COURTING FAVOR

The ongoing John Fogerty/Fantasy Records “self-plagiarism” hearings in federal court in San Francisco took a turn for the nasty late Wednesday when charges of malicious litigation were leveled against Fantasy chief executive Saul Zaentz. Fogerty’s counsel said in court that Zaentz filed the plagiarism suit in revenge against Fogerty. The songwriter included two songs on his 1984 solo album “Centerfield”--titled “Mr. Greed” and “Zanz Kant Danz”--that Zaentz found libelous and for which he sued Fogerty for $142 million. Zaentz and Fogerty have been suing each other since 1977 over Fogerty’s royalty payments as leader of Creedence Clearwater Revival, which recorded for Fantasy. In his brief testimony Wednesday, Zaentz hotly denied the revenge theory, saying former Creedence member Doug Clifford came to Zaentz with “Run Through The Jungle” and “Old Man Down the Road” and noted the similarity.