A Big Step: Taking Yale Club to Court

It's treacherous out there on the lecture circuit. Conservative legal scholar Robert Bork took a bad tumble as he tried to ascend the podium at an N.Y.C. speaking gig last year, according to new court filings.

Now he's suing the ritzy Yale Club -- for $1 million, plus punitive damages -- for allegedly failing to install a set of steps to the dais.

Bork, whose 1987 nomination to the Supreme Court was famously shot down, was a speaker at an event organized by New Criterion magazine last June. According to his suit, filed Wednesday in federal court in New York, when he tried to approach the lectern, he found no stairs to climb onto the dais, which was of "unreasonable height." Still, he tried -- and fell backward, hitting his head on a heat register and bruising his leg, which developed a hematoma that later burst. The 80-year-old McLean resident has since endured "excruciating pain," surgery and therapy, according to the complaint; he now walks with a limp and uses a cane.

Bork declined comment. His attorney, Randy Mastro, said, "The complaint speaks for itself. There were dozens of witnesses, and Judge Bork suffered severe injuries as a result of the club's gross negligence." Yale Club officials declined comment.

Despite the fall, Bork went on to deliver his speech.

Even Gopher Can't Dig Up Long-Buried 'Love'

The eternal question: How come they can put a man on the moon but they can't put "The Love Boat" out on DVD? And for that matter, with all our thousands of cable channels, why can we never find that cheesy '70s classic in reruns?

Fresh off her triumphant "newsmaker" interview with the D.C. Madam, Nathans owner Carol Joynt posed that question Wednesday at a luncheon Q&A with actor-turned-congressman-turned-WMAL-talk-radio-host Fred Grandy, still beloved as the ship's purser, Gopher. His answer:

Fred Grandy, at far left with his "Love Boat" mates.(Michael Tweed - Associated Press)

"My friend Ted Lange, who played Isaac in 'The Love Boat,' was in town recently, and I said, what's the story on this? . . . His answer was, the reality is we're all so long in the tooth and don't look like we used to. . . . The big iteration for 'Love Boat' now is, our pictures are on a variety of slot machines in the better casinos. And this is serious . . . Viacom is now in negotiations with us to see how much they have to pay us for being on the slot machines."

UPDATE

It's official! Angelina Jolie's nomination to the Council on Foreign Relations was formally accepted by the exclusive think tank's board of directors yesterday.

The bombshell Oscar winner-turned globe-trotting activist is one of 94 new "term members" -- a category reserved for up-and-coming young policy thinkers in their early 30s, most from the corporate world, government, academia or the media, who after their five-year terms can apply to join the "life membership" ranks of Cheney, Soros, Greenspan, Kissinger , etc. What this means for Angelina: a chance to kibitz with top global policy experts. What this means for CFR: more paparazzi.

SURREAL ESTATE

Buyers: Raymond Glendening and Erin McDowell

Price: $140,500

Details: The lanky kid who spent much of his teenage life in the Maryland governor's mansion is all grown up -- and, with his girlfriend, just bought his first place, a one-bedroom condo in Hyattsville, his home town. The 27-year-old son of former governor Parris Glendening worked Democratic campaigns around the country with AFSCME. Now he's based in the labor union's D.C. office and this year returned to Annapolis as a lobbyist; he also sits on the Prince George's County Democratic Central Committee. (McDowell works for the Discovery Channel.) Any chance we'll see another Glendening running for office? Nope: "I love the behind-the-scenes stuff."

THIS JUST IN . . .

· Richie Sambora has entered one of those undisclosed treatment facilities for an undisclosed problem, People magazine reported yesterday, after a rough year that saw the Bon Jovi guitarist divorcing one hot blond actress (Heather Locklear) and breaking up with another (Denise Richards); his father died of lung cancer in April. It's unclear how this will affect the band's summer tour dates.