Certificate Award Winner – Outstanding Radio Disc Jockey at 9th annual LA Music Awards
DJ Claims Playing Pope’s CD Got Him the Boot
May 02, 1999|ANN W. O’NEILL
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Broken promises and shattered dreams involving the David Carradines . . . Tom Petty . . . Cher and Howard Stern’s “Private Parts.”
Radio personality Kaptain Kaos, a.k.a. Paul Volpe, recently started his international music show on KIEV-AM (870) with “a little pope music.”
And when the papal CD “Abba Pater” hit the airwaves, station management pulled the plug on “The Cutting Edge Subterranean Music Show,” according to a suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Three days later, on March 30, the Kaptain was shown the door, allegedly for playing “unexplained profane foreign lyrics.”
According to the suit, the controversy began with a station ban against playing music with lyrics in languages “that could not be understood.” The rationale: Management didn’t want to assume liability for any profane lyrics that might slip by.
“Abba Pater” features the pope praying and chanting against a musical background. It hardly qualifies as profane. Still, if Kaptain Kaos had wanted to play it safe, he could have stuck to playing Abba without the pater.
The pontiff’s CD, the suit says, “explores such universal themes as charity, forgiveness, peace and reconciliation.” These values might indeed seem foreign and unexplained to some.
The Vatican is puzzled. “I cannot understand why those people are so upset with the CD of the pope,” the papal emissary wrote Kaos/Volpe via e-mail.
Station director Jason Jeffries had no comment. The suit, filed by attorney Cary W. Goldstein, seeks $4 million for defamation and wrongful termination.
WHAT PUFF PIECE? Actor David Carradine, of “Kung Fu” fame, and wife Marina Anderson are suing People magazine for libel, claiming the magazine defamed them despite a “gentleman’s agreement” to print a “nice story.”
According to the Los Angeles Superior Court suit, the Carradines agreed to be interviewed for the Jan. 11 article as part of a settlement of their lawsuit against Australia’s Who Weekly, which is owned by People’s corporate parent, Time Warner.
The interview process started pleasantly enough, according to the lawsuit by entertainment attorney Neville L. Johnson. The couple were flown to New York and put up in posh digs at the Plaza hotel. Time Warner magazine honcho Norman Pearlstine even “profusely apologized,” the suit contends, and “promised that a nice story on the Carradines would be done for People or Entertainment Weekly.”
No such luck. According to the suit, People wrote of alleged substance abuse and career downturns. “The tenor of the article is nasty and mean-spirited, a dig at him and his wife,” the suit says. In a statement, a People spokesperson said the magazine intends to prove in court “that this lawsuit is totally without merit.”
PETTY DISPUTE: Rocker Tom Petty, who sings about places such as Reseda, is suing a Northern California company for allegedly botching a live recording of his Fillmore West concert.
According to Petty’s Santa Monica Superior Court suit, only 17 of the 30 songs were recorded. Petty claims that Phil Edwards Recording of Hayward, Calif., breached its agreement and seeks unspecified damages.
Edwards said he hasn’t seen the lawsuit and could not comment. He did say Petty “is a great musician.”
ESQ., 90210: Daniel Cosgrove is not a lawyer, but he plays one on TV. The actor, who appears on “Beverly Hills, 90210,” has turned to real-life Beverly Hills lawyer Michael Novicoff to defend him in a lawsuit by a man who claims to be his former personal manager.
Arthur Massei says in his Los Angeles Superior Court suit that he managed Cosgrove during the actor’s salad days in New York City. Now that Cosgrove is a success, Massei is after his 15% cut, which he estimates to be in excess of $100,000.
In court papers seeking a dismissal, Cosgrove and his lawyer say Massei hasn’t even ponied up a written contract for the court.
CHER AND CHER ALIKE: A man who says he was Cher’s friend and personal manager for 22 years charges in a lawsuit that she’s dropped him now that she’s got a hit song, “Believe,” on the charts.
Bill Sammeth claims he helped Cher “reinvent herself.” For his trouble, Sammeth says, he was “unceremoniously terminated” shortly after her Jan. 31 Super Bowl appearance. Sammeth claims he helped brainstorm the appearance, as well as Cher’s turns on “The American Music Awards,” “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno” and “Late Night With David Letterman.”
“Far more than a manager, Sammeth was one of Cher’s most loyal friends and confidants,” say papers in Los Angeles Superior Court. “He stuck with her during the hard times in her professional life and the dark times in her personal life.”
The suit, filed by attorney Henry D. Gradstein, says Cher gave Sammeth a special thanks in the liner notes of the “Believe” compact disc. That’s nice, but what Sammeth really wants is his 15% manager’s fee, the suit says.
PRIVATE PARTS BONUS: A writer for the feature film “Private Parts” is suing the production company and Rysher Entertainment, claiming they backed out of a promise to pay him a $37,500 bonus.
“Private Parts,” you might recall, told the story of the rise of shock jock Howard Stern to his perch as the self-proclaimed “King of All Media.” Stern was not named in the suit, filed in Santa Monica.
The New York-based writer, Larry Sloman, is seeking compensatory and punitive damages. His suit claims that Rysher and Private Parts Productions “fraudulently induced” him to lend his writing services to the film. Rysher had no comment.