Griffith Sued for Red Carpet Don't

Mon., Apr. 10, 2006 8:10 AM PDT by Gina Serpe

The fashion police are after Melanie Griffith.

A stylist hired by the actress to dress and design clothes for her and two of her daughters for the Golden Globes has filed suit against the family, alleging the Griffith girls failed to pay him a $26,000 fee and reneged on a deal to mention his name on the red carpet.

Niklas J. Palm filed suit against Griffith--and, for good measure, husband Antonio Banderas--in Los Angeles Superior Court Friday, claiming breach of oral and written contract and intentional misinterpretation.

According to court documents, Griffith has not only refused to make good on the $25,960 Golden Globe styling fee, for which Palm outfitted the Working Girl actress and daughters Dakota Johnson and Stella Banderas, but added insult to injury in "forgetting" to name-check him on the red carpet, despite the fact that Palm has been in her and her husband's employ since last summer.

In the lawsuit, Palm said Griffith promised "that he will receive publicity that money could not buy, then conveniently forgot his name when reporters on the red carpet specifically asked who designed her beautiful gown, taking credit for the gown herself."

Palm says he first met Griffith last year, when he dressed her for an appearance on an infomercial for a Pilates video. Griffith and Banderas then hired Palm on Aug. 11, according to his complaint, and he performed several extreme makeover-like tasks on the actress' wardrobe, including arranging her closets, repairing, dying and recutting clothes, packing bags when she traveled, and putting together outfits for her WB sitcom Twins, other TV appearances and the Emmys last fall.

He claims he reorganized "closets full of Griffith's casual and formal wear; to sort out what is stylish and what is not," and researched her past red carpet missteps, which he says were both plentiful and "not at all positive or flattering for Griffith."

Palm also said he helped dress Banderas for his Legend of Zorro movie premiere, served as a stylist when Banderas earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and shopped for costumes for Banderas' Spanish-language film El Camino de Los Ingleses.

Per the suit, the star clients were picture-perfect up until the Golden Globes came around Jan. 16.

It was then, Palm said, that the couple refused to make good on the tab that brought Griffith rave red carpet reviews, as well as the failure to give him a shout-out as her stylist.

Palm, who was part of the 2004 Emmy-winning costume team for Carnivale, is seeking restitution of the bill, which the threesome agreed upon as $650 per hour for a minimum of 10 hours a day, as well as $98 for overtime.