Washington Plaintiffs Double-Team Iverson

Thursday, May 11, 2006; Page C03

It's getting so that Allen Iverson won't want to party in D.C. anymore! The Philadelphia 76er is now facing not one but two federal lawsuits from men who claim his associates roughed them up in unrelated incidents at two different Washington nightspots.

We reported last fall on the suit brought by two Maryland men who claim they were attacked by Iverson's entourage when they dared sit in the former Hoya's preferred VIP area at downtown Eyebar in July 2005. (Two club bouncers who originally joined the suit as plaintiffs have since dropped off.) Comes now one Gregory Broady , who claims in a lawsuit that a man working security for Iverson at Zanzibar on the Waterfront in June 2004 beat him so badly that Broady suffered a "brain bleed."

Broady could not be reached for comment, and his Fairfax lawyers did not return calls yesterday. According to U.S. District Court records, Iverson came into Zanzibar with a man wearing a shirt that read "security" who promptly began telling other patrons where they could and could not go in the club. When Broady "attempted to traverse" the club, the security guy, named in the suit as "John Doe," allegedly attacked him. Broady, who has sued the club as well as Iverson, is seeking $750,000. An attorney for Zanzibar declined comment. Iverson's attorney did not return calls yesterday, but in filings Iverson has denied all the claims and does not acknowledge even attending the club that night.

If that weren't enough . . . just yesterday, as Iverson gave a deposition at the downtown D.C. offices of the plaintiffs' attorneys in the Eyebar case, his double-parked Rolls-Royce got ticketed! His driver argued with the cop, to no avail. Now he'll never want to come back!

Glenn Close Fights Tooth and Nail for Her Fellow Predators


Glenn Close speaks on behalf of the Wildlife Conservation Society
Actress Glenn Close fought for four-legged predators yesterday on Capitol Hill.(Korin Miller - The Washington Post)
Lock up your rabbits! Actress Glenn Close , forever known as the "Fatal Attraction" bunny boiler, came to Capitol Hill yesterday on behalf of predators -- the four-footed kind.

Close is a trustee of the Wildlife Conservation Society and narrator of "Living With Predators," a short film about endangered lions, wild dogs and other carnivores losing habitats around the globe. Lots of doomed zebras and water buffalo, then frolicking cubs with their killer moms. Awwwwww.

Wearing a beige pantsuit, blouse, heels and bag that blended with her short blond mane, Close sort of looked like a lioness herself in front of congressfolk and environmental types at the Rayburn Office Building. We ticked off her best man-eating turns: "Fatal's" Alex Forrest and Cruella de Vil of "101 Dalmatians." "I'm a predator!" she said. "I demand attention." Good-natured chuckles all around.

Things got serious, as they must at these sort of affairs, when Close told a story about seeing 56 elephants in Gabon. "You felt like you were in a holy place," she said. "We can't lose these places . . ." She choked up, then quickly laughed at herself. "I get emotional about this. Oh, I'm an actress, right? We're all emotional." Awwwwww.

HEY, ISN'T THAT . . . ?


Queen Rania of Jordan and first lady Laura Bush chat with Elmo and Khokha of
Queen Rania of Jordan and first lady Laura Bush chat with Elmo and Khokha of "Sesame Street."(Nasser Ayoub)
· Jordan's Queen Rania spotted Tuesday afternoon at the cosmetics counter at the Chevy Chase Saks Fifth Avenue. The gorgeous royal, wife of King Abdullah , was the guest of honor later that night at the Mosaic Foundation's gala at the National Building Museum with Laura Bush and Sesame Workshop stars, including Elmo and Khokha. The foundation, founded by the wives of Arab ambassadors, celebrated the launch of Sesame Mosaic, a children's program to highlight diversity within the Arab world. The queen, who watches Jordan's "Hikayat Simsim" with her four kids, called the new project a "wonderful passport to understanding for Arab and American children alike." Ambassador Elmo!

THIS JUST IN . . .


· News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch , who's throwing a small fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton , says she's a shoo-in this fall: "I think she's been a good senator," Murdoch told Fox News Channel's Neil Cavuto yesterday. "We don't agree on a lot of things, of course. But she's going to get reelected here. There's no opposition. There's no Republican Party in New York state any longer, it would seem." Pataki who?

· "This tape will self-destruct in five seconds . . ."" A USA Today/Gallup poll released yesterday might explain why "Mission: Impossible III" failed to open as big as movie execs had hoped: Star Tom Cruise is losing fans faster than an indicted politician. Last year at this time, Cruise had a 58 percent favorable rating and just 31 percent unfavorable. In the poll taken over the weekend, only 35 percent of 1,013 adults surveyed had a favorable opinion of Cruise; a whopping 51 had an unfavorable opinion, with females leading the thumbs-down pack.

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