It certainly beats “Bonanza: The Next Generation”:...

It certainly beats “Bonanza: The Next Generation”: You may have heard that the heirs of actors Joe (Curly Joe) De Rita and Larry Fine claim they’ve been shortchanged on the royalties from Three Stooges merchandise. So they’re suing the descendants of the leader of the zany trio, Moe Howard.

Stooge fans know well how Moe would have handled such insolence. Anyway, the kin of his two sidekicks are not intimidated. In fact, they’ve added a new man to their legal team--an L.A. attorney who specializes in cases involving the merchandising of celebrities.

He’s Bela Lugosi, son of the legendary actor who portrayed Count Dracula, that nobleman with the piercing gaze and chilling voice.

Moe vs. Dracula--now that would have been a matchup.

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Dracula vs. the Studio: While the elder Lugosi battled such treacherous foes as Frankenstein, the Wolfman and Abbott & Costello on the screen, his son had a long, real-life struggle against Universal Studios.

In the early 1960s, Lugosi recalled, “Universal had licensed a bunch of people to use my dad’s likeness as Dracula on all types of merchandise”--with no royalties going to the actor’s heirs.

His son sued and the court ruled in his favor, holding that the use of a deceased celebrity’s name and likeness was a property right transferable to his or her heirs. But it was reversed by an appeals court.

At Lugosi’s urging several years later, the state Legislature then passed the Celebrity Rights Act.

It was the kind of victory that might have prompted Count Dracula to break out the champagne. Except, as the count once said: “I never drink . . . wine.”

Wasn’t this also an episode on the “The Three Stooges”?Actress Sigal Diamant reached an out-of-court settlement Monday with the producers of “Totally Hidden Video” over an episode in which she modeled furs--live furs.

As a spoof of the animal rights movement, the show decked out Diamant in outfits with pockets containing live snakes, lizards, ferrets and monkeys.

Diamant contended that she was told it was a serious modeling job, not an episode for a TV show. And she contended that the show failed to get a signed release from her before airing it.

She could have had it worse. Another actress in the episode was instructed to lie down on a lion--the joke being that the animal would then be “wearing” a human fur. But, a witness said, “when she got close, the lion made a somewhat nasty sound and she decided not to try it.”

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Press releases we never finish: “Thousands of milk-loving Californians across the state are willingly agreeing to forgo the pleasures of milk for an entire week during the Great California Milk Drought. The California Milk Processors Board (CMPB) is asking them to do this for reasons which should make for an interesting features story. . . . “

miscelLAny:

Gardena’s city seal proclaims it to be “The Freeway City.” L.A. should sue.