Denis Leary knows how to milk a rumor for all it’s worth.
For months now, celeb-watchers have been keeping an eye on his friendship with Elizabeth Hurley. The two got to know each other shooting the movies “Double Whammy” and “Dawg.
” Off-screen, they’ve been seen dining out. Last fall, Hurley flew to Boston to take part in the charity hockey game Leary organized to benefit the families of firefighters.
Nothing naughty about any of that. All the same, there have been winking tabloid stories noting the attachment the married Leary has formed with Hurley, who split last year with Hugh Grant.
“Nobody knows what to make of it all,” London’s Mirror quoted a “friend” of Hurley’s as saying this week. “They are either very good friends or something more.
”
So what does Leary do? He makes the stories grist for his hilarious new ABC sitcom, “The Job.
” The second episode finds Leary’s NYPD detective character, Mike McNeil, investigating a stalking case involving Hurley. In the story, written by Leary and Peter Tolan, McNeil takes Hurley out for a flirty dinner.
When Hurley’s pal Donald Trump, also playing himself, stops by their table, he bluntly asks McNeil: “Are you bagging her?
”
“No!
” insists McNeil.
Nevertheless, McNeil catches hell from his wife when
paparazzi snap Hurley kissing him and the shot winds up in the Daily News.
Given the plot, we had to ask Leary whether, as The Donald would say, he was bagging Liz?
“I’m not answering that question,” said Leary.
Just a few days ago, Leary’s rep vouched that he is still married to Ann, with whom he has two children, and that “Liz Hurley is just a friend.
”
But there’s nothing like a little more gossip to stoke the ratings of “The Job,” which airs next Wednesday.
Question of will power
How well off is Veronica Hearst?
Last week, it came out that the will of her husband, publishing heir Randolph Hearst, left her $4 million and almost all his personal property.
But Veronica also inherited a mountain of debt, we hear. The raven-haired widow says she is perfectly capable of handling it – thanks to trusts, insurance proceeds and her own holdings. Still, her obligations are nothing to sniff at. According to sources familiar with the Hearst finances, she is now responsible for:
* A $10 million home-equity loan taken out by Randolph Hearst, using the couple’s sprawling E. 66th St. apartment as collateral. Veronica must make interest payments of roughly $900,000 a year on the loan, which comes due in 2005.
* Almost $20 million still owed for the Italian Renaissance mansion the couple bought last July near Palm Beach, Fla. Although Randolph and Veronica hired famed designer Jacques Grange to redecorate the manse that Harold Vanderbilt built in 1931 (and changed its name from Villa Venezia to Casa Miranda), Veronica owes the seller the balance of the record $29.
87 million sale price by July of next year. She’s also said to owe quarterly interest payments of about $290,000.
Hearst’s estate was valued at $25 million for probate purposes when he died in December. But Forbes magazine estimates that the last surviving son of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst was worth around $1.
8 billion. Big as that number is, Hearst’s father saw to it that none of his heirs could get at the principal. “Randy lived off dividends and trust payments,” says a source. To afford the lifestyle he and Veronica enjoyed, says the source, Randolph depended on a $2 million line of credit from a major bank. Veronica, if she chooses to maintain that credit line, must now pay about $200,000 in interest every year, according to the source.
“Randy loved Veronica madly and indulged her every whim,” says the family friend. “He didn’t want to buy the house in Florida, but he did. He overspent for her. Now she has to live with those debts.
”
It’s said that Veronica, who was Randolph’s third wife and 32 years his junior, has sold Casa Miranda’s grand chandelier – the one Winston Churchill gave Vanderbilt – and that, very quietly, she has put the spread on the market.
Mrs. Hearst’s spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, declined to “go into details” about her personal finances, but says she has plenty of money.
“She has always lived up to her responsibilities and will continue to do so,” said Rubenstein. “Randolph truly loved her. Well in advance of his death, he created trusts that provided handsomely for her. He also provided her with ample insurance.
”
Rubenstein added that before she married Randolph, Veronica “was wealthy in her own right.
”
Heir of defeat for Anna
Anna Nicole Smith might want to hold off on her next shopping spree. A Houston jury ruled yesterday that the ex-stripper is entitled to none of the multimillion-dollar estate of her late husband, J. Howard Marshall II. Nor is his oldest son J. Howard Marshall III, 63.
The jury affirmed that Anna’s much-older hubby had named his younger son, E. Pierce Marshall, 61, as his sole heir.
The verdict has to be a bummer for Anna. The former
Playmate, 33, had dropped her Texas claim on the Marshall estate after a federal bankruptcy judge in California awarded her $475 million. But the Texas verdict could now undermine the California ruling, which is under appeal.
The Texas jury found that old man Marshall had never promised Smith or son J. Howard Marshall III a slice of his estate. The jury also ordered J. Howard III to pay more than $30 million in damages to his brother and other family members for interfering with their inheritance. Ouch.
Eye-opener
Third Eye Blind frontman Stephan Jenkins seems to be way over Charlize Theron. He was entertaining a bevy of Playmates after his band’s performance at shoe designer Steve Madden’s party at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas the other night.
Don’t worry about Charlize, though. Fashionwire Daily reports that, last week at a dinner in Milan, the actress loudly gave a girlfriend advice on French kissing. “You have to stick your tongue deep in there!
” Theron reportedly roared. “Down the throat! Now swirl it around.
” Thanks, coach.
Itemizing
CAMRYN MANHEIM will be ordering two birthday cakes this week from here on in. The actress, who celebrates her 40th birthday today, gave birth Tuesday to a son in L.
A. Milo Jacob Manheim weighed in at 9 pounds, 2 ounces. A rep for the star of TV’s “The Practice” stuck to the single mom’s policy of not saying who the lad’s father is . . .
TATUM O’NEAL is ready for another shot at wedded bliss. The 37-year-old actress, who had a rocky marriage to tennis champ John McEnroe, is engaged to 35-year-old Miramax exec Steven Hutensky. The two aim to wed this summer, US Weekly reports.
LONDON’S LOSS is New York’s gain. Victoria Albert, British host of YoNewYork.
com, will definitely be sticking around town now that her boyfriend, “Guiding Light’s” Ryan Brown, just popped the question and she popped back a “yes.
” Victoria’s dad, Dickie Arbiter, is so trusted by Britain’s royal family that Queen Elizabeth made him a press secretary even though he’d served as spokesman for Princess Diana. . …
DONALD TRUMP (him again!) and Melania Knauss throw a party tonight to unveil Winter Olympic artwork by Thomas Kinkade, Howard Behrens and Simon Bull at Ohm.
