Susan McDougal, Happy at Last

Silent Susan McDougal, of Whitewater fame, has resolved her legal differences with her former employers, orchestra conductor Zubin Mehta and his actress wife, Nancy.

McDougal, who was pardoned of her Whitewater convictions by outgoing President Bill Clinton in January, last month quietly settled the 1999 slander and malicious-prosecution suit she filed against the Mehtas in Los Angeles Superior Court. So ends a chapter in McDougal’s years-long trek through the courtrooms and jails of America.

McDougal went to work in Brentwood for the Mehtas in 1989, when Whitewater was just a pretty-sounding name for a belly-up real estate development. She left in 1992 under less than cordial terms; her employers accused McDougal of stealing thousands of Mehta dollars while working as their bookkeeper.

By that time, prosecutors were hot for McDougal’s grand jury testimony against her former Whitewater partners and Arkansas political friends, Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton. She clammed up, was held in contempt of court and went to jail for 18 months.

Based on the Mehtas’ accusations, McDougal was charged in Los Angeles with embezzlement and spent nearly six months of her Arkansas contempt sentence in our tough county jails. But she didn’t crack. A Santa Monica jury acquitted her of theft in November 1998, and jurors in Little Rock cleared her of obstructing justice about six months later.

Terms of the settlement were confidential. McDougal lawyers Matthew and Mark Geragos and Mehta lawyer Alan Rothenberg aren’t talking. Malcolm Lucas, former chief justice of the state Supreme Court, mediated.

A little birdie told us that McDougal, who lives in Arkansas, walked away very happy.

Kibbles ‘N’ Bits

The British tabloid the Mirror has agreed to pay actress Daryl Hannah an undisclosed sum in damages, ending a London libel case over a false story that Hannah skipped rehearsals for a play and flew back to Los Angeles for her dog’s birthday. The story in question, “Jittery Darryl Goes Walkies,” appeared last October.

Hannah’s lawyer, Simon Smith, says that the actress was actually attending the Toronto Film Festival and that her absence from final rehearsals for the London production of “The Seven Year Itch” was prearranged, according to reports from across the pond.

“Through me, the defendant offers its sincere apologies to the claimant for the distress and embarrassment caused by this article,” Mirror attorney Anna Coppola told the court, according to wire reports.

Although no one will reveal how much money Hannah received from the tabloid, we assume it’s enough to buy a lot of doggie treats.

Who’s the Blond?

Who was that blond bombshell on the arm of “Pearl Harbor” director Michael Bay at Disney’s premiere extravaganza? She’s none other than Lisa Dergan, Playboy’s Miss July 1998. Dergan, whose midriff-baring outfits and stiletto heels were a sailor’s delight, outdid herself during a visit to the memorial to the sunken battleship Arizona, where more than 1,100 sailors are entombed. She wore a pink-leather halter and miniskirt, which definitely made her stand out among the somber visitors. “It was like wearing a bikini to a funeral,” one reporter sniped.

SH You Go-Go, Girls

It’s deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra used to say. There’s a Bush in the White House, and the Go-Go’s have another album out. Soon, ample-bodied women may be back in style and the cycle will be complete.

“I’d rather be a pinup girl than zero size; Throw me a curve not a straight narrow line; Throw me a curve and I’ll show you mine,” the ‘80s girl group croons on its new release, “God Bless the Go-Go’s.”

Go-Go Belinda Carlisle will show off her curves this summer when she poses for Playboy.

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Times staff writers Gina Piccalo and Louise Roug contributed to this report. City of Angles runs Tuesday-Friday. E-mail: angles@latimes.com.