Woman Throws Ice on Video About ‘Titanic’ Star

What’s the spread at Warner Bros.? . . . No ticket to paradise . . . Litigating “An Unseemly Man.”

Back when he was just another angel-faced toddler, “Titanic” heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio stood on Venice Beach in swim trunks and fins and posed for Linda Scott, a camera-toting friend of the family.

Little Leo was 2 at the time, but he was a natural.

According to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, l’enfant Leo raised his right hand to his head “in a gesture of amazement” as Scott’s camera clicked away. Now that photo has turned up in a video called “Leonardo: King of the World.” And Scott is not smiling. Instead she is suing.

Scott took dozens of photos of a young DiCaprio and has dreams of holding a gallery showing someday.

So she’s suing Dallas-based Deco Entertainment Inc. for copyright infringement, claiming she never gave the company permission to use her picture in its video. She’s seeking at least $100,000 in damages and asking a judge to order Deco to stop selling the product. The company is hyping the photo as a video exclusive, the suit says.

Deco officials could not be reached for comment.

During one television appearance, the lawsuit states, the video’s director displayed a life-size blow-up of the photo and said: “Every girl that has seen this that I’ve been around has freaked out and fallen in love instantly. . . . It’s a little Leo.”

WHAT ARE THE ODDS?: Now that director Francis Ford Coppola has won an $80-million lawsuit against Warner Bros., it looks like it’s open season in the courts of Los Angeles. Consider the case filed against Warner last week by administrative assistant Sharon Moore and her attorney, Gloria Allred.

Moore contends in her Superior Court lawsuit that the studio fired her because she complained about running her boss’ office football pool. She says she spent about 10 hours a week on the pool that included top execs at Warner, New Line Cinema, HBO, Family Entertainment and MGM. She faxed information to the pool’s 45 bettors, worked on spreadsheets, entered picks into the computer and mailed checks to pool winners, she says.

The 37-year-old Glendora woman says that she fought back tears “on a daily basis” and that her “life has been turned upside down” by the stress of doing something she knew was illegal, not to mention morally wrong.

Moore had been at the company’s sales division in Burbank about five months when she says she was terminated for alleged “performance issues.” It really was her reluctance to manage the pool that was behind her undoing, she contends.

Warner Bros. attorneys don’t comment on pending litigation. Still, we calculate the odds on settling this case at about 7 to 1, with a $50,000 spread.

EDDIE’S MONEY: Take one Playboy Playmate, one ex-cop turned rocker, a car, an annoyed neighbor and maybe even a little demon alcohol, and you have the makings of a legal brouhaha.

Sterling Munce, the annoyed neighbor, is seeking damages in excess of $250,000 from rocker Eddie Money in a civil suit alleging assault and battery.

Munce claims in his Los Angeles Superior Court filing that the singer of ‘80s hits such as “Two Tickets to Paradise” “Baby Hold On” and “Maybe I’m a Fool” drove drunk and knocked him into a wall with his car. This allegedly occurred at the conclusion of a June 28 fracas with the unidentified Playmate and her boyfriend in Studio City.

Eddie Money charges that Munce is just out to make easy money. He denies the allegations.

“This lawsuit is nothing but an attempt to embarrass me, hurt my family and obtain a financial settlement,” Money said through his lawyer, Stan Diamond.

According to the lawsuit, the 49-year-old Money confronted the Playmate’s boyfriend in an apartment, pushed him around, punched him in the chest, slapped him in the face and grabbed him in a sensitive part of his anatomy. He then put the man in a chokehold, shouting, “Say uncle!” court papers allege.

In his statement, Money, a married father of five, questioned how Munce could make such allegations when he wasn’t there for the confrontation. The suit, however, says the boyfriend phoned Munce and related the story while hiding in a bedroom.

Later, Munce tried to stop Money from driving away because he says the rocker appeared intoxicated.

No criminal charges have been filed, although the city attorney’s office is looking at the case.

Efforts to reach the boyfriend were unsuccessful.

UNSEEMLY DISPUTE: It was 1996 and Hustler publisher Larry Flynt was ready to ride the wave generated by the film “The People vs. Larry Flynt.” He cut a deal with Dove Entertainment Inc., the Beverly Hills publishing house that the Heidi Fleiss, Menendez and O.J. Simpson cases built to publish his autobiography, “An Unseemly Man.”

He even anted up $75,000 to cover costs as long as he got a share of the profits. He went on a national book tour.

Now, Dove is telling Flynt there were no profits, and he is suing in Los Angeles Superior Court. He claims Dove is ignoring his royalties agreement and refusing to provide an adequate accounting. Flynt wants his money back, as well as punitive damages for fraud.

“They totally ignored their contractual obligations, and whatever money has come in from the sale of the book, they kept for themselves,” said Flynt’s attorney, Alan Isaacman.

Dove could not be reached for comment.