Suit Illuminates the Dark Side of Cartoon Characters

The spy who scammed me . . . Safe house . . . Staying in touch.

Ever ponder which cartoon characters live clean and sober, and which don’t? Well, ponder no more. Somebody has actually performed a study of the smoking and drinking habits of the two-dimensional stars of animated films. The results, attached to a Los Angeles Superior Court suit against the Walt Disney Co., just might surprise you:

Ten characters in “Pinocchio” puff stogies, including Gepetto and the wooden boy himself. Captain Hook’s a cigar man. Peter Pan prefers a pipe. “Aladdin’s” genie smokes cigarettes. And let’s not forget that hookah-sucking caterpillar in “Alice in Wonderland.”

Nobody lights up in “Winnie the Pooh” or “Bambi,” we are happy to report, but “The Aristocats” should go on the patch immediately.

As for rehab candidates, Pinocchio quaffs beer, the degenerate. Dumbo the elephant is a wine drinker. Ditto Belle from “Beauty and the Beast,” which probably helps that beast look more pleasing come closing time.

The point of all this, according to the suit filed in Burbank, is the message passed on to children who watch videos of these animated features. Attorneys for Yoon Soo Ha, who sued in the public interest, contend that even good-guy characters have bad habits in the films, which carry no clear message about the downside of booze and tobacco.

In court papers, Ha seeks an injunction ordering Disney to issue warnings at the beginning and end of the films.

INTERNATIONAL MEN OF MYSTERY: As the man posing as a former CIA spook told it, Princess Diana was pregnant by boyfriend Dodi Fayed when the couple were assassinated by British intelligence agents. It was just the kind of story to appeal to Dodi’s grieving father.

And for a while, billionaire Mohamed Fayed, owner of the Ritz in Paris and Harrods in London, bought that tall tale.

Literally.

Now Fayed says he was swindled. He has hired a couple of high-powered attorneys--Bert Fields, fresh from Jeffrey Katzenberg’s mini-trial against Disney, and David Kendall, whose clients include President Clinton. They’re suing entertainment lawyer Keith Fleer and three other men, accusing them of trying to peddle bogus information to Fayed.

The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, describes Fleer as the front man for the others--Oswald LeWinter (a.k.a. retired CIA Agent George Mearah), Pat McMillan and George Williamson. It alleges fraud, civil conspiracy and infliction of emotional distress and seeks damages of about $6 million.

According to the suit, the defendants forged communiques between the British intelligence agency MI-6 and the CIA, in which the two agencies appeared to be discussing MI-6’s secret plans to assassinate Dodi and Di. They then allegedly approached Fayed, asking for $15 million.

Fleer, according to the suit, claimed his sources were an investigative reporter and a CIA agent who would need the money to “take measures to protect themselves.” He also allegedly claimed to have access to an autopsy report showing Diana was pregnant.

About $25,000 exchanged hands before Austrian authorities swooped down in Vienna and arrested LeWinter, who was posing as the former CIA agent. He is now serving four years in prison for his role in the scam, which is also being investigated by federal authorities in Washington.

Fleer denied the allegations through his publicist, saying they are “preposterous.” He denied receiving any part of the $25,000 allegedly paid by Fayed.

RISK FACTOR: An appeals court has ruled that the children of Eileen Zelig, who was shot to death in 1995 by her estranged husband at the Los Angeles County Courthouse, can sue the county for failing to provide adequate security.

“A reasonable person could easily conclude that the lack of security measures created a substantial risk,” wrote Justice Richard D. Aldrich. Joined by Justices Joan D. Klein and Walter H. Croskey, he concluded that the county has “a duty to take reasonable steps to provide safe courthouses to those who enter.”

Zelig, who was embroiled in a fierce divorce, was gunned down by her estranged husband, Dr. Harry Zelig, near a second-floor escalator. The couple’s daughter, Lisa, who was 6, witnessed the attack.

Harry Zelig was convicted of killing his wife and sentenced to state prison. The children’s suit had been dismissed, but the ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal breathed new life into the case.

There were no metal detectors at the civil court building in September 1995, when Eileen Zelig was slain. Budget constraints for years had delayed the installation of metal detectors. The presiding judge called the situation “an accident waiting to happen.”

Just this month the county set up metal detectors at the civil courthouse. County lawyers are planning an appeal.

REACT: Writer Robert Dellinger, who is suing his agent over the upcoming Showtime cable miniseries about the Bonanno mob family, reports that his appearance last week in this space resulted in the following: “Four calls from stockbrokers, two calls from former girlfriends, six calls from purveyors of goods and services, three calls from people who claim we’ve met whom I don’t remember, 10 calls from friends I enjoyed hearing from and one call from a Forest Lawn representative.”

Times legal affairs writer Henry Weinstein contributed to this column.