He’s Not Amused After ‘Interview’ Becomes a Satire

What a difference one letter of the alphabet can make.

Take the case of Bertram Hack vs. Comedy Partners Inc. In a fraud and defamation suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Hack, a resident of Leisure World in Orange County, claims that he believed he was being interviewed by CNN. Instead he wound up on CCN, better known as the Comedy Central Network.

Hack, who was not amused, seeks unspecified damages and accuses Comedy Central producers of misrepresenting themselves as a CNN news crew. Comedy Central denies any misrepresentation, said the network’s lawyer, Kelli Sager.

Hack says he was led to believe that he would appear in a news story about Leisure World’s 1998 bid for cityhood. Instead, he charges, he was humiliated by “The Daily Show” in a satirical segment that portrayed him as the dictator of a brave old world, the geriatric society “Grandfatherland.”

“The entire segment compared plaintiff to Hitler,” the suit says, adding that throughout the segment, Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries” played, just as it had in Hitler’s propaganda films.

“Mr. Hack spent 60 years building and maintaining his outstanding reputation in the community. Comedy Central destroyed that reputation in 3 1/2 minutes,” said attorney David M. Ring.

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MIDDLE SCHOOL FLASHBACK: Five former sixth-graders and their teacher have managed, through the miracle of modern litigation, to get the plug pulled on the ABC Saturday morning kids short “Mrs. Munger’s Class” and a companion Web site.

The short, according to court papers, featured 1975 yearbook photos of actual members of the sixth-grade class at Woodbridge Middle School in Virginia. Attorneys Neville Johnson and Brian Rishwain, who filed the suit, said another class member made his yearbook available to the show’s producers. Unfortunately, court papers allege, nobody bothered to get permission from his classmates.

“Little did they know when they sat for their school portraits over 20 years ago that they were also sitting for portraits in a national television series in which they would be named, pictured and portrayed as fools,” the suit states.

Teacher Kathleen Foresman, the “real” Mrs. Munger, says she was tricked into giving up her rights in exchange for $1,000. The students--Edward Jackson, Theodore Falce, Michael Link, Suzey Sparks and Michael Blevins--say their photographic images have been manipulated to portray them in racist or other offensive ways.

Jackson, who is African American and works as a computer engineer, contends that he was portrayed as a “Buckwheat” character and class clown. Link, who is Asian, claims that karate chops and other taunts directed at his character brought back painful childhood memories. Falce says he is portrayed as “slow” and as a girl. And Blevins claims that his photo was doctored “to show him with a bigger nose, an altered chin and his hair changed, which makes him look grotesque.”

The students sought a court injunction, but ABC, which is owned by Disney, voluntarily pulled the show without admitting any wrongdoing.

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HAMMER TIME: Eight years after his death, controversial oil baron/arts patron Armand Hammer’s estate remains tangled in litigation. But the estate’s affairs grew a little less complicated last week when an appeals court agreed that a relative was not entitled to $57 million worth of stock, artworks and other estate assets. Joan Weiss had claimed that Hammer had tricked his late wife--her Aunt Frances--into giving up her claim to community property that the couple acquired during their 33-year marriage.

Weiss said her aunt changed her mind upon learning of Hammer’s longtime mistress. According to Weiss, her aunt reasserted her claim to her share of Hammer’s millions and left it to Weiss.

A Superior Court judge denied Weiss’ 1994 claim against the estate, the Westwood museum bearing Hammer’s name and the company he headed, Occidental Petroleum.

Attorneys for Hammer’s estate and charitable foundation have accused Weiss of unduly influencing a weakened Frances Hammer on her deathbed.

The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that Weiss had failed to prove to the trial court that Hammer misled his wife about the money he made. Attorney Daniel Petrocelli, made famous by the O.J. Simpson civil trial, represented the Hammer estate.

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AS THE TABLOIDS TURN: The Globe has lost yet another round in its attempt to stop the rival National Enquirer from publishing stories about tactics the Globe reportedly used to get the scoop on the Frank Gifford/Suzen Johnson affair.

Once again, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder turned down the Globe’s request for a preliminary injunction. The Globe had sought to stop the Enquirer from publishing any more stories about how the Globe allegedly orchestrated Gifford’s extramarital hotel room tryst.

When the story broke in May 1997, Johnson was the Globe’s golden girl. Now, she’s in the Enquirer’s corner, telling them that the whole Gifford affair was a set-up.

This weekend the Globe published its own excloo.

Johnson, a former TWA flight attendant, claims that the Globe paid her $50,000 for her story. She also says Gifford’s talk show hostess wife, Kathie Lee, sicced the FBI on her. The investigation focused on whether the videotaped canoodling was an act of prostitution. Johnson has not been charged with any crime.

In this week’s “Frank Gifford & His Sexy Mistress: The Real Story,” the Globe brands Johnson a liar, claiming that it paid her a mere $25,000 for her story, as well as an additional $25,000 for the photographic proof.