Eye-in-the-Sky Newsman’s Suit Takes a Shot at KCBS-TV

WE INTERRUPT THIS PROGRAM . . . : “Chopper Bob” Tur, who practically invented eye-in-the-sky helicopter reporting on the local TV news, has been dumped by KCBS-TV Channel 2 but he isn’t going quietly.

The Emmy-winning newsman and his company, Los Angeles News Service, sued the station for $9 million, alleging breach of contract. He is also seeking a court order to block KCBS from allegedly exploiting his famous footage, including that of the Reginald Denny beating and O.J. Simpson’s slow freeway chase.

In the suit, filed in Santa Monica Superior Court, Tur alleged that KCBS conspired with a rival news service, Metro Networks, to raid his staff and terminate his contract a year early. It then replaced him with the cheaper chopper service, the suit said. Tur, who is flying for the syndicated television show “American Journal,” officially leaves KCBS at the end of the month.

He alleged in his suit that KCBS engaged in unfair business practices by encouraging Metro Networks to lure away his chief pilot by offering him a bigger paycheck. Tur also alleged in the suit that he trained the pilot, and supplied him with trade secrets such as news-gathering techniques and names of sources.

“He really created this kind of genre,” said Tur’s lawyer, William A. Bergen. “This whole thing is kind of underhanded and not the way you normally run a business, unless you’re talking about the entertainment business. And entertainment and news really are becoming the same thing, whether you like it or not.”

“Bringing balance back to local news” is the station’s slogan. Playing on that, Tur said: “I filed the suit because I’m trying to bring balance back to KCBS television.”

A spokesperson at the station said KCBS “denies all the claims” in the suit, adding: “KCBS-TV’s decision to terminate its agreement with Los Angeles News Service was a business decision made in good faith.”

A Metro Networks spokesperson called Tur’s claim “groundless.”

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BARBIE WORLD: Mattel went to court to defend the honor of its $2-billion-a-year plastic princess, Barbie, who has been portrayed as a bimbo in a chart-climbing pop song by the Danish musical group Aqua.

The El Segundo toy maker filed a copyright infringement suit against MCA Records seeking an immediate recall of all copies of the “Barbie Girl” CD single and video, and the album “Aquarium,” as well as damages to be determined later.

An MCA spokesman said the song was done in fun, and every copy is clearly marked with this disclaimer: “The song ‘Barbie Girl’ is a social comment and was not created or approved by the makers of the doll.”

Mattel spokesman Sean Fitzgerald retorted: “That’s comparable to a bank robber handing a note of apology to a bank teller during a heist.”

The song, the No. 9 single in Billboard’s Top 10, begins with the words “Hi, Barbie. Hi, Ken,” and Fitzgerald drolly observed, “What’s the likelihood of a Danish couple being named Barbie and Ken?” Other lyrics include:

“I’m a barbie girl in a barbie world

Life in plastic, it’s fantastic.

You can brush my hair, undress me everywhere . . .

I’m a blond bimbo girl in a fantasy world.”

MCA Records President Jay Boberg said in a prepared statement that he has not seen the suit, but believes Mattel’s claims are “baseless.”

“ ‘Barbie Girl’ is a terrific pop song that’s been embraced by the public,” Boberg said.

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EXPECTING A VISITOR: It’s up to a federal judge to decide this week whether Fox Television’s hugely hyped new UFO show “The Visitor” actually makes its debut Friday night.

U.S. District Judge Richard A. Paez is being asked to make the dramatic, eleventh-hour decision in connection with a writer’s copyright infringement suit. Such requests are rarely, if ever, granted. But the judge has agreed to at least consider the request, attorney Mark E. Kalmansohn said.

Actor/writer Gerry Berns, who has worked on “The Net,” “Eraser” and “Beverly Hills Cop,” is seeking to halt airing of the opening episode, which he claims is strikingly similar to his original 1987 screenplay, “The Return of Waldo Fox.” His script was hardly a secret, Kalmansohn said, because it was shopped around the Fox lot and at two powerhouse talent agencies at least 14 times.

Both Berns’ screenplay and the series feature a pilot who disappeared under mysterious circumstances, only to return 50 years later imbued with magical powers to heal, tame fierce animals and perform paranormal tricks, according to the suit.

Among the exhibits submitted to Judge Paez are Berns’ screenplay and a videotape of the show, with 35 similarities marked for comparison. Among the most striking, according to Kalmansohn: “There’s a matronly computer maven named ‘Mother’ both in the screenplay and the pilot.”

Claiming copyright infringement, Berns is seeking a preliminary injunction blocking the show’s debut as well as at least $2 million in damages.

“The plaintiff’s claim is wholly without merit, and we are confident that the broadcast of ‘The Visitor’ will not be interfered with,” a Fox spokesperson said.

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COPARAZZI?: Judy Pace-Flood, the widow of baseball great Curt Flood, filed the first known suit to use the word “stalkerazzi,” which has entered the popular lexicon since the death of Princess Diana.

Pace-Flood sued Telemax Entertainment in Superior Court in Los Angeles, alleging that she had been victimized by “the small-screen equivalent of ‘stalkerazzi.’ ” The suit alleged that the Telemax crew trespassed and invaded her privacy while filming a police raid of a July 12 party at Pace-Flood’s home.

Police, accompanied by the film crew, were summoned to the party after a call reporting a gunshot. But the complaint appeared to be unfounded and no charges were filed. According to the suit, “There was nothing unlawful or remotely newsworthy about the event,” an invitation-only going-away bash for her daughter, who attends Howard University.

The suit also alleged that Pace-Flood was falsely told that the crew was filming with the police “to make sure procedures were being followed” and that officers seemed to be playing to the camera, which was filming for a Spanish-language police show called “Placas.”

The LAPD’s Internal Affairs Division is investigating. David Gonzalez, a Telemax field producer, has said Pace-Flood attempted to incite the party-goers against police.

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WHO OWNS THE HI-DE-HO MAN?: Jazzman Cab Calloway’s widow, Zulme, sued the jive-talking musician’s manager of 30 years and a host of others, accusing them of taking advantage of her dying husband as he signed over rights to his music, memorabilia and life story.

According to the widow’s lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Calloway was not of sound mind when he sold rights to his life story and songs during the months before his death in November 1994. He had suffered a severe stroke that July.

The suit contended that several people and corporate entities conspired as his health failed to capitalize on his “unsound mental state and debilitated physical condition . . . to cheat him by inducing him to transfer valuable rights for less than their actual value.”

Calloway, a Cotton Club performer known for his flowing white tuxedo tails and hip patter, had come to epitomize the flamboyant Jazz Age.

After the stroke, the suit contended, Calloway signed away publishing rights to songs including “Get That Hi-De-Ho in Your Soul” and “Minnie the Moocher,” Calloway’s famous “lowdown hootchie kootcher.”

The suit also alleged that as Calloway lay dying, the defendants removed clippings, records, photographs, contracts and other legal documents and memorabilia from his home. It valued the missing items at $500,000 or more.

Attorney Roy Rifkin denied that his clients, Richard L. Albert and Ron Rainey, had taken advantage of Calloway in any way. He added that Calloway was in good health when he signed contracts with his clients in 1993--months before the stroke--and that lawyers for the Calloways were involved in the deals.

An attorney for Calloway’s longtime manager, Stan Scottland, could not be reached.

Zulme Calloway’s attorney, Marc A. Karlin, said the case is complicated by the fact that the couple lived in New York. Under the laws of New York, Zulme Calloway did not automatically inherit her husband’s rights, as she would have in California.

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Correspondent Sue McAllister contributed to this story.