Inqlings: Battle for Soul in the legal arena

A lawsuit filed by

Jon Bon Jovi

has a suspicious ring to it, if you ask the defense attorney, who calls it payback.

Last month, Jenkintown's Joe Krause took Bon Jovi to Common Pleas Court, accusing the rocker and his partners in the Philadelphia Soul Arena Football League team of not paying him nearly $125,000 in wages and commissions after the league went on hold.

On Thursday, Bon Jovi's lawyers sued in U.S. District Court, saying Krause, the Soul's former sales manager, used the Soul trademark for himself - even making and selling his own version of Soul championship rings, allegedly infringing on a design that Bon Jovi copyrighted.

Krause organized events last month in Reading to sell rings to Soul fans for $275 a pop, Bon Jovi's suit says. The unauthorized events had been advertised first under the name "Lost Souls" and later as "A Night to Remember," the suit says, adding that appearances by a coach and cheerleaders had been advertised.

Bon Jovi's suit attached renditions of both designs. His ring includes the Soul logo and such inscriptions as "Philadelphia Soul World Champions," "Arena Bowl New Orleans XXII 2008," "Soul 59, Cats 56," and "Boom" (a team cheer).

Krause's design, which does not include the logo or the word Soul, is inscribed "World Champions," "PHL," "ABXXII," "07-27-08," "PHL 59, SJS 56," "16-3," and "BOOM." (See the drawings at http://go.philly.com/insider.)

Krause's attorney, George Bochetto of Bochetto & Lentz, called the suit a "laughably sick act of retaliation against Mr. Krause for filing a lawsuit - nothing more or less."

"We disagree," Bon Jovi attorney Camille M. Miller of Cozen O'Connor told me. "His client used the Philadelphia Soul trademark in connection with marketing and promoting an event. It looked like the Soul was sponsoring the event."

The unofficial Soul fan site PhiletofSoul.com posted a notice Feb. 4 that it had removed certain Soul photos and designs after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from an unspecified law firm.

The team has been refunding season-ticket holders, but slowly, as postings on its message board indicate.

Philly is third in line for the opening of

Explicit Ills

, the directorial debut of Philly-raised actor

Mark Webber

. Red carpet will unfurl outside the Ritz at the Bourse on March 20, following screenings in New York and L.A.

Explicit Ills

, starring

Rosario Dawson

,

Paul Dano

and

Lou Taylor Pucci

, was shot here in 2007. It won the Audience Award and cinematography prize at South by Southwest last year.

The Lovely Bones, the Peter Jackson-directed drama based on the Alice Sebold novel, has a Dec. 11 wide-release date. Stanley Tucci plays a murderous pedophile opposite Mark Wahlberg, Rachel Weisz and Saoirse Ronan. Much was filmed in the burbs, including East Fallowfield, Glenolden, Hatfield, Malvern, Norristown, and Royersford, in 2007.

CBS3 tech reporter

Stephanie Abrams

' last day after nearly five years will be March 20. An only child, she will move to her native L.A. to help her mother care for her ill father, she said. "This is the best job I've been lucky enough to have," Abrams said of KYW. She will relocate with her husband and their young son.

Former Fox29 meteorologist Rob Guarino supposedly got a gentle reminder from his bosses at the ABC station in Albuquerque, N.M., that he was still under contract. A posting on his weather blog, urging followers to lobby for his return to Philly by next winter, was removed the other day.

Former CN8 anchor Connie Colla hosted the recent Louis Braille Awards ceremony for Associated Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired. Colla also is on the advisory board of ASB's Radio Information Center for the Blind.

Two La Salle University alums honored their father, Frank Palopoli, by establishing a professorship in his name. Palopoli, a chemist, helped create Clomid, a fertility drug his family had no use for. Not with five children, 23 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.

About 45,000 tickets to Billy Joel and Elton John's "Face 2 Face" concert at Citizens Bank Park on July 30 sold out via ComcastTIX in 20 minutes yesterday.

Eddie Bruce

, the first local performer to be included in the cabaret series at the Prince Music Theater, is now its top box-office draw. On Friday, he topped the sales of any other two-week cabaret artist - besting

Andrea Marcovicci

. Some tickets remain in his run through next Sunday. The show can't be extended because Mask & Wig needs the theater. Bruce will head to the Metropolitan Room in New York on March 29 and April 12.

Hedgerow Theatre's production of Looking Over the President's Shoulder wraps this afternoon, but it's not over for James Still's historical drama, in which Brian Anthony Wilson portrays Alonzo Fields, the White House's first African American chief butler. The production will set up at the U.S. Naval Memorial in D.C. on Wednesday and Friday. Current White House chief butler Ron Guy and other White House staffers are due in the audience.

Six Philly improv groups - ComedySportz Philadelphia, Industrial, TRAFFIC JELLY, Men About Town, Rare Bird Show, and Illegal Refill - will be at the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival in Carrboro, N.C., opening this weekend. Do improv actors book these kinds of trips, or do they just wing it?

Actors

Sylvia Kauders

and

Barry Brait

read an

Abraham Lincoln

book to sixth graders at the Russell Byers Charter School in Center City the other day. During a Q&A, the question came up: Were the actors themselves there when Lincoln ordered the slaves free? With aplomb, Kauders shot back that, alas, they had "missed the curtain."