SHORT TAKES : Mother of Gary Coleman Seeks Control of the Actor’s Finances

Actor Gary Coleman’s mother is asking a court to put her in control of the diminutive “Diff’rent Strokes” star’s $6-million fortune, saying her 21-year-old son’s physical and mental condition is deteriorating.

Edmonia Sue Coleman filed a conservatorship petition in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday in the latest in legal wrangling between mother and son.

Mrs. Coleman asked that a conservator be appointed for her son and that U.S. Trust Co. of California be placed in control of assets that include $6 million in property and annual income of $750,000. A Superior Court hearing on the request was scheduled for Jan. 3.

No one answered telephone calls placed Tuesday evening to Coleman’s attorney, Charles K. Wake.

Coleman was born with an atrophied right kidney and has undergone two transplants during a childhood requiring frequent dialysis treatments and use of various prescribed drugs, the court documents said.

Mrs. Coleman said she was concerned about her son’s business manager, Dion Mial, whom she described as a 25-year-old unemployed Michael Jackson impersonator.

Since hiring Mial, the petition said, Coleman has fired his publicist, agent, business manager and entertainment lawyers who have worked with him since he was 11. Coleman’s parents also were fired as his personal managers and removed as trustees of his revocable trust.