Singer’s Suit Alleges Flight Earned Frequent-Payer Miles
Entertainer Dionne Warwick is suing a Beverly Hills travel agency, accusing it of “substandard and unlawful ticketing” that nearly left her stranded in Stockholm.
Warwick claims in her suit, filed in Superior Court in Santa Monica, that she had to buy new plane tickets for herself and 11 members of her entourage because APA Travel Center sold her nonrefundable tickets at full-fare prices.
Warwick’s suit, which alleges fraud, breach of contract and conversion, says that in December the singer paid $20,000--the full, round-trip fare for what she thought were two first class and 10 coach seats on Delta Airlines. But when she tried to change her reservations to fly to Vancouver instead of New York, Warwick learned the tickets had been upgraded with a stranger’s frequent flyer miles, the suit says.
The third-party upgrade was illegal and voided the tickets, “pursuant to the law and the rules of Delta Airlines,” according to Warwick’s suit, which seeks unspecified general and punitive damages.
“The ticketing received was of far less value than paid for,” say court papers filed by Beverly Hills lawyer Thomas M. Byrne. “Where is the money?”
No one picked up the phone at APA Travel on Friday.
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SIESTA IN HELL: Tales of bad behavior last year on the set of the Courtney Love indie film “Beat” have surfaced in a Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed by the film’s three Mexican producers.
The suit basically deals with a contract dispute over $100,000, film credits and unpaid expenses. Beyond that, it takes Love to task for her alleged acting out.
According to court papers, the rocker actress was known to the crew by a term equally crude in both English and Spanish. In English, it rhymes with “snitch.”
“Well, it’s not as if I’d never been called that before,” Love told a Mexican magazine during an interview that has the Mexican producers suing her for defamation.
In the interview, which is now a part of the court file, Love allegedly referred to producers Alexandra Cardenas and Antonio and Victor Zavala as “corrupt Mexicans, decadent and rich.”
On a separate occasion, referred to in court papers as “the hamburger incident,” Love yelled at Cardenas “in front of press and crew, accusing her of being a spoiled rich girl, of stealing money, of exploiting and treating her crew badly.”
Cardenas claims the resulting stress caused her to suffer a hernia. She has not been “entirely well to this day,” the court papers state.
Meanwhile, Love’s masseuse and makeup artist were treated so badly they quit, the suit says. They never were paid, court papers allege.
“Beat,” the story of surrealist writer William S. Burroughs, opened at the Sundance Film Festival. Love played the writer’s ill-fated wife, Joan Vollmer Burroughs, whom the writer accidentally shot to death at their Mexico City home in 1951.
Love’s publicist did not call back.
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KUNG FU FIGHTING: Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Malcolm Mackey has delivered a fatal karate kick to “Kung Fu” actor David Carradine’s libel suit against People magazine. Carradine and his wife, Marina Anderson, sued People and parent company Time Warner Inc. in 1999 over an unflattering story.
Carradine had charged that People violated a “gentleman’s agreement” to print a “nice” article to settle another suit against Australia’s Who Weekly, which identified Carradine’s wife as a porn star. Who Weekly also is owned by Time Warner.
The suit claimed the Carradines were flown to New York, put up in the Plaza hotel and “profusely apologized” to by Time Warner magazine chief Norman Pearlstine. “He promised that a nice story on the Carradines would be done for People or Entertainment Weekly,” the suit said.
Instead, the People article told of alleged substance abuse and career downturns in what the 63-year-old Carradine called a “nasty, mean-spirited dig” at him and his wife.
People stood by its story. And the judge agreed, granting People’s request for a summary judgment.
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BUMPER CARS: Add to the list of Hollywood body shop customers actress Tyne Daly, now appearing on “Judging Amy,” and David Boreanaz, star of “Angel,” a spinoff of “Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.”
Daly is being sued in Los Angeles Superior Court by Maurice D. Duncan and Erica Nickerson, who claim they were hurt Dec. 7 in a collision caused when Daly made an allegedly “unsafe left turn” in front of them on Melrose Avenue near Highland Avenue.
Boreanaz, meanwhile, is suing Oren Kaniel, who allegedly plowed his 1993 Mazda into the actor’s new Mercedes on the Hollywood Freeway in Hollywood last Aug. 3. The actor seeks compensation for medical expenses and repayment of money spent to fix his car.
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz.
