Police, TV Crossed Line, Judge Rules

Losing at ‘Jeopardy’ . . . Sometimes a cigar store is just a cigar store.

Judy Pace-Flood and her late husband, former St. Louis Cardinals center fielder Curt Flood, never were afraid to put themselves on the society’s cutting edge. They were deeply involved in the civil rights movement, and Curt Flood’s landmark lawsuit led to baseball’s free agency clause.

Now, Pace-Flood has won a key legal victory against the “stalkerazzi.”

“It’s major,” said Pace-Flood’s attorney, Henry Gradstein, describing a federal judge’s recent ruling that a Telemax Entertainment camera crew was trespassing at her Baldwin Hills home when it filmed a police raid. The crew was working for the television show “Placas,” which means badges in Spanish.

Police entered the house and broke up a back-to-school party for Pace-Flood’s daughter after receiving an anonymous, and apparently mistaken, report of a fight involving a man with a gun. Pace-Flood contends that no such man, and no such gun, ever existed.

Gradstein said the ruling places the Los Angeles Police Department on notice, as well, regarding what he calls its “unholy alliance” with reality TV shows.

The judge’s opinion points out two key areas where police and the camera crew crossed the line. First, the crew did not leave when Pace-Flood asked them and continued filming. Secondly, police asked the crew to continue recording the officers’ conduct at the house after Pace-Flood threatened a lawsuit over the raid. A hearing is scheduled Oct. 5, when a trial for damages is set to begin. Pace-Flood is seeking $10 million from Telemax and the LAPD.

A CAREER IN JEOPARDY: A longtime, Emmy-winning lighting director fired from the game show “Jeopardy!” is seeking $5 million in damages against Sony Pictures Entertainment, claiming wrongful termination and age discrimination.

Vincent Cilurzo, 74, has been in the entertainment business 47 years and has worked on the game show for 25 years. He said he had been led to believe in April that he would be returning to the show.

Then, shortly before taping began, he was notified that he was fired. He also alleges that Sony broke a deal to employ him on “Jr. Jeopardy!” He alleges he made $700 a day and wants about $500,000 in compensatory damages.

The lighting director says he won an Emmy in 1976 and was nominated for a daytime Emmy last year.

“He’s really, really a likable guy,” said his attorney, Richard Ferko. “Merv Griffin has spoken highly of him. Alex Trebec has spoken highly of him. He’s been given all kinds of accolades.” He added: “The irony of the situation is they’re making tons of money on these shows while they’re letting go of the people who helped make them so popular.”

CASE CLOSED: “Love at First Bite” star George Hamilton has settled a lawsuit filed by the owner of a wine and cigar store in Beverly Hills. Former partner Dennis Overstreet claimed that Hamilton broke an agreement to lend his name and likeness to the cigar cellar at the Wine Merchant. When the deal soured, Hamilton took his stogies elsewhere, opening his own Hamilton’s Humidor in Pasadena.

Overstreet last year sought a court order, without success, that would have blocked the grand opening of Hamilton’s Humidor.

As is the way in most of these cases, nobody was disclosing the terms of the settlement agreement. The litigation lasted almost as long as the stinky stogie trend.

YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN: Rocker Lee Michaels’ Web site, complete with updates of his case against the car dealership he says wrecked his new roadster, is www.peytonford.com. That’s all-one-word-dot-com, folks.