Marketer Gets Exercised Over Competitor’s Strap
A couple of defendants named Simmons . . . $24,000 worth of Menendez karma . . . and Leonardo DiCaprio, fully clad.
This is a tale of two straps. One, the “Stretch Out Strap,” was invented by a Vermont ski coach to help athletes unkink their muscles. The other, the “Love 2 Stretch” strap, is being hawked over the QVC home shopping network by that ubiquitous exercise muffin, Richard Simmons.
Both straps are an inch wide, green, made of nylon mesh and feature loopy handles. Both are packaged with exercise videos. But they are not the same, coach Lewis Dean alleges in a federal lawsuit filed in his home state of Vermont.
In his lawsuit, Dean accuses Simmons, of Beverly Hills; QVC, of West Chester, Pa.; and others of conspiracy, and patent and trade infringement. He says Simmons’ strap, made in China, is a cheap knockoff of his original 1992 invention, made in Vermont.
A spokesman for Simmons had no comment, and no one could be reached at QVC.
Dean’s story is laid out in court papers. He took out a second mortgage on his home to market his strap himself, achieving a measure of success. The product, his suit says, is used by uber-jocks such as Michael Jordan and is sold to the public through the Sharper Image catalog.
Dean sought out additional marketing opportunities through the QVC network, but was turned down in 1995 and again in 1996, the suit says. And then Simmons’ strap surfaced on New Year’s Eve 1997--in a QVC ad in USA Today, according to the suit.
CLOSURE AT LAST: The case of the battling Menendez jurors has ended and we can all get on with our lives.
Judy Kaplan-Zamos, an alternate in the tennis-playing brothers’ 1993-94 murder trials, must pay fellow juror Jude Nelson $24,484 for malicious prosecution of a slander case.
A jury found in Nelson’s favor after a weeklong trial in Superior Court in Van Nuys. But they awarded him far less than what he had sought.
Nelson sued Kaplan-Zamos after she and her lawyer husband sued him. Her ill-fated case concerned his remarks on “The Maury Povich Show” that she had been kicked off the Menendez case for juror misconduct. It turned out that it was true, as recorded in a secret transcript unsealed in connection with the suit.
Nelson’s countersuit for malicious prosecution went to trial last week. After returning their verdicts, jurors said they found that Kaplan-Zamos should have dropped her case as soon as she found out about the transcript, said her lawyer, Dean Olsen.
Nelson’s lawyers, Michael Rainey and Phillip Rose, had asked the jury to compensate Nelson for the $14,500 he paid for defense in the defamation suit. They also sought as much as $1,000 a day as compensation for the stress he had endured during the 471 days since Kaplan-Zamos filed her court papers.
STRANGE BEDFELLOWS: You think you’re getting a deal on a Simmons Beauty Rest mattress. But if allegations contained in a former store manager’s lawsuit are true, you could be sleeping on used goods.
Cynthia Foley is suing H & H Sleep Centers and its string of Simmons Beauty Rest Gallery stores in Los Angeles Superior Court for wrongful termination and causing emotional distress.
Foley is dishing the dirt on her former employer in court papers. She says that she was fired from the West Los Angeles store after complaining about a plan to resell about $170,000 worth of used and soiled bedding.
H & H Sleep Centers denies the allegations and is confident it will prove them false, a spokeswoman said.
Foley’s suit also includes a copy of what is alleged to be a Simmons Beauty Rest Gallery Sales Manual. It reveals that a mattress purchase can be as tricky as buying a car.
The manual recommends sales tactics to employees such as offering “bogus” discount coupons, or pretending to be just a sale or two away from winning a free trip to Hawaii.
“This is a consumer’s worst nightmare,” said Foley’s attorney, Michael L. Novicoff. “The fact that Simmons Beauty Rest Galleries actually put these sales tactics in writing is absolutely shocking.”
THE NAKED TRUTH: Playgirl’s plans to publish nude photos of Leonardo DiCaprio seem to have sunk as fast as the Titanic.
DiCaprio’s lawsuit over his overexposure has been settled, according to attorneys for the actor and the magazine. DiCaprio is in the July issue, all right, but he’s got his clothes on. The spread features stills from “Titanic” rather than thrills from DiCaprio.
Details of the settlement were confidential.
DiCaprio was the second Hollywood actor to turn to lawyer Jay Lavely to fend off the magazine’s plans to publish photos of famed ones in the buff.
Brad Pitt sought an injunction a year ago to block photos of a nude vacation frolic with Gwyneth Paltrow. While it came too late to halt publication of the August 1997 issue, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge prohibited further distribution of the magazine.
OUR HERO: There we were, pulling off the Ventura Freeway, riding on fumes. No wallet, no cash, no credit cards. CHP Officer John Manduca paused for a moment while writing someone else a ticket and reached into his own wallet to peel off a couple of bucks--enough for a drop or two of gas to get us home.
Times staff writer James Bates contributed to this column.