Guru’s Neighbor Sues After Fuss Over Foliage

Plastic surgery secrets of the stars . . . Candid camera . . . No strings

A South Bay neighbor has sued seminar superstar Deepak Chopra for more than $35,000, claiming the New Age spiritual author ordered his gardener to trespass and cut down mature, 20-foot foliage that blocked the Chopras’ ocean view.

Pat Quinn, who has lived in Palos Verdes Estates for 18 years, also seeks an injunction barring the Chopras from chopping down a 75-year-old California live oak on Quinn’s property, according to papers filed in Superior Court in Torrance.

Chopra’s whack job occurred by stealth after he’d repeatedly requested that the hedges be trimmed, Quinn claims. According to the suit, hedges and ivy along a 165-foot shared property line were trimmed to six feet while Quinn was on a five-day vacation in September. Quinn says Chopra threatened Sept. 24 that the oak tree would be next.

Quinn says in his suit that Chopra, who is building a 16,000-square-foot compound next door, told him the trimmed hedge “looks better from my side now.” When he warned Chopra to stay on his own side of the property line, the suit says, Chopra responded that the hedges were on his property, according to the suit.

“I can do anything I want now,” Chopra retorted, Quinn’s court papers say.

Chopra, founder of the Chopra Center for Well-Being in La Jolla, bought the one-acre gated property in Palos Verdes Estates for $1.3 million in 1998. He is author of more than two dozen books, including “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success” and “Creating Affluence: The A-to-Z Steps to a Better Life.”

He could not be reached.

DOUBLE EXPOSURE: It’s been a while since we’ve heard any buzz from that hornet’s nest of litigation concerning Dr. Steven Hoefflin, the plastic surgeon to the stars.

Now we know why. Gag orders. Sealed files. In other words, business as usual in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Now the 2nd District Court of Appeal has stepped in to defend the public’s right to know. Hoefflin, also known as Doc Hollywood, has been enmeshed in a “daisy chain” of nasty lawsuits with his former medical partners and employees.

The most salacious of the allegations: that the famed surgeon exposed, fondled and made fun of the “physical oddities” of some of his celebrity patients while they were out cold on the operating table.

The appeals court recently told Superior Court Judge Victoria G. Chaney to dissolve her order sealing documents that name the celebrity patients Hoefflin allegedly violated. The court ruled that the 1st Amendment takes precedence over the privacy rights of the rich, famous and reconstructed.

Chaney, ruling in February 1999, said that public disclosure of the celebs’ names “would expose these individuals to an unwarranted invasion of their privacy rights and rights to dignity and would violate their physician-patient privilege.”

But, the appeals court pointed out, “the right to free speech is, of course, one of the cornerstones of our society.” Any order that restricts speech is considered prior restraint, the court added. While the patients’ privacy rights were important, the court said, “we cannot agree they are sufficient to justify prior restraint on the parties’ speech.”

CANDID CAMERA: The mother of a 17-year-old boy who appeared in a photo published on pages 392 and 393 of the March issue of Elle magazine is suing publisher Hachette Filipacchi Magazines for allegedly turning her son into an unwitting fashion model.

Young Joey G., as we’ll call him, had just finished playing basketball and was waiting for a bus near the UCLA campus in January when a van stopped and a passel of fashion models spilled out. He offered to move, but was asked to stay, says the Los Angeles Superior Court suit filed on his behalf by his mother.

And so, the young man was photographed surrounded by leggy models. They wore loaned-out pumps and $1,200 designer trench coats. He wore his own sneakers and a windbreaker. They were paid. He was not.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for allegedly exploiting the boy commercially without obtaining his mother’s permission.

PULLING STRINGS: As if there isn’t enough discord in the music industry, now they’re fighting about puppets.

The 25-foot marionettes, made by a Sherman Oaks company called Sid and Mary Krofft Pictures Inc., resemble members of the boy band ‘N Sync. They were constructed for the band’s performance of its hit “Bye, Bye, Bye” at the American Music Awards.

The single was from ‘N Sync’s album “No Strings Attached.” Ergo, the puppets. Get it?

Puppet-makers Sid and Mary Krofft say in a federal lawsuit that they own the copyright to the puppets, but aren’t getting any share of the profits that the band is reaping from puppet-related souvenirs.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, seeks damages, attorney’s fees and a share of souvenir profits. Named as defendants were band members Justin Timberlake, J.C. Chasez, Chris Kirkpatrick, Lance Bass and Joey Fatone Jr., and band manager Johnny Wright, among others.

An ‘N Sync spokesflack could not be reached.