TV & VIDEO - Sept. 8, 1988

Tessie Nina Moore--former wife of ventriloquist Paul Winchell--asked a Superior Court judge Tuesday to award her half of a $17.8-million judgment handed down last year that Metromedia was ordered to pay Winchell for destroying tapes of his 1960s children’s TV show. Moore asked Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Joel Rudoff to overturn the couple’s 1973 divorce judgment, claiming she did not know the tapes’ value at the time. She contends that $8.9 million of the judgment against Metromedia should go to her as part of the divorce settlement. Married to Winchell for 11 years, Moore said she wrote and acted in the show “Winchell-Mahoney Time.” Winchell had claimed during divorce proceedings that April Enterprises, a personal service corporation owned by the couple and named after their daughter, was worth only $3,000, but he didn’t mention the syndication rights, said Moore’s attorney, Robert Kahn.