Dating Service’s Promise of ‘True Love’ Called False

Looking for love in all the wrong places . . . Slip-sliding away with El Nino . . . Taking a hike from the tabloids.

The dating service promised in its advertisements that “True love can be found in Los Angeles.” But after Victoria Douglas paid $5,000 to Debra Winkler’s Personalized Search, her prince still did not come.

So Douglas sued.

Charging fraud and false advertising, the Santa Monica Superior Court suit seeks a refund and an injunction stopping the service from making promises that Douglas says it has no intention of keeping.

Douglas contends that she responded to an ad in an Orange County newspaper claiming Winkler “knows more singles than anyone else in Los Angeles.” The ad boasted that customers could choose from 2,600 prospective mates personally screened by Winkler, Douglas said.

Douglas demanded her money back, but the service refused, said her attorney, Paul L. Mills.

It was not clear from the court papers whether Douglas ever went out on a date, and there was no immediate comment from Winkler.

Sounds like a case for Ally McBeal.

THE EARTH MOVED: Gail O’Grady, who played a bombshell receptionist on television’s “NYPD Blue,” is suing the builder of her new house in Encino over the “major failure and/or collapse” of a 200-foot retaining wall during an El Nino storm.

According to the Van Nuys Superior Court lawsuit, the wall, foundation and drainage and septic system all failed during the Feb. 7 storm. The collapse occurred when part of O’Grady’s backyard slid down a hillside and onto a neighboring property, the suit stated.

The pool also cracked, and the septic system leaked into the house, according to the suit, which alleges negligence and construction defects.

O’Grady charged that Van Nuys builder George Justice & Associates designed an unstable building and retaining wall that led to the collapse. She is seeking unspecified damages, relocation expenses and at least $700,000 for repairs, according to her attorney, Joel Castro.

A spokesman for Justice said the company is still investigating the cause of the collapse. “She has damage. Whether it’s an act of God, we don’t know yet,” said office manager Sam Wise. He added that the $700,000 sought by O’Grady is almost as much as the entire house is worth.

The actress’ home was built on property that was once part of a ranch owned by John Wayne.

*

KEEPING KOSHER: A Los Angeles rabbi who sued over not being able to practice his religion in federal prison has won some holy concessions from his government keepers.

Rabbi Abraham Low gets a special time and place for his prayers and access to his choice of religious books under a settlement of his federal case against the government. His lawyers get $270,000 in fees, paid by Uncle Sam.

Low, an Orthodox rabbi at the Mogen Abraham synagogue in the Fairfax district, is serving five years for laundering drug money. Prosecutors said he accomplished this through a “holy network” of charities.

After he was sentenced to the federal prison camp in Boron in 1994, Low sued in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, demanding his prayer sessions. Later he also asked the prison to buy him a $30,000 Torah and religious texts, and to build a separate prayer room with a special sink.

Prison officials have now compromised, allowing him to pray behind a screen for two hours on weekday and Sunday mornings, for three hours Saturday mornings, and for 30 minutes before sunset and 90 minutes afterward.

They also agreed to give Low a five-gallon container of water for rituals, allowed him to borrow a sacred scroll and set aside space in the prison library for 25 donated religious books.

*

ENQUIRING MINDS: Three celeb lawsuits against the National Enquirer suddenly have gone away.

In Los Angeles, Shelia Davis Lawrence, widow of a former U.S. ambassador to Switzerland, has dropped her federal lawsuit against the tabloid, which carried a story about a column written by conservative Arianna Huffington. Lawrence, meanwhile, continues to pursue her suit against Huffington, who alleged in the column that Lawrence had an affair with President Clinton to ensure that her late husband, M. Larry Lawrence, would be appointed ambassador to the alpine nation.

In Los Angeles, Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee dropped a libel suit they had filed in Van Nuys Superior Court after the Enquirer started handing out subpoenas. Enquiring minds wanted to know how many sex tapes the couple had made, and who had seen them, said the tabloid’s Yale-educated lawyer, Gerson Zweifach.

Meanwhile, in New York, a judge tossed out Christie Brinkley’s $42-million defamation suit over a story that said, among other things, that the uptown girl was irrationally afraid of contracting mad cow disease. So fearful was Brinkley, the tabloid reported, that she had ordered police to shoot a cow named Molly that mooed at her during a tennis match.

“All these people are taking hikes. That’s life,” Zweifach said.