No Lovin’ Feelin’ for Ad Agency

Plus, the art of the deal . . . Bonus baby . . . A Honeymooner’s humidor . . . Danza-ing on thin ice?

Bring on the spiral perms and acid-washed jeans. We’re having an ‘80s flashback! The warblers of the Oscar-winning closing song for the 1987 film “Dirty Dancing” are accusing a Caribbean resort operator of pirating “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” for a national ad campaign pitching vacation packages.

Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes each are seeking damages in excess of $500,000 against the Jamaica-based Sandals Resorts International and Hunter Hammersmith Inc., a Miami advertising agency.

The singers claim that the ad campaign used sound-alikes to sing the tune they made famous. What’s more, they charge, it used the tune to promote vacation packages--without seeking permission or paying a licensing fee. Beginning in June, the commercial was broadcast continually around the country, states the suit, filed by Beverly Hills attorney Tony Glassman.

You may not recognize their names, but unless you spent the 1980s in solitary confinement, you’ve heard the plaintiffs’ work.

Medley lost that loving feeling as one of the Righteous Brothers; in fact, their ‘60s hit, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’,” is the most frequently played song on the radio, according to the court papers. Warnes teamed with Joe Cocker in 1982 to sing “Up Where We Belong,” the Oscar-winning closing song for “An Officer and a Gentleman.”

The court documents quote composer Leonard Cohen describing her voice as “like the California weather, filled with sunlight. But there is an earthquake behind it.” Nice.

No representative for the ad company could be reached.

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BUT DOES IT MATCH THE SOFA? A Los Angeles art collector who thought he was buying a painting by African American collage artist Romare Bearden is taking the art dealer to court, claiming “Tar Woman,” the painting he paid $80,000 for in 1984, is a fake.

Robert C. Davidson is seeking $185,000--what the real “Tar Woman” would be worth today--in his Los Angeles Superior Court suit against contemporary art dealer Alitash Kebede and art authenticators Heritage Galleries.

The suit, which alleges breach of contract and negligent misrepresentation, claims that Kebede maintained that the painting was authentic from March 1994 until September 1997, when the dealer first indicated it was “suspect.’

Just that June, the painting had been appraised at $150,000, the suit stated. A copy of the appraisal described it as “very typical of the best works of the artist,” who died in 1989. Now, it admittedly is “inauthentic and of negligible value,” the suit states.

Bearden, according to the appraisal papers, “is an internationally known artist whose work is in major museums throughout the world” including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Neither Kebede nor an official for Heritage Galleries could be reached.

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AWAY GAMES: New York Knicks forward Larry Johnson’s child support dispute has led to an appeals court decision that shields wealthy defendants from answering nosy questions about their spending habits.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled recently that Johnson doesn’t have to tell the mother of his 1-year-old daughter, Taylor, how much money he spends on limousines, first-class air fare, vacations and other luxuries for his family.

Taylor’s mother, Laura Tate, had sought financial details about Johnson, his wife, and other children as part of a support suit she’s waging against the hoops veteran in Los Angeles Superior Court. But the appeals court ruled that she could obtain such personal information only if it provided evidence that Johnson was extravagant with his family but frugal toward daughter Taylor, who was born out of wedlock.

According to court records, Taylor was conceived during a close encounter between Johnson and Tate while the Knicks were playing in Los Angeles. Johnson has admitted paternity, and in December the Superior Court ordered him to pay $8,850 a month in child support and an additional $2,500 monthly for a nanny.

Tate subsequently sought additional information about Johnson’s lifestyle, and the athlete’s lawyer, Lance S. Spiegel, obtained a protective order on appeal.

“We were very pleased with it,” said Spiegel. “It allows some reasonable protection of privacy rights.”

He added that little Taylor “makes more after taxes than the members of the Court of Appeal who heard this thing.”

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HOW SWEET IT ISN’T: Heirs of the late Great One, Jackie Gleason, are fuming that a chain of cigar stores is using pictures of the star of “The Honeymooners” in its billboard advertising campaign.

Gleason’s family members, who formed a partnership to manage the publicity rights after his death in 1987, allege that The Royal Cigar Society International has misappropriated the comic great’s image and they are seeking unspecified damages. The heirs say in their Los Angeles Superior Court suit that they sent a cease and desist letter to the company in June but received no response.

Gleason was best known for his “Honeymooners” role as Ralph Kramden, a blustering bus driver of great girth who continually told his wife: “One of these days, Alice--Pow!--to the moon.” He also was nominated for an Oscar in 1961 for his role as Minnesota Fats in “The Hustler,” and played a sputtering redneck sheriff in “Smokey and the Bandit.”

A representative for the stogie shops couldn’t be reached.

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WHO’S THE BOSS? A Las Vegas man is suing actor Tony Danza and his real estate partners, alleging that they stiffed him out of a finder’s fee for 30 acres of prime Nevada real estate.

Kevin Jacobson claims in his Los Angeles Superior Court suit that he did “considerable legwork” for the partners. He is seeking $822,127 in compensatory damages, along with $1 million in punitive damages.

Jacobson claims in the suit that he was negotiating with tenants such as Wayne Gretzky’s Worldwide Roller Hockey, Club Disney, ESPN Disney, Taco Bell and other well-known franchises to occupy a planned sports and entertainment center in Henderson, Nev. But he said he cut short the talks when the dispute over his fee arose.

Danza, who is performing on Broadway, could not be reached for comment, a representative said.

The suit alleges breach of contract, fraud, negligence and infliction of emotional distress.