Buchwald Suit May Inspire Book : Courts: Columnist takes stand in ‘Coming to America’ trial, peppering testimony with humor and sarcasm.

Humorist Art Buchwald, who has written 27 satirical books, may write a 28th about his legal wrangle with Paramount Pictures Corp. over authorship of the story that inspired the movie “Coming to America.”

“It all goes in my data bank,” the columnist said Tuesday outside Department 52 of the Los Angeles County Courthouse. “Six years from now, maybe I’ll write a book about it.”

Earlier, appearing as a witness in the fourth day of a trial over his $5-million breach-of-contract lawsuit against the movie studio, Buchwald had seasoned his testimony with humor.

“I was going to sue after I found out I had been taken . . . excuse me: shafted,” he testified deadpan when asked by Paramount attorney Robert Draper when he decided to file the suit against the filmmaker.

Tongue in cheek, Buchwald recounted his outrage at having to pay $7 for a ticket to see “Coming to America” last year while vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard. He said he did not think the film was “a stinker” but he did not think it particularly good either.

He said he did think it similar enough to “King for a Day,” a story treatment he had written in 1983 for Paramount, to consider suing. Paramount had dropped his and producer Alain Bernheim’s option on “King for a Day” in 1985 after spending $500,000 to develop three scripts out of Buchwald’s idea.

Buchwald testified he fumed at Martin Davis, chairman of Paramount Communications Inc., parent firm of Paramount Pictures, shortly after seeing the film. He testified Davis promised to look into the matter and get back to him.

“The next thing I know, there’s a bottle of Dom Perignon on my desk and a record called ‘Sue Me,’ ” Buchwald said. “I wrote a letter back saying anybody who sends Dom Perignon must be guilty.”

Buchwald said the champagne remains unopened on his desk in his Washington, D.C., office. He testified that he plans to uncork it after he wins his suit against Paramount.

Buchwald’s humorous displays were in keeping with the tone of the trial, which has unfolded more like a comic “Night Court” episode than a “Perry Mason” thriller.

Box-office phenomenon Eddie Murphy, who claims “Coming to America” was a story he and Arsenio Hall created, announced Tuesday through Draper that he will not appear as a witness in the Buchwald trial, citing potential security problems and the “media circus” at the trial.

“I would like this to be a trial, not a circus,” Draper said.

Murphy cannot be forced to appear because he lives outside the subpoena reach of California courts.

During a trial break, Draper said he had been told an “odd person” might be roaming the halls of the downtown Los Angeles courthouse as a result of the trial, which enters its fourth day of testimony today. Draper did not elaborate.

Courthouse security officials said no concerns about security related to the Buchwald case had been forwarded to them.

Murphy sidekick and “Coming To America” co-star Arsenio Hall--who testified Monday that it was he and Murphy, not Buchwald, who conceived the story for the movie--also complained about the media blitz, Draper said. Buchwald, on the other hand, seemed to enjoy it.

The columnist maintained during nearly three hours on the stand that his eight-page “King for a Day” treatment, which Paramount optioned in 1983, was the genesis for “Coming To America” and that he and producer Bernheim, his co-plaintiff, deserve a share of the $300 million that the movie has grossed.

Draper raised the hackles of both Buchwald and his attorney, Pierce O’Donnell, by asserting with his questions that Buchwald had stolen the idea for his screen treatment from “King of New York,” a movie made in 1957 by the late Charlie Chaplin. Like “King for a Day,” the Chaplin movie is a romantic comedy about a king from a mythical country. The king comes to New York in search of nuclear weapons, and the high jinks begin.

Buchwald has maintained that his own story line spawned a series of scripts that eventually evolved into Murphy’s romantic comedy about an African prince from a mythical country. The prince comes to New York in search of the perfect bride, and the high jinks begin.