the Lakers professional basketball team. That evidence could render the whole alimony question moot.

- And Holm’s attorney, Frank Steinschriber of Sherman Oaks, resigned from the battle, asking that further machinations in the celebrated, unruly case go forward under a different lawyer.

“This is the strangest case I’ve ever had,” Steinschriber, a 12-year legal veteran, told reporters outside the courtroom Wednesday. “(Holm) has never told me during the last several months where he’s been. I’ve been taken advantage of in the sense that he’s not told me everything he should.”

And, oh yes, Superior Court Judge Frances Rothchild later issued a bench warrant for Holm’s arrest because of his failure to appear in court--an action intended to encourage his presence when the next scheduled round of the legal soap opera begins on Jan. 22.

All in all, Wednesday’s winner clearly was Collins, the 54-year-old star of television’s “Dynasty” series, who filed for divorce from Holm last Dec. 8. Attorneys agreed that the judge’s action virtually ended Holm’s chances of getting the $80,000 a month he had sought in alimony this year while the divorce is being settled.

The payments would have been retroactive to April and would have ended either in August, when the two were legally separated, or in January, when the final issues go to trial--depending on how judges interpreted the issues. The case was believed to involve the largest alimony judgment a man has ever sought from a woman in the United States.

If it turns out Holm has remarried, he may be ineligible to try for any money even if he refiles the case, attorneys said. Mitchelson, citing newspaper reports in England and New York, said he was “positive” of the new marriage: “I should be able to confirm that with a marriage certificate from France in a couple of days,” he said.

Steinschriber, meanwhile, said Holm denied the reports late Wednesday.