Dispute Over Eva Gabor’s Estate Appears Settled

All’s quiet, dah-ling, as the Eva Gabor estate moves toward a final settlement, lawyers say. Such was not always the case. As recently as April, the co-trustees of the Eva Gabor Living Trust were so at odds with each other that one tried to oust the other.

Gabor set up the trust the year before she died July 4, 1995, naming as trustees her stepdaughter, Mary Gard Jameson, and longtime business manager, Raymond Katz. The death in June of sister Magda Gabor of Palm Springs left Zsa Zsa Gabor of Bel-Air the sole beneficiary of what lawyer Jeffrey Wheeler called “a very large estate.”

Under terms of the settlement, Jameson, who lives in Idaho, has stepped down as a trustee after receiving her fees, while Katz remains in charge, according to Wheeler, his lawyer.

The settlement came as Superior Court Judge Gary Klausner denied Jameson’s request seeking Katz’s removal as trustee. In legal papers, she had questioned the business manager’s arrangements with Eva Gabor regarding residuals from her 1960s television show “Green Acres” and proceeds from her wig promotions on the Home Shopping Network. Jameson alleged that Katz “displayed continued hostility and lack of cooperation” and administered the trust “as if he were the sole decision maker and answerable to no one but himself.”

Wheeler acknowledged that the two trustees were “not simpatico,” but defended Katz, saying he had been “very solicitous of Mary in getting things done.” The lawyer said that Jameson’s legal challenge was “stridently written” and that Katz is a “very, very competent and intelligent executor” who has gained Zsa Zsa Gabor’s confidence.

Jameson’s lawyer, Valerie Merritt of Glendale, said she couldn’t discuss details of the settlement.

Once the Internal Revenue Service determines how much the estate owes in taxes, the matter will be settled, Wheeler said, adding: “We’re at the mercy of the IRS.”

LIVING LARGE: Membership had its privileges, at least as long as they paid the American Express bill. But how do you rack up a $1.67-million tab in three months? A peek at the file in Amex’s lawsuit against Death Row Records, imprisoned rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight and the label’s Encino lawyer, David Kenner, shows what it means to be living large:

Chartered jets, limos, blocks of rooms at the Four Seasons, Peninsula and other luxury hotels; shopping for cigars in Paris, shoes at Fred Segal in Beverly Hills, baubles at Cartier in New York; feasts fit for a king--$1,144 at Gladstone’s, $2,700 at the Beverly Hills Hotel’s restaurant and $1,900 at a liquor store in Malibu. Shopping sprees at Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Footlocker and a big-and-tall men’s shop in Las Vegas.

According to court papers filed by lawyers for Kenner and Knight, people who were not authorized to use the company’s gold and platinum cards ran up the bills. Whoever, whatever, it was quite the party while it lasted. According to copies of the monthly statements in the court file, Death Row rang up $402,000 in August 1996, $632,500 in September and $543,500 in October.

The late charge alone was $25,700 in October.

Among the items charged were 21 rooms--at $50 a pop--at Las Vegas’ Luxor Hotel and Casino on Sept. 7, the night rap artist Tupac Shakur was shot in the BMW that Knight was driving. Shakur died of his injuries nine days later.

As for the credit card bill, Knight and Kenner claim through their lawyers that they aren’t responsible and contend that American Express broke the terms of its contract by accepting purchases by unauthorized third parties. They also previously have blamed their financial woes on their accountant, who was fired earlier this year.

The American Express case, filed in January, has bogged down while the lawyers squabble over documents concerning more than $200,000 in bills for chartered transportation. A hearing scheduled last week was postponed indefinitely. Meanwhile, Knight is serving a nine-year state prison sentence for a probation violation. Kenner is recovering from triple bypass surgery this summer, court records show.

Death Row’s lawyers, Kenner and Mark Kamerman, could not be reached for comment.

DO THEY TAKE AMERICAN EXPRESS?: A West Los Angeles construction company claims in a lawsuit that the Hollywood Entertainment Museum still owes about $2.4 million for renovations completed last year.

Taslimi Construction Co. says the museum has paid only about $450,000 on its nearly $2.9-million contract. The museum opened last fall. The construction firm says it signed a contract with the museum in March 1996 for $1.65-million worth of renovation work. Taslimi claims that the museum, a nonprofit corporation and the brainchild of former state Sen. David Roberti, also approved about $1.24-million worth of extra work and failed to make payments on a $1-million promissory note.

Taslimi’s lawyer, Eric Smith, declined to comment. The museum’s lawyer, Charles V. Thornton, said his clients are disputing the amount the contractor claims is owed.

The museum, on Hollywood Boulevard a block from Mann’s Chinese Theatre, features exhibits such as the “bridge” from the Enterprise in the original “Star Trek” series and the bar from “Cheers.”

DIAGNOSTIC DISPUTE: Actress Jean Simmons, who starred in such films as “Elmer Gantry,” “Spartacus” and “How to Make an American Quilt,” and twice was nominated for an Academy Award, claims in a lawsuit that her doctors failed to diagnose her cancer in time to save her breast.

According to the lawsuit, filed in Santa Monica Superior Court, Simmons underwent a mammogram in 1995, and was sent back for further tests, but then was told she did not have cancer. When she returned for another checkup a year later, her cancer was diagnosed.

She is accusing her physicians and the company that interpreted the mammograms of negligence that resulted in failure to detect her cancer when it “could have been treated in a more conservative manner.” Her lawyers, Allan A. Sigel and Philip R. Poliner, declined comment, as did Simmons’ doctors.

NAKED APPEAL: Brad Pitt arguably is a public figure--and a buff one at that--but as the lawyers continue to wrangle over whether his private parts are anybody’s business, let us pause to consider that one of this summer’s most talked-about controversies really is old nudes, er, news.

The photos were taken in April 1995 and have been published all over Europe and the Internet since then. Playgirl, which is appealing Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien’s order that the magazine recall and collect all remaining copies of its August edition, actually was one of the last publications to jump on the “Brad Pitt Nude!” bandwagon.

Pitt, who is not commenting these days at the advice of his lawyers, discussed the photos, his loss of privacy and the price of fame during an interview published in the October 1995 issue of US magazine.

“You know, I’ve always taken everything pretty lightly until we had these nude photos come out,” he told the magazine. “Since then, I’ve been wondering about rights of privacy. They could shoot right through my keyhole . . . and I wouldn’t even know it.”

In his lawsuit against Playgirl, Pitt claims that the invasion of his privacy has caused him emotional distress.

The nude shots were taken as the actor and former girlfriend Gwyneth Paltrow appeared in their birthday suits over breakfast at a supposedly secluded Caribbean resort. Paltrow’s father, a producer, had even warned the couple about lens-wielding snoops, Pitt said in the interview.

“You know, I took all the precautions I could,” he said. “We were in the most private place we could find. I mean, this man literally had to scale a mountain with this telescope on his back and end up on private property to get us like he did.”

Back then, Pitt didn’t seem quite so, shall we say, thin-skinned, occasionally laughing or grinning during the interview.

“Listen, ultimately it doesn’t bother me,” he insisted in 1995. “I mean, it all ends up in the litter box anyway.”