Fan Slaps Leno With Suit After In-Your-Face T-Shirt Giveaway

“Taken” for a ride? . . . Bobsled boogaloo . . . Junked art . . . Overexposed.

An Ohio man is suing NBC, “The Tonight Show” and host Jay Leno, claiming he was “battered” by a flying freebie while sitting in the studio audience.

Talk about friendly fire: Stewart Gregory of Cincinnati says that on Sept. 11, 1998, he was “forcefully struck in the face by a T-shirt” blasted from an air gun by the warm-up comic. Free “Tonight Show” shirts often are shot into the audience before taping begins, court papers say.

Gregory, acting as his own attorney, filed the suit in Superior Court in Burbank. He seeks damages in excess of $25,000 for his injuries, as well as past and present “pain and suffering, disability, lost wages, emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment.”

He alleges that Leno, the network and the show were negligent in hiring and failing to supervise the shirt shooter. The suit seeks punitive damages for allegedly “using a compressed air gun in a small and enclosed space.”

No comment from NBC et al.

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TRUST NO ONE: Producer Robert Goodwin, formerly of TV’s “X-Files,” is suing DreamWorks SKG Television, claiming he and the new show he was working on, “Taken,” were unceremoniously dumped when Steven Spielberg didn’t like the scripts.

Goodwin’s Los Angeles Superior Court suit says DreamWorks violated his one-year contract, which was to pay him $950,000 for 10 two-hour episodes. His suit states he agreed to the deal in part for the chance to work “closely and directly” with Spielberg.

And so, he passed up other offers. He moved to the Vancouver location, hired a “first-rate” crew, and was working with the writers when Spielberg “precipitously caused the project to cease.” By the end of July, the suit states, DreamWorks stopped paying him.

Goodwin’s suit claims that Spielberg’s script approval was not a condition of his contract. It alleges that DreamWorks cheated him of the chance to capitalize on his “X-Files” success by forcing him to sit out the 1999-2000 season.

He is seeking $1.8 million in damages, $181,545 in back salary, plus an additional $86,538 he says he’s owed. No comment from DreamWorks.

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IT ZIGS, IT ZAGS: A bobsled athlete training for the 2002 winter Olympics is suing General Motors, Paramount Studios and several production companies over injuries he sustained while filming a Cadillac Catera commercial.

Travis Bell and his wife, Sunshine, claim the companies falsely assured them that the camera-rigged bobsled used in the commercial was safe.

But, the suit charges, it was unable to sustain the high speeds and vibrations of a bobsled run in Park City, Utah, during filming on Jan. 19, and the camera came loose and hit Bell, causing him “great mental, physical and nervous pain and suffering.”

Sunshine Bell alleges that she has lost her husband’s “comfort, society, services, support and consortium” since the accident.

It was not clear how the accident might affect Bell’s Olympic hopes. The Los Angeles Superior Court suit alleges fraud and negligence and seeks unspecified damages and payment of medical bills.

No immediate comment from the deep pockets at GM and Paramount.

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LOST ART: New York sculptor Paul Von Ringelheim is suing the owners of a Santa Monica office building for $1 million, claiming they junked a valuable piece of art during remodeling for MGM.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claims Von Ringelheim’s 20-foot “Skybolt No. 1” sculpture qualifies as a piece of fine art. He is suing under a section of federal law that allows damages to be paid to artists whose publicly displayed works are destroyed, as the Skybolt apparently was in 1998.

According to court papers, the sculptor was paid $100,000 to create the artwork, a stainless steel fountain. It had graced the building on Broadway since 1981.

Von Ringelheim and his lawyer, M. Laurie Murphy, claim he should have been given the opportunity to save the copyrighted artwork. There was no immediate comment from the defendants, Colorado Place Partners.

The sculptor currently is working on projects in London, Wales, and Rome.

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BABEWATCH: Actor Jose Solano Jr., who made quite a splash in his red swim trunks as a member of the “Baywatch” cast, is suing Playgirl, alleging overexposure.

Solano is a traditional, family values kind of guy who would never pose in the buff for a naughty magazine, court papers say. Yet, there’s his January 1999 cover photo--unauthorized, he contends--surrounded by suggestive headlines such as: “TV Guys--Primetime’s Sexy Young Stars Exposed,” “12 Sizzling Centerfolds Ready to Score With You” and “Hot Celebrity Buns.”

According to the suit, Solano was the only “TV Guy” in the spread who kept his clothes on. He does not accept sexually explicit roles, assert court papers filed by attorneys John Gatti, Jonathan Anschell and Marci Friedman.

Solano’s Los Angeles Superior Court suit claims he turned down the offer to pose nude for Playgirl because it didn’t fit his image. The misleading magazine cover, he says, has caused him $1 million worth of “embarrassment, anguish and humiliation.”

Playgirl isn’t commenting.