The Insider

SUBSTITUTE PAY

If money is the yardstick by which Hollywood measures success, then Michelle Pfeiffer ranks as a bigger movie star than Annette Bening simply because Pfeiffer will be making a lot more greenbacks for playing Catwoman in Batman II than Warner Bros, planned on paying Bening. (For those of you who may have been up the Amazon, Bening dropped out of Batman II last month after announcing that Warren Beatty and she were going to have a baby.)

Warner Bros, wouldn’t discuss salaries, but a number of industry sources put Pfeiffer’s price for Batman II at $3 million. Bening, we hear, was to get a mere $l million for the same role.

SCRATCH, SCRATCH!

And speaking of Catwomen: Although Sean Young may have failed last month in her very public campaign—she crashed the Warner lot wearing a Catwoman costume—to win the part in Batman II, she is not about to creep away on little cat feel.

After Pfeiffer was picked, Young stomped onto the Joan Rivers and Arsenio Hall TV shows to denounce Batman II director Tim Burton and Warner Bros, for neither meeting with her nor letting her audition. The studio’s official response to Sean? “We continue to have great respect for Sean Young’s talent as an actress….”

Why is Young making such a public spectacle of herself? “To make it clear to Warner Bros. that they were mistreating me and to make them in some way responsible,” Young told us, adding that she feels she was owed at least a shot at Catwoman, having fractured her collarbone three years ago while rehearsing for the original Batman (Kim Basinger then inherited the Vicki Vale part). “In this industry. the guys are never responsible. They didn’t allow me to audition. I didn’t even get to talk to anyone. Hollywood is just a bunch of weenies who are only concerned with covering their backsides,” says Young.

JUDY NELSON STEPS OUT

Judy Nelson, while still pursing her multimillion-dollar lawsuit against former lover Martina Navratilova, has been spotted around Aspen, Colo., holding hands—with a man. He’s Philippe Jacquot, a French real estate broker. The two have been seen at restaurants and at a celebrity tennis tournament. Asked about the relationship, Jacquot says, “Judy is a very special human being, very caring. She’s a great friend.” Nelson’s rep strongly denied the relationship was a romance.

GOING, GOING, GONG?

A recent advertisement in the Los Angeles Times: “Auction—Items from the former residence of Frank Sinatra.”

Well, that got our attention. and not just because of the singer’s name. What the ad did not make clear was whether the art, furniture, rugs and jewelry for sale had actually once belonged to Sinatra or had merely spent time in Ol” Blue Eyes’ old Beverly Hills house.

The answer turned out to be a little of both. A source close to the singer confirmed that a house Sinatra once owned on Bowmont Drive in Beverly Hills was sold “partially furnished” in the early ’80s, so some of the items for sale may have indeed once belonged to Sinatra. Still, says the source, the ad “took unfair advantage of Frank Sinatra’s name.” Is Sinatra planning to take any legal action? His rep says the jury is still out on that one.