Duran Duran’s Got His (Wrong) Number

Beach house blues . . . Frasier has left the building . . . Bing’s legacy . . . Champagne wars.

There are few things more annoying than having one’s afternoon nap ruined by solicitors or some moron who can’t dial the phone properly. Wrong number? I’ll show you a wrong number, pal.

Multiply that annoyance by 20, and you have some idea what it’s like to be Cornell Zachary. The roofing contractor was sedated and recovering from a broken leg when his phone started ringing off the hook last year. Turns out he’s a victim of the comeback of 1980s New Wave band Duran Duran.

Zachary’s number was mistakenly published on the Internet as the Los Angeles Duran Duran connection for T-shirts, tickets and souvenirs. Fans are rabid for the souvenirs, calling more than 20 times a day, said Zachary’s lawyer, Bill Hence Jr. Talk about being “Hungry Like a Wolf.”

Not surprisingly, this situation has resulted in litigation. Zachary sued the band, its corporate handlers and individual band members Andrew Day, Warren Cuccurullo, Simon LeBon and Nick Rhodes in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The complaint seeks general and punitive damages for negligence and nuisance. “As a result of the incessant phone calls and phone ringing, Plaintiff was plagued with sleep disturbances resulting in sleep disorder . . . and life-threatening high blood pressure episodes,” the suit states.

A spokesman for Duran Duran could not be reached reached.

SUMMER BUMMER: A California man is suing the widow and estate of Walter Matthau, charging that he has been locked out of the late actor’s Broad Beach summer house, which he leased for August and September.

Alan Gleitsman is asking Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert A. Dukes to enforce the lease and grant him access to the four-bedroom, 4,200-square-foot retreat, which recently went on the market for $5.5 million.

Gleitsman’s suit says that he paid a $30,000 deposit and agreed to pay an additional $60,000 for the summer rental. But the locks were changed before he could take possession on Aug. 1--a month after Matthau’s death. Gleitsman says in court papers that he was informed that Carol Matthau had decided to sell the house.

A representative for the Walter and Carol Matthau Irrevocable Trust did not call back.

GRAMMER LESSONS: “Frasier” may have left the building, but actor Kelsey Grammer still owes more than $2 million in back commissions to his original talent agents, a panel of arbitrators has ruled.

The panel--retired Superior Court Judge Jack M. Newman and attorneys Richard Chernick and J. Larson Jaenicke--also ordered Grammer’s current handlers at the William Morris Agency to pay about $82,000 in commissions that should have gone to the actor’s former agents at the Artists Agency.

But, the ruling states, the Artists Agency has no claim to $15 million that Grammer has made during the last two seasons, and no claim to any future earnings.

Grammer fired his original agents in 1998, ostensibly because they charged commissions for a television commercial and awards show appearance not covered by his contract, the ruling states. The contract was renegotiated several times--first when Grammer demanded more money because of “Frasier’s” success, then when the show was syndicated, and finally, when it moved to Thursday nights to replace “Seinfeld.”

Grammer, meanwhile, filed suit Thursday in U.S. District Court, asking a judge to set aside the award. His court papers say Grammer’s good nature was taken advantage of by talent agents at the Artists Agency who were “ineffectual,” “lazy” and “unscrupulous.”

CROONING FOR DOLLARS: The heirs of Bing Crosby, whose “White Christmas” is one of the top selling recordings in history, are suing MCA Records for $16 million plus punitive damages, contending der Bingle’s former record company has been cheating the family out of royalties since the early 1970s.

According to the suit, filed in Superior Court in Santa Monica, the former Decca Records--long ago gobbled up by MCA Records Inc.--paid the royalties under terms of a 1948 contract that a trustee for the estate of Crosby’s late wife, Wilma Wyatt, contends never was signed.

The suit charges that record company officials launched a conspiracy in 1972 to claim the 1948 contract prevailed, and pay royalties under its terms, which favored the record company.

The alleged scam was uncovered during an audit in October, the suit states.

The suit seeks recovery of $16,336,931, an accounting and a court order revoking Crosby’s contracts, and holding his master recordings and royalties in trust.

TINY BUBBLES: The company that publishes Consumer Reports has vowed to fight a lawsuit by Korbel champagne over a bad review, and will ask a federal judge in Los Angeles to toss out the suit.

“We are totally baffled by this suit, which we believe to be frivolous, a gross misuse of the courts, and an insidious attempt to silence an honest critic,” said R. David Pittle, vice president of Consumers Union, in a prepared statement.

Korbel sued Consumer Reports in U.S. District Court, alleging product disparagement. The champagne maker alleged that the magazine used biased taste testers who favored a rival vineyard.