Dan Klores

Kobe BRYANT may have settled out of court with his Colorado accuser, but he still hasn't made good with disgruntled fans and leery endorsers. Yet it's a good bet he'll smell like a gardenia by midsummer: He's just been taken on by Dan Klores, the tough-talking New York publicist and crisis manager. Earlier this week, Klores also picked up former "Sopranos" actor Vincent Pastore, whose fiancee claims he assaulted her on a SoHo street.

Kobe BRYANT may have settled out of court with his Colorado accuser, but he still hasn't made good with disgruntled fans and leery endorsers. Yet it's a good bet he'll smell like a gardenia by midsummer: He's just been taken on by Dan Klores, the tough-talking New York publicist and crisis manager. Earlier this week, Klores also picked up former "Sopranos" actor Vincent Pastore, whose fiancee claims he assaulted her on a SoHo street.

Dan Klores Associates, a New York-based public relations firm, is opening Dan Klores Entertainment in Los Angeles. The office will be headed by Hayley Sumner, who has represented such Klores clients as Garry Shandling, Jay Leno and Howard Stern. In her new position, Sumner will spearhead the company's moves into marketing and promotions, in addition to public relations. She currently serves as executive vice president of Klores.

Dan Klores Associates, a New York-based public relations firm, is opening Dan Klores Entertainment in Los Angeles. The office will be headed by Hayley Sumner, who has represented such Klores clients as Garry Shandling, Jay Leno and Howard Stern. In her new position, Sumner will spearhead the company's moves into marketing and promotions, in addition to public relations. She currently serves as executive vice president of Klores.

English writer W. Somerset Maugham published a 1949 essay in which he pondered whether Dostoevski or El Greco was the greater artistic genius. He reluctantly came down on the side of El Greco after deciding that 16th century Spain was a more fertile environment for the flowering of inspiration than czarist Russia.

FEW articles have disturbed me more than "Chemistry, Caustic but Binding" (June 3). Linda Pugach was stalked by her husband-to-be, denied the help and protection to which she was entitled, then attacked and disfigured for life. I don't know which is more horrifying: the crime committed against her, or that she is so delusional that she married the man who victimized her. Dan Klores' filmed portrait of this pair as a "happily married couple" is deeply offensive for its air of apathy. ADRIENNE SILSBEE Santa Monica

Comedian Jay Leno was meant to be a treat for employees at a hospital preparing to celebrate its 100th anniversary. But some Gundersen Clinic physicians say that the cost of his planned Feb. 2 appearance is too high and that the money should be donated instead to a community cause. The comedian is said to draw $60,000 to $80,000 per appearance, but the clinic's marketing director, Mark Thompson, said: "We got him for considerably less."

Steve Rubell, who revolutionized New York night life with the Studio 54 disco in the 1970s and with the Palladium in the 1980s, died today at a Manhattan hospital. He was 45. Rubell, who went to prison with his partner, Ian Schrager, for tax fraud, died at Beth Israel Medical Center from complications resulting from hepatitis and septic shock, a form of shock that spreads through the bloodstream, said Dan Klores, a spokesman for the family.

Howard Stern, who bragged of his marital fidelity while entertaining scores of strippers and porn stars on his radio show, has split with his wife of 21 years. Stern and wife Alison, whose romance was the basis of his film "Private Parts," are parting as friends, said Dan Klores, a spokesman for the couple. "Following mediation, both Alison and Howard, who care for each other very much, have amicably separated," Klores said Friday.

Basketball sitcom: Fiery college basketball coach Bob Knight has given his blessing to a proposed sitcom that CBS and Paramount are developing about his life. He would serve as a consultant. Baseball doc: Spike TV has commissioned a 90-minute documentary for next year from producer Dan Klores. "Viva Baseball" will be a history of Latinos in baseball.

Donald and Ivana Trump's former maid says her ex-employers have "no class." In an article in this week's People magazine, Reidun Torrie said she quit after three months of working at the Trumps' Palm Beach, Fla., estate, Mar-a-Lago. "I just couldn't take it any more," she said. "When the Trumps came, they put plastic Trump Castle ice buckets in each of the guest bedrooms. Well, you just don't do those things."

Real estate developer Donald Trump owes the city at least $13.6 million in real estate taxes, payable by midnight tonight, a little more than a week after a "Band-Aid" bridge loan saved him from default on bonds and bank loans.