PASSAGES: Sour Gests Sue for $23 Mil

By Stephen M. Silverman

Tuesday December 17, 2002 11:00 AM EST

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SUED: Liza Minnelli, 56, and her producer-husband, David Gest, 49, have slapped a $23 million lawsuit against VH1 for canceling the couple's reality series before it hit the air, reports New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams, who writes that the Gests shot 60 hours of footage for the failed project. The couple is seeking damages for defamation, loss of profits and good will, and slander. No comment from VH1. As PEOPLE.com reported Nov. 22, the Gests retained the legal services of Mickey Sherman, who defended Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel in his recent murder trial. Skakel was convicted.

SCORED: NBC's Dec. 14 edition of "Saturday Night Live," hosted by former veep and presidential candidate Al Gore, 54, generated the show's best household ratings of the season in the top markets and ranked as its best performance since Britney Spears's hosting stint last February, Variety reports. The show featured Gore in a hot tub with a Joe Lieberman lookalike and posing as embattled Senate majority leader Trent Lott.

FILED: Retiring California Rep. Gary Condit sued Vanity Fair columnist Dominick Dunne for $11 million on Monday, claiming the author slandered him about the Chandra Levy case. The federal suit cites radio, TV and newspaper interviews in which Dunne, 76, linked Condit, 54, to the disappearance of Levy in May 2001. A spokesperson for Vanity Fair tells The New York Times, "Dominick Dunne is not at liberty to comment."

DIED: Lovin' Spoonful guitarist Zal Yanovsky, 57, whose hits with the '60s group included "Do You Believe in Magic" and "Summer in the City," died of a probable heart attack Dec. 13 in Kingston, 150 miles east of Toronto, where he had lived since leaving the band in 1967, the Associated Press reports. In a 1999 interview with Kingston Life Magazine, Yanovsky said that in 1967 he was kicked out of the band, which had been led by John Sebastian.

ALTERED: Don't look for "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" on the upcoming CBS schedule, after all, say trade reports. Instead, the surprise hit movie -- which is being turned into a sitcom for the network -- will be called "My Big Fat Greek Life" and will include just about the entire cast from the movie, except for John Corbett, who played the heroine's WASPy beau. "We'd like to see the journey between honeymoon and 6-year-old (daughter)," says star and writer Nia Vardalos, 40.