Lawsuit Says Cats Character Was Too Frisky for Her Taste
By BRUCE WEBER Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Bill Maher, the/host of the ABC It does not name T. S. Eliot, whose talk show “Politically Incorrect” poems supplied the show with its says crime may be down in New lyrics.
York, but nobody can do anything The suit was filed a year to the day about “Cats.” Someone is trying. after the alleged assault, the last day
musical allowed under the statute of limita”Cats,” the Broadway tions.
that played Its 5,988th performance No one connected with the musical at the Winter Garden Theater last had any coinment yesterday. Mr. night, apparently on its way to eclips- Hibbard did not respond to a mesIng the Broadway record of 6,137 sage left at his home.
held by “A Chorus Line,” Is being “Cats,” with Its saccharine melosued over No. 5,561. dies and elaborate, whiskered cosOn the night of that performance, tumery, was never a critical favor-
Jan. 30, 1996, Evelyn Amato, an un- lte,-but It has been Immensely popuemployed office worker who lives In lar. In a part of the show, several of Manhattan, was sitting In a fourth- Its characters, dressed like, well, row orchestra seat with her flanc~, cats, roam out Into the audience and Dennis Melendez, and several mem- behave in character, purring and bers of his family, snuggling and so on.
The lawsuit that Ms. Amato, who 15 But last Jait 30, Ms. Amato conIn .her early 30s, filed yesterday in tends, Mr. Hibbard did far more State Supreme Court In Manhattan, than that. She said In an intervieW says that an actor, David Hibbard, that Mr. Hibbard yanked her hand-playing the character Rum Tum bag from her and twice pulled her to Tugger, caine off the stage and as a her feet to try to get her to dance packed house watched, attacked her with him. Both times, she said, she as part of the show. shouted, “No.”
The suit
for assault, battery, “I didnt want to be a part of invasion of privacy,.vlolatlon of civil whatever he was going to do to me,” rights, negligence, Intentional Inflic- she said. “.1 was afraid after hed tion of emotional distress and false pulled me up so hard. I was petrified, imprisonment asks for $6 million as a matter of fact.”
in punitive and compensatory dam- When she sat down for the second ages. I~ names as defendants Mr. time, she said, Mr. Hibbard leapt Hibbard, who Is no longer in the onto the arms of her seat.
show; the Shubert Organization, “He crouched down and started which owns the theater; the director, moving his hips back and forth, sayTrevor Nunn; the producer, Camer- ing, Boom, boom, boom,” Ms. on Mackintosh, and the composer, Amato said. “He was moving his
“Cats” characters in a scene from the long-running musical.
groin back and forth. If I hadnt turned my head he would have rubbed it in my face.”
After that, she s~ld, Mr. Hibbard grabbed her head and shook It from side to side, mussing her hair.
“The audience was laughing at me,” she said. “I was totally humiliated.”
She said she was unaware that yesterday was the final day she could legally file her suit. Her lawyer, Michael~ G. ONeill, whom Ms. Amato said she found in the Yellow Pages, called the date a coincidence.
Mr. ONeill said his client sent a letter to, the shows general manager, Nina Lannan, and two months later received an apology with an offer of tickets to see the show again.
“Thats like offering someone an-other ticket on the Titanic,” Mr. ONeill said, dismissing the suggestion that the suit might be frivolous.
Chewing Doll Nearly Consumes Girls Hair
GRIFFITH, md., Dec.28 (AP)
A battery-Operated Cabbage Patch Doll that can chew had to he taken apart piece by piece when it munched a 7-year-old girls hair up to her scalp and would not let go.
The girl, Sarah Stevens, was in a hair salon with her aunt when the doll began chewing her blond hair. It took her aunt and the owner of the hair salon 30 minutes on Thursday to remove 20 screws, open the battery compartment and pull apart the mouth to free Sarahs hair.
Sarah was shaken but not hurt. “I have a little headache,” she said.
The Cabbage Patch Snack Time Kids Doll is designed to chew auto-
matically when plastic french fries or other itenis are placed in ~ts mouth. It has no on-off switch.
Sarahs aunt, Kelly Nagy, who had brought her niece to the hair salon, had gone to check on the girl in the waiting room and found her leaning over a chair crying. The hair salon owner was eventually able to take the doll apart.
Glenn Bozarth, a spokesman for the dolls maker, Mattel Inc., said the toy was safe and that he knew of no other safety complaints about it.
Mr. Bozarth said it is hard to Imagine such a thing happening unless the child stuck her hair into the dolls mouth.