A look inside Hollywood and the movies. : MONEY MONEY MONEY : That’s Cattani, Not Parretti

It seems that former MGM-Pathe Communications Co. boss Giancarlo Parretti has a literary interest in a book that a one-time employee is writing about him--which could be the most telling of several on him in the works--and the target may be her checkbook.

According to Arlene Cattani, who worked for 16 months as head of MGM’s public relations department during Parretti’s regime, she’s been besieged with bills from the waiter-turned-movie mogul, who’s trying to collect money he says Cattani owes her.

It all started recently when Cattani got a bill for $10,288.36 from L.A.’s trendy Madeo restaurant, which Parretti owns. While Cattani worked for Parretti, she says she was instructed by him to eat all her business meals at his--and only his--restaurant, an order that she carried out. She was shocked when she received the bill asking for payment.

“I sent the bill back,” says Cattani. “I had no intention of paying it because it was ridiculous that he would think I would pay it. This is the act of a desperate man.”

When she didn’t respond to the first bill, Cattani received another and took the matter up with executives at MGM, who assured her the matter would be resolved, since Parretti no longer had control of the studio. But bills continue to pile up.

Some observers interpret the move as a campaign by Parretti against Cattani because of the book she’s writing about him, whose title is “Better a Lion.” Although there are other Parretti books in the works, most feel Cattani has the inside track to telling the real story because she was there during his short regime as head of the studio. “Parretti will try to do anything to harass her,” says a Hollywood-based literary agent. “He wants to make it as hard as possible for her to finish the book.”

And the unpaid tab from Madeo isn’t the only item. After spending a month in Rome researching her book, Cattani returned home this week to find several threatening messages and letters from a collection agency concerning business trips totaling more than $4,000 that Cattani took while she worked for Parretti. The invoices are from Overseas International Tours, which is a subsidiary of Melia Travel, owned by--you guessed it--Parretti. As with the bill from Madeo, Cattani has no plans to pay.

“It would be funny if it wasn’t so pathetic,” says Cattani. “If this keeps up, I’ll probably be billed for my office supplies and the cleaning service that cleaned the office.”