Dribbles of News About the Pierced One’s Woes

A catfight in the toy stores and a dogfight in the sky . . . Priscilla Presley’s name game.

It was a mixed week in the courtroom for Dennis Rodman, the Crayola-coiffed human pincushion who wore a Laker jersey for about a nanosecond.

Reports that bad boy Rodman settled one civil case, for allegedly chest-butting a college student at a Fat Burger, apparently were premature. Meanwhile, he received a trial date in another case, in which he is accused of groping a cocktail waitress while giving her a $100 tip.

Cal State Long Beach student Jason Sandeman claims in his Los Angeles Superior Court suit that Rodman poked him in the chest and hit him in the nose during a Jan. 21 scuffle that broke out when a group of fraternity brothers pointed out Rodman at the Wilshire-area burger joint. The suit says Rodman assaulted and “emotionally terrorized” Sandeman by threatening to sic gang members on him.

Rodman’s lawyer, Marty Singer, denied that there was ever a settlement and called the student’s suit “totally frivolous and without merit.”

Meanwhile, Rodman faces trial Sept. 22 in Santa Monica in waitress Susan Patterson’s lawsuit, which alleges that he fondled her Oct. 3 at a Sunset Strip hotel.

Patterson, who is represented by Gloria Allred, claims that Rodman, a Chicago Bull at the time, stuffed a Ben Franklin down her blouse and grabbed her breast.

Personal foul!

TOTALLY CLONE BARBIE? There’s a catfight brewing in the toy section between a couple of dolls. In this corner is one of the myriad versions of Barbie, 11 1/2-inch plastic icon. In the other is Claudene, a perky plastic cheerleader sold in university bookstores. Claudene is also 11 1/2 inches tall.

In the latest chapter of Barbie litigation, an Alaska inventor who says his daughter, Claudene, created the cheerleader doll in 1996 is suing Mattel for $2.4 billion--yes, that’s billion with a B--for copyright infringement.

Harry R. Christian claims that “Cool Blue Barbie” is a copycat and a bully.

In court papers filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Christian’s attorney, James B. Hicks, says Mattel is selling Barbies that are strikingly similar to and easily confused with the Christians’ copyrighted “Claudene doll head.”

Actually, Mattel sued first in federal court, but settled the case in February.

Christian’s suit says the powerhouse toy company has so dominated the doll market that “anyone who makes an 11 1/2-inch fashion doll paints a target on their back” inviting litigation and other competitive pressure. The typical American girl owns eight Barbies, according to the suit.

Besides the $2.4 billion, the suit seeks an injunction barring sales of the alleged Claudene clones.

Mattel says the suit “is without merit.”

NAME GAME: What’s in a name? In Priscilla Presley’s case, about $1.74 million. A jury in Santa Monica awarded her that sum after finding that a group of movie producers and publicists had used her name without her permission to promote the film version of the unauthorized bio “Child Bride.”

The aforementioned Rodman lawyer Marty Singer represented Presley, who attended each of the nine days of trial.

Presley sued Bud Grant, Lee Solters, Robert Burge and their various corporate selves last year, alleging that they had claimed she might be a consultant to the project. It was the furthest thing from her mind, she said. Presley at the time was locked in a legal battle with one of the bio’s sources, a former Elvis Army buddy, who claimed that she was not a virgin when she married the King.

She won a defamation judgment from the Army buddy late last year.

Besides the jury award for punitive and compensatory damages in the more recent case, Presley obtained a court order barring exploitation of her name or likeness in connection with any future “Child Bride” projects. Presley said she feels “completely vindicated.”

CONSPIRACY IN THE SKIES? When Beverly Hills widow Marcelle Becker goes on trial May 18 on federal charges that she got in the way of a flight crew, she’ll be represented by Mark Lane, king of the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists.

Becker was indicted last year by a federal grand jury, charged with disrupting the duties of a flight crew. She allegedly became obstreperous during a July 6, 1995 flight from New York to Los Angeles after flight attendants wouldn’t let her Maltese, Dom Perignon, fly in the first-class seat she’d bought for him.

Becker, who was unsuccessful in her civil case against the airline, contends that a flight attendant kicked the dog’s Louis Vuitton carrier when she stowed it beneath the seat. The dog got loose, a ruckus ensued and Becker wound up tied in her seat with the dog’s leash.

Becker, the Casablanca-born widow of CNA insurance magnate Martin Becker, faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.