Trimmed by Disney, He Goes to Court : Lawsuit: An executive on a European project says he was fired over his mustache. The company says it was his job performance.

Call it L’Affaire de la Moustache.

When the Euro Disney Resort opens this weekend in a Paris suburb, one person who won’t be celebrating is Edoardo Leoncavallo, an architect and former executive at the $4-billion theme park.

Leoncavallo and his wife, Kathleen, are locked in a lawsuit with Disney, alleging that the studio and theme park company breached an employment contract with them and defamed the 56-year-old Venice, Calif., man. Disney says Leoncavallo was fired for poor job performance.

At the heart of the Los Angeles Superior Court case is Leoncavallo’s contention that he was fired as an act of revenge by a supervisor who failed to brief him on Disney’s grooming rules.

Disney has a longstanding policy against facial hair for employees who come in contact with the public at its theme parks, hotels and attractions. In recent years, the company has fired more than a dozen employees who would not comply.

In the past, Disney officials have said the rule does not apply to behind-the-scenes employees. Indeed, several top executives--including Walt Disney Imagineering President Marty Sklar and Walt Disney Studios President Rich Frank--have facial hair, in their cases a mustache and beard, respectively.

Leoncavallo’s problems began shortly after he was assigned by Walt Disney Imagineering in February, 1989, to work as a development manager on the Euro Disneyland project.

According to the suit, he was promised a three-year contract and was told that he would be able to return afterward to a comparable job in the Glendale-based Imagineering division. In addition, he claims that Disney promised to find a job for his wife.

Shortly after his arrival in Paris, Leoncavallo contends, his supervisor told him that he had to shave his mustache--which he had worn his entire adult life--or face dismissal. He complied.

Later, Leoncavallo won a transfer to another Disney division working on the Euro Disney project that permitted facial hair, and he grew back his mustache. But he kept the same supervisor.

When Leoncavallo’s performance review came up a couple of months later, the supervisor gave him poor marks, writing that Leoncavallo kept “challenging the Disney spirit, the company’s culture, the people,” according to a copy of the review in the court file. “(He) has a hard time accepting authority,” the reviewer wrote, describing Leoncavallo’s portion of the French project as “not totally under control.”

Subsequently, Leoncavallo was fired and sent back to the United States. He has not been able to find work since.

Elizabeth Allen White, Leoncavallo’s attorney, said her client’s dismissal was an act of vengeance by his French supervisor.

Disney officials, in Paris for the opening of Euro Disneyland, were unavailable for comment. But in court documents, Disney executives assert that Leoncavallo’s dismissal was based solely on his job performance.

Last month, Superior Court Judge Charles Lee denied Disney’s motion for a summary judgment and ordered the case to proceed to trial. White said attempts at a private settlement have failed. A trial has been set for April 28.