LEGAL FILEToday’s Michael Jackson Suit: Michael Jackson’s...

LEGAL FILE

Today’s Michael Jackson Suit: Michael Jackson’s legal woes keep growing. An attorney for a group called the Children’s Peace Foundation was in Santa Monica Superior Court Wednesday to add more defendants to a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Jackson and 15 others, including his merchandisers and law firms. The suit alleges Jackson financially ruined foundation executive Director Peter Georgi by using him as a middleman to make lucrative merchandising deals, then cutting him out of the profits. The lawsuit claims Jackson engaged in a “pervasive pattern of fraud” in his business dealings, and alleges that Jackson has been “shielded by lawyers and front men, who have taken control of his financial and legal affairs and used them for their own personal gain.”

* Guggenheim Settles Chagall Suit: New York’s Guggenheim Museum has reached an out-of-court settlement with the owner of a 1912 Marc Chagall painting the museum said was stolen more than 25 years ago. The owner, Rachel Lubell, who bought the work in 1967, will get to keep the painting, but will have to compensate the museum. The exact terms of Tuesday’s settlement were not disclosed, but a participant said before the settlement was filed that the Guggenheim would get $212,000, including $134,000 from the two art dealers who sold the work, and $78,000 from Lubell, who didn’t know she was buying stolen property when she paid $17,000 for it. At issue was the 6-inch-by-12-inch “Le Marchand de Bestiaux (The Cattle Dealer),” which the museum did not report stolen until several years after its theft. When the work was discovered to be in Lubell’s possession in 1985, eight years of litigation ensued, centering on whether Lubell should return the painting or whether the Guggenheim should be held responsible for not reporting the painting missing in the first place. The $212,000 total equaled the museum’s estimate of the painting’s worth.

TELEVISION

Kinnear Gets Start Date: NBC will debut “Later With Greg Kinnear” on Feb. 14, the network announced Wednesday. NBC said the late-night talk show, which will be taped before an audience at the network’s Burbank studios, will continue as a half-hour talk program with one in-depth interview conducted each night, but will also “evolve” to suit Kinnear’s personal style. “Later With Bob Costas” will have its final telecasts the week of Feb. 7.

* It’s Like ‘Bandstand,’ Y’all: Dick Clark, the 64-year-old former host of that rock ‘n’ roll institution “American Bandstand,” is joining the country craze. His Dick Clark Productions has issued a call for dancers for “Hot Country Jam,” to be taped next week at Nashville’s Opryland USA. The special is scheduled to air in February on NBC.

PEOPLE WATCH

Lots of Wedding Bells: The holiday spirit apparently prompted a flurry of celebrity weddings, with country singer Billy Ray Cyrus, comedian Rodney Dangerfield and soap stars Kristina Malandro and Jack Wagner all tying the knot in recent days. Cyrus, 31, famous for his “Achy Breaky Heart,” wed longtime companion Leticia Finley, 26, Tuesday at his home near Nashville. The couple have a 1-year-old daughter, Destiny Hope. Meanwhile, comedian Dangerfield, 72, wed businesswoman Joan Child, 42, at a Las Vegas chapel Sunday. And the wedding bells rang in Lake Tahoe Dec. 18 for Malandro and Wagner (she plays Felicia Jones on “General Hospital”; he played her husband, Frisco). The couple’s toddler, Petey, spent the weekend with his nanny while his parents exchanged vows.

* MacLaine to Sell Her Mountain: Shirley MacLaine is abandoning plans to build a home on a mountaintop in Santa Fe, N.M., after drawing criticism for her plans from environmentalists and being accused by former-U.S. Interior Secretary Stewart Udall of trying to make herself “queen of the mountain.” The actress said Tuesday that she will sell the 35-acre tract on Atalaya Mountain. The site on the edge of the city is worth an estimated $1.5 million.

QUICK TAKES

The Pasadena City Council has approved a licensing agreement with Avalon Attractions to bring the Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd to the Rose Bowl in 1994. The Stones will play at least one date in October with the possibility of adding up to three others if the first show sells out, and Pink Floyd will play one show at the Bowl on April 16 . . . Janet Jackson has canceled a Jan. 8 concert at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, after the local county government refused to grant a pyrotechnics permit for the show’s props--including 14 flame projectors, 60 twinkling waterfalls, 24 airburst effects, eight fireballs and eight micro mines. . . . Actor Tony Danza was treated at a Salt Lake City hospital Tuesday after breaking his ribs in a skiing accident at nearby Deer Valley. The 42-year-old “Who’s the Boss?” star was also undergoing tests to ascertain if other injuries had occurred.