Stevens’ Ex-Manager Awarded $4.3 Million

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury on Monday awarded $4.3 million to the former manager of entertainer Connie Stevens in a dispute over profits from a cosmetics line.

The jurors found that Norton Styne--who managed Stevens intermittently for three decades and is the son of composer Jule Styne--had an oral agreement with the former “Hawaiian Eye” star to receive 10% of the profits of her “Forever Spring” cosmetics.

Tens of millions of dollars worth of the products have been sold over the last eight years on the Home Shopping Network. Stevens, 59, argued that her arrangement with Styne covered only her entertainment career, not the “Spring” line she launched in 1989.

Styne attorney Barry Langberg contended after the verdict that the amount of the judgment was unlikely to be reduced, as the award was based on a contract rather than a claim such as emotional distress. Howard Rosoff, Stevens’ attorney, said an appeal is planned. “We think that the judgment is totally unsupported by the evidence,” he said.