Does Cellulite Reducer Really Work? Fat Chance, Suit Says
Slick? Moi? . . . Aced out . . . Greed over “Greed” . . . Susie Whitewater rides again.
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These things are inevitable:
Death. Taxes. Cellulite.
A Palm Desert woman, one of millions of people who’d give almost anything for a hot bod with dimple-free thighs, has filed a consumer protection suit in Los Angeles Superior Court against the makers of Cellasene.
Lindsey Teranchi’s suit against the Florida-based Rexall Sundown Inc. charges that Cellasene does not “fight cellulite,” as advertised. Nor has it been “clinically tested” in any valid way, as the ads say. The alleged clinical tests, conducted in Italy, involved only 50 people, the suit says.
Cellasene contains Lipovascolen, “a proprietary blend of natural herbal extracts” that Rexall says in its ads increases circulation, cuts down fluid retention and strengthens connective tissue to get rid of cellulite.
Here’s what’s really in Cellasene, according to the court papers:
“Bladderwrack extract, grape seed extract, sweet clover extract, ginkgo biloba extract . . . borage seed oil, fish oil and soya lecithin.”
Bladderwrack extract? Fish oil? Eeeww.
A Rexall lawyer could not be reached for comment Friday.
The suit seeks class action status, a court order pulling Cellasene off store shelves, an injunction against future sales and unspecified monetary damages.
In a just and enlightened world, thunder thighs would be considered sexy.
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SHOW OF SHOWS: A Century City entertainment lawyer has filed a libel and slander suit against entertainer Sid Caesar and the producers and distributors of the syndicated TV show “Extra.”
Dan S. Maccabee says Caesar damaged his reputation on “Extra” in March 1999, calling him a “slick Hollywood lawyer” who was “fleecing” him. Caesar said on the show that he “never got a dime” from videos of his old routines. In other words, the lawyer allegedly failed to render unto Caesar, who, by the way, could not be reached for comment.
Maccabee, who at the time was engaged in a legal dispute with former client Caesar, denies the allegations and says his demands for a retraction were ignored. Acting as his own lawyer, Maccabee seeks unspecified monetary damages.
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PLAYING MARBLES: Producers Harry and Renee Longstreet are suing the Authors and Artists Group and two of its agents over a scotched deal to make a television movie based on the book “Courting Danger.” The tome tells the life story of the late Alice Marble, the women’s Wimbledon champ who doubled as a U.S. spy in Europe during World War II.
The Longstreets say in their Los Angeles Superior Court suit that they had worked out a deal with Fox Entertainment group to make the movie, starring Farrah Fawcett as the tennis-playing spy. But the deal fell through when the agents allegedly did not fulfill their promise to obtain the story rights from Marble’s heirs.
The suit alleges fraud and breach of contract and seeks damages in excess of $150,000 to compensate the Longstreets for lost income and damage to their reputation in Hollywood.
A representative of the agency could not be reached for comment.
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WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?: A producer of reality TV shows is suing Dick Clark Productions and Fox Entertainment Group, saying the idea for the show “Greed” was stolen from him.
Jefferson Lanz says in his Los Angeles Superior Court suit that he created the prototype for the show and registered a manuscript with the Writers Guild in 1991. Among the features of his prototype, Lanz says, are several characteristics picked up in the show. The greediest player wins by eliminating other players and stealing their prizes. The players climb to the top of a tower to win: In Lanz’s manuscripts it’s called the “mountain of moola;” on “Greed, it’s the “tower of greed.” Players can challenge each other to life and death situations, which Lanz called the “Crusher” and “Greed” calls the “Terminator.”
Lanz says he pitched his idea to Dick Clark Productions, and wrote a treatment for the people now involved in the production of the show “Greed.” He was stunned, the suit says, to read in the trade magazines in October that “Greed” had been picked up by Fox. He seeks unspecified damages, charging fraud, conversion and breach of confidence.
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SUSAN McLAWSUIT: Whitewater figure Susan McDougal is getting ready for yet another day in court, but this time she’s turning the tables on her former employers, conductor Zubin Mehta and his wife, Nancy.
For most of the past decade, McDougal has occupied a seat on the defendant’s side of the courtroom. But this time, she’s doing the suing, and so far her civil suit has survived a series of legal challenges in Los Angeles Superior Court.
McDougal charges that the Mehtas falsely accused her of embezzlement and then libeled and slandered her by insisting she was guilty even after a jury in Santa Monica acquitted her. Her suit recently was given a June 11, 2001, trial date, said her attorney, Matthew Geragos.
McDougal once worked as a personal assistant to the Mehtas. She was fired shortly before her name surfaced in the Whitewater probe of a failed Arkansas land deal involving her late ex, Jim McDougal, and the couple’s old political pals, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
