Columnist John Katsilometes: Doo-bee Doo-bee don’t sue!

Sunday, Aug. 22, 1999 | 9:24 a.m.

John Katsilometes' column appears Sundays and Tuesdays. Reach him at 259-2327 or kats@vegas.com.

It's common for David Cassidy, suit neatly pressed and hair carefully Vitalis-ized, to hop onstage during a "Rat Pack Is Back" performance at the Desert Inn and croon the Bobby Darin song, "Mack The Knife."

Cassidy can relate to the song's famous line, "Oh, when the shark bites ..."

It's biting. Or at least circling.

Cassidy and Don Reo, co-producers of the buoyant tribute to Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop, are immersed in a litigious entanglement that seems to carry more public relations than legal bite. Both have been targeted for possible lawsuits by the uppity estates of Sinatra, Martin and Davis, all of whom are miffed at the nightly depiction (and related merchandising) of the legendary stars at the rejuvenated Starlight Lounge.

No formal complaints have yet been filed in any court. Mostly, it's a bunch of arm-flailing, with Sinatra family attorney Robert Finkelstein firing off a letter a few weeks ago to the D.I. demanding that the show "cease and desist" production.

It hasn't. Unfazed, unscathed and undeterred, the show just keeps chugging along to charged-up capacity crowds.

"I do not understand it," Cassidy said earlier this week. "We cleared the rights to do this before we started. We were told you can't use their names or likenesses, and we're not. It's a musical play that makes a lot of people happy. Now, this."

Since Finkelstein's missive, Las Vegas attorney Mort Galane has been retained by the estates of the three deceased Rat Packers to, as he terms it, "investigate" all elements of the show.

Stopping short of parking across the street from Cassidy's house with a pair of binoculars, Galane said he's merely ensuring that his clients' legal rights haven't been violated.

"We are not out to stop the show. That's not what this is about," Galane said. "I've just been asked by the three estates to investigate everything about the show. There are many areas of the law to look into."

The whole sordid scene was ignited the night of Aug. 3, when Frank's daughter, Tina, showed up at the D.I. for a "Rat Pack" show. Cassidy was alerted and he, in turn, informed Bobby Caldwell -- who portrays "Frank" -- and Caldwell later introduced Sinatra from the audience.

Not a good idea.

Sinatra was reportedly not pleased with the recognition, which is a standard show business practice. And, although she was highly complimentary of the energetic performance, two days later news of her lawyer's "cease and desist" letter topped Army Archerd's column in Daily Variety.

Sinatra, through an assistant, has refused comment. It's anyone's guess if she was thinking "lawsuit" the night she took in the show. Sinatra's only statement, in Archerd's column, has been, "The guys are really good -- but fair is fair!"

Fair? What's fair about blindsiding a fine tribute to your late father and friends with threats of a lawsuit? It all reeks of either jealousy ("Why didn't we think of this?") or inherent greed. Maybe a few people are worried that "The Rat Pack Is Back" merchandise will become hot and want a piece of the action, as it were.

It's a sticky, unseemly conflict that has forced Cassidy to publicly defend his popular and well-intentioned production. To borrow a phrase the Rat Pack itself would employ, "Leave 'em the hell alone."