Tattle | Lip bomb: Suit says Hatcher backed rival gloss

T

ERI HATCHER

is being sued for $2.4 million by Hydroderm for promoting the wrong lip gloss.

Hydroderm's suit, filed in L.A. Tuesday, claims that a 2005 endorsement agreement with Teri's production company stipulated she wouldn't endorse competing products.

But according to the suit, Teri also began puckering up to CityLips, a lip plumper that competes with Hydroderm's Volumizing Lip Serum.

She appeared in promotional materials for CityLips, said she was a "fan" of the product, credited it with "helping her appear beautiful at an awards event," and gave CityLips gift bags to guests at her birthday party.

Hydrodamn!

"Hatcher's name, image and likeness have been linked to so many competitors' products (at least 17!) that it is anyone's guess as to what product keeps her skin and lips youthful," the suit said.

But Teri's attorney Alan

Wertheimer called the suit an "unjustified and public assault on Teri Hatcher's good name, reputation and celebrity in a transparent and pathetic effort to distract from its own failure to live up to its end of the agreement."

Wertheimer said Hatcher complied with all of her contractual obligations despite "a frustrating series of changes in the ownership and management of Hydroderm over the last several years."

* Andrae "Doc" Renard Newman, one of Lindsay Lohan's ex-bodyguards is suing Star magazine in L.A. Superior Court, alleging he was misidentified as Lee Weaver, another of Lindsay's ex-bodyguards, in a caption accompanying the July 25, 2007, article, "Lindsay's Bodyguard Bares All! Her Sick Secret World."

As Weaver was the one who bared all and Newman was the one pictured, he says that his reputation as a celebrity bodyguard was damaged because potential clients demand privacy and trustworthiness, and that he could lose his job as a security guard at a Hollywood club.

"All the people in this industry sign confidentiality agreements and he's no exception," said Newman's attorney, Greg Stone. "Even if he didn't sign, he would never kiss and tell or disclose confidences. People trust this guy."

* Baltimore driving-school owner Michael Psenicska is suing the makers of "Borat," accusing them of lying to him as to what the film was really about.

The suit, filed in NYC, seeks $100,000 in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive damages, saying defendants including Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and star Sacha Baron Cohen used images of him extensively in advertising the film.

"Borat," in which Cohen plays an uncouth Kazakh journalist traveling across the U.S. and A. in pursuit of Pamela Anderson, has already generated more suits than Boyd's.

According to Psenicska's suit, the filmmakers promised him that they were producing a documentary about the integration of foreigners into the American way of life, a subject that interested him because he was in the business of teaching foreigners to drive.

Maybe those "documentary" scenes are in the "Special Film We Weren't Trying to Make" DVD version.

"He signed a release, and we have an agreement," Fox spokesman Greg Brilliant said. "Now, 2 1/2 years after giving his consent and more than one year after the movie was released, Mr. Psenicska has decided to file a lawsuit, citing the financial success of the film, in spite of our agreement."

Tattbits

* Jack Jordan, a former mental patient accused of stalking Uma Thurman, yesterday refused to plead guilty to attempted coercion, a felony the court would have reduced to a misdemeanor once he completed at least a year of a mental-health program.

Attorney George Vomvolakis said Jordan, a graduate student at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., who lives with his parents (in Massachusetts), would consider pleading guilty to a misdemeanor.

* Buddy Dallas and Alford Bradley, two former trustees for James Brown's estate, claim the judge handling the disputes over Brown's bucks forced them out.

They said in court documents filed Tuesday they want to retract their resignations, claiming Judge Jack Early used "improper judicial influence," the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle reported.

"The ultimate goal is for Mr. Brown's wishes to be carried out," Dallas said yesterday.

And if those wishes included his estate being mismanaged, so be it.

* Charges were dropped against Jonathan Rhys Meyers yesterday after his lawyer expressed remorse for his being drunk and abusive at Dublin Airport.

If Tattle's friend expresses remorse for speeding on Route 309, could a judge drop his ticket?

'No Country' is No. 1

The Oscars are coming, the Oscars are coming.

Getting the jump as it usually does on award season is the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures, which yesterday named the Coen Brothers' "No Country for Old Men," the best film of 2007.

Other winners included Tim Burton for his direction of "Sweeney Todd" (opening Dec. 21), George Clooney as best actor in "Michael Clayton" and Julie Christie as best actress for "Away From Her."

In the supporting-acting categories, Casey Affleck won for "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" and Amy Ryan won for "Gone Baby Gone."

Diablo Cody ("Juno") and Nancy Oliver ("Lars and the Real Girl") tied for best original screenplay.

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" (opening Dec. 19) was chosen best foreign-language film and "Ratatouille" won for animation.

Formed 98 years ago, the board is composed of film historians, students and educators, hence the ridiculous omission of "Superbad." *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Send e-mail to gensleh@phillynews.com