Hatcher wins ruling in lip-plumping suit

Hatcher wins ruling
in lip-plumping suit

LOS ANGELES — Teri Hatcher has won a ruling in a feud between rival lip plumpers worthy of Wisteria Lane. A judge ruled Monday that a $2 million lawsuit against the 43-year-old “Desperate Housewives” star should be moved out of court and into arbitration. The lawsuit from cosmetics company Hydroderm, filed late last year in Superior Court, claims that a 2005 endorsement agreement with Hatcher’s production company stipulated that she would not pitch competing products.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Helen I. Bendix ruled that both sides are bound by a prior agreement to arbitrate all of Hydroderm’s claims rather than litigate them in court. The two sides signed the agreement Nov. 30, according to Hatcher’s lawyers, who filed the motion to move to arbitration. According to the lawsuit, the company learned Hatcher was also pushing CityLips, a lip plumper made by City Cosmetics, which competes with Hydroderm’s Volumizing Lip Serum. “Hatcher’s name, image and likeness have been linked to so many competitors’ products,” the lawsuit said, “that it is anyone’s guess as to what product keeps her skin and lips youthful.” Hatcher’s attorney Alan Wertheimer has called the lawsuit an “unjustified and public assault on Teri Hatcher’s good name, reputation and celebrity.” Wertheimer has said that the deal with Hydroderm did not affect Hatcher’s previous deal with CityLips.

Britney’s father
gets financial control

LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears’ father was granted control of her finances until Valentine’s Day by a judge who also barred the troubled pop star from contacting her friend and sometime manager, Sam Lutfi. Superior Court Commissioner Reva Goetz also appointed a physician Monday to evaluate whether Spears, who is in a psychiatric ward, is competent to make decisions. Her father, James Spears, and an attorney were granted conservatorship last week after the 26-year-old was hospitalized for the second time in two months following increasingly bizarre behavior. The commissioner extended that conservatorship until Feb. 14. It allows Spears’ father, and attorney Andrew Wallet, to make decisions involving the singer’s assets and even who enters her home. The commissioner also tried to further distance Spears from Lutfi, who sometimes spoke on her behalf and had been seen escorting her about town. Spears was ordered to have no contact with him by phone, texting, or any other means. The commissioner extended a restraining order against Lutfi that was issued last week, although court spokesman Allan Parachini said the original order had not yet been served.

50 Cent: I feel normal
around superstar De Niro

NEW YORK — It’s not every day that you see Robert De Niro on the cover of Vibe — with 50 Cent. They posed for the magazine’s March issue to promote their new crime drama, “Righteous Kill,” co-starring Al Pacino and Brian Dennehy. The movie is expected to be released this fall. 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, says he’d “hang out with Robert on Thursdays and Fridays” if he could. “His celebrity is so strong that I get a chance to feel like a normal person for a little bit,” the 31-year-old rapper tells Vibe. “People get nervous around him. We had a table read, and it was amazing because there were people who came in who were like, all recognizable faces ... and Robert comes in and Al comes in and it’s almost like, their knees are going shaky under the table. It’s great.” 50, who has sold millions of records, launched his film career with the autobiographical tale “Get Rich or Die Tryin”’ in 2005.

Today’s birthdays

Actress Zsa Zsa Gabor is 91. Actor Rip Torn is 77. Actress Mamie Van Doren is 77. Actor Mike Farrell is 69. Former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw is 68. Singer Fabian is 65. Singer Natalie Cole is 58. Actress Kathy Najimy is 51. Rock musician Simon Phillips (Toto) is 51. Actor-director Robert Townsend is 51. Rock singer Axl Rose (Guns N’ Roses) is 46. Country singer Richie McDonald is 46. Singer Rick Astley is 42. Rock musician Tim Brown (Boo Radleys) is 39. Actor Brandon Hammond is 24.