Film and winemaker Francis Ford Coppola, director of "The Godfather" and "Apocalypse Now," is suing Vinocor USA, alleging the company ruined 55,000 cases of wine by supplying faulty bottles and leaky screw caps.

Coppola's wine company, Francis Ford Coppola Presents, hired Napa, Calif.-based Vinocor in 2007 to make custom bottles and oversized screw caps for "Encyclopedia" wines, according to a lawsuit filed Nov. 23 in California court.

"Virtually all of the wine produced and bottled in the 55,000 cases of the Encyclopedia collection was materially degraded or destroyed as a result of the defects in the bottles, screw caps and packaging products provided by Vinocor USA," according to the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages.

Coppola's two California wineries produce 620,000 cases a year, according to 2009 data collected from the wineries by the industry newsletter, Wines & Vines.

MAN SEEKS $110M FOR DEPICTION IN 'BRUNO'

A Palestinian shopkeeper and father portrayed as a terrorist in the movie "Bruno" is suing film star Sacha Baron Cohen, David Letterman and others for libel and slander.

The lawsuit filed last week by Ayman Abu Aita in District of Columbia federal court seeks $110 million in damages.

In the movie, Cohen plays a gay Austrian fashion journalist trying to make it big in the United States. To achieve worldwide fame, Bruno travels to the Middle East to make peace. He interviews Abu Aita, and a caption labels the Bethlehem shopkeeper as a member of the militant Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.

Abu Aita is suing CBS and Letterman's company Worldwide Pants over an interview before the film's release where the Late Show host and Cohen discussed Bruno's encounter with a "terrorist."

TRAINER ACCUSED OF LEWD TEXTS, PHOTOS

An Indiana fitness trainer deluged Ashanti's mother with crude text messages about the R&B star, peppering his comments with graphic photos and a picture of her family home, authorities said in a court case that could go to trial next week.

Devar Hurd, 31, sent the Grammy-winning singer's mother and her husband dozens of messages to their cell phones before his July arrest, a detective said in papers filed in state court in Manhattan.

'BIGGEST LOSER' SHEDS RECORD 239 POUNDS

The latest winner of NBC's "The Biggest Loser" is the biggest loser in the show's history.

Danny Cahill, 40, of Broken Arrow, Okla., lost 239 pounds to win the $250,000 grand prize.

Cahill went from 430 pounds to 191 pounds in six months and three weeks.

Erik Chopin, who won in 2006, held the previous record, dropping 214 pounds — from 407 to 193.

— Advertiser News Services