Suit vs. Jacksons yields no payment

GOOD MORNING: "Enough is enough," Gary Smith told me Tuesday. It's been a year since Smith/Hemion filed suit vs. Jackson Communications Inc., Jackson Jubilee Inc. and members of the Jackson family for $ 1.6 million owed on the "Jackson Family Honors" special that aired Feb. 22, 1994, after taping at the MGM Grand. Smith has already gotten default judgments against them. But attempts to collect from Jermaine and Michael Jackson have been fruitless. And only recently was Smith able to even serve the well-protected Jermaine. He was finally reached in a court appearance for non-payment of child support (two sons) to Margaret Maldonado, his former common-law wife ... Smith's attorneys, Fred Richman and William Briggs, tell me they will continue the case to depose Jermaine J. and they also plan to depose Elizabeth Taylor, an honoree (along with Berry Gordy) on the "Jackson Family Honors" NBC'er. Smith plans to fully pursue Michael, Jermaine, their mother and father. Margaret Maldonado and Smith would go public with their cases, taking them to "60 Minutes,""20/20" or "PrimeTime Live," and hope to publish books on, respectively, the financial go-round with the Jacksons "and how they do business," Smith said. Maldonado told me she has not received any child support from Jermaine for two years and he recently even denied they were his children -- after eight years of living with Maldonado -- and having signed the children's birth certificates. She appealed to Michael Jackson for financial help for her sons, who are his nephews, since, she reminds, Michael supports so many children -- even, reportedly, O.J. Simpson's children. She is trying to get a job as a hostess in one of the showbiz-frequented Hollywood eating establishments, since she knows so many in the showbiz community ... Gary Smith continues the investigation on Michael Jackson to establish the real reason Michael canceled his appearance on the "Honors" in which he was skedded to perform in Atlantic City in November '93. When he bowed out, the problems began -- and the financial woes compounded when the show was finally taped. Most of the $ 1.6 million is still owed, says Smith. Michael, he claims, is responsible for $ 700,000 in added expenses. "The bottom line,"says Smith, "is we'd like to get everyone paid."

GLENN CLOSE AND STEVE BEERS are engaged to wed. The two Connecticut natives met on "Sunset Boulevard" when it bowed in L.A. The handsome Beers is chief carpenter of the show, now again SRO in N.Y. ... Peter Yates had a successful sneak of his (Castle Rock's) "Run of the Country" in Santa Monica in the same theater showing his "Roommates." Peter Falk's an early contender for the '95 Oscars and audiences are equally enthusiastic about Albert Finney in "Country." Young (22) unknown Matt Keesler, the romantic lead in the pic, was mobbed after the screening. The pic gets a September opening ... Steve Tisch, newly designated chairman of the ERAS Center's new capital campaign, screens Oscar-nominated "Forrest Gump" for children of the ERAS Center this ayem at Mann's Westwood Theaters multiplex ..."Forrest Gump" gets spoofed, ditto the Oscars along with "Waterworld," in "Forbidden Hollywood," in previews at the Canon for an April 16 opening ..."A Comedy Salute to Andy Kaufman," NBC's March 29 special, was screened at the Improv with "Tony Clifton" opening the show, "live.""Clifton" is Bob Zmuda and in the special Jim Carrey reveals that Kaufman originated the Tony Clifton character before handing if off to writer/comic/pal Zmuda. During Monday's show, Clifton, in true Kaufman style, doused an audience member with a glass of water. Among those on hand, Jerry Seinfeld and Shoshanna Lonstein, plus "Seinfeld" co-star Michael Richards. The Kaufman special is produced by "Seinfeld" exec producers George Shapiro and Howard West. Zmuda is also exec producer -- and founder-president of Comic Relief. Also there, director Ellen Brown, co-hosts Marilu Henner and Bob Saget and guestars Carl Reiner, Richard Lewis, Shadoe Stevens, Bobcat Goldthwait and Budd Friedman. Kaufman's family flew in from Florida for the event ... Over at Century City's Harry's Bar & Grill, the Intl. Imitation Hemingway Competition was won (an American Airlines trip to Italy) by Dave Curtin, a veterinarian. Among the 10 finalists, Charlotte R. Miller, artist/writer wife of APA's Stu Miller. PEN Center USA West benefited. Charlton Heston read from a limited edition of a 1924 handmade Hemingway book, "In Our Time."

NO ACTING FOR LEONARD NIMOY as he starts his "Deadly Games" series for UPN Thursday in L.A. He directs the pilot of the series in which he and Paul Birnbaum are partnered and says the series "is very ambitious -- comedy-action." Jim Calvert, Cynthia Gibb, Christopher Lloyd and Stephen Kay star. Guestarring in the "Evil Shirley" seg is Shirley Jones -- with husband Marty Ingels guestarring as her fiance. "The next acting for me," says Nimoy, "is for my son Adam directing the 'I, Robot' seg of 'Outer Limits.' "