Paternity Suits

Actor Robert De Niro has been ordered to pay school tuition and $2,500 a month in child support to a Sherman Oaks singer who says De Niro fathered her 10-year-old daughter, an attorney said Wednesday. Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner James Endman ordered De Niro on Tuesday to pay support and the child's tuition of nearly $1,000 monthly at the Lycee Francais school in Los Angeles, said Marvin Mitchelson, attorney for the girl's mother, Helena Lisandrello, 31, a nightclub singer.

Gov. Pete Wilson on Monday signed legislation that would stop convicted rapists from claiming custody of children they father during the commission of their crimes. "Rapists will not be permitted access to a child that was conceived by way of a violent assault on the mother," said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), author of the legislation.

In May, 1943, a young red-haired, freckled-faced woman walked into the office of Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper and said she had a story to tell. It involved one of America's most beloved comedians, a secret love affair and, she said, a child that was on the way. In the weeks that followed, Joan Berry's accusations against Charlie Chaplin--the legendary "Little Tramp" of silent films--would explode into one of Hollywood's biggest scandals. Chaplin would issue statements to the press.

A Sherman Oaks nightclub singer filed a paternity suit Thursday contending that actor Robert DeNiro is the father of her 10-year-old daughter and asking for $10,000 a month in child support. Helena Lisandrello, 31, also wants the court to order blood tests proving DeNiro is the father of the child, Nina Naderjo DeNiro, said her attorney, Marvin Mitchelson. DeNiro's publicist, Stan Rosenfield, called the lawsuit absurd. "I've talked to Bob," he said. "This claim is unfounded."

While saying he has "high regard" for Newport Beach attorney William Yacobozzi Jr., a Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced the lawyer to 180 days in jail and three years' probation for committing perjury and falsifying evidence to dodge a paternity suit. "I've always been impressed with your professionalism . . . and, you've kept me awake several nights (because) I have been worried about this thing ever since the trial ended," said Judge Ragnar R. Engebretsen.

A fleeting romance and bitter paternity dispute between a prosecutor and defense attorney did not deny a murder defendant a fair trial, a state Court of Appeal held Friday. The panel, ruling in a case that sometimes resembled a steamy television drama, said a previous sexual relationship between two opposing lawyers did not establish a conflict of interest that harmed the defendant. Nor, said the court, did any ill will between the two hurt the defendant.