Former Major League All- Star Lenny Dykstra looks like he is in for a crash landing.
Airplane leasing company Avantair is trying to force him out of his latest lodgings — offices in their Camarillo, Calif., hangar.
The company, which advertised in his defunct Players Club magazine, managed to have Dykstra’s sublease voided because he hadn’t paid a penny of rent since signing the agreement in September 2008.
But a new filing by Avantair claims that the bankrupt Dykstra “proceeded to move in additional personal belongings and other items to the office premises.”
The lawsuit claims that Dykstra told Avantair’s attorneys that the sheriff would have to drag him out.
Last year, a bankruptcy judge barred Dykstra from the posh estate in Thousand Oaks, Calif. that he bought from hockey great Wayne Gretzky for $18 million.
When Dykstra moved The Players Club into Avantair’s offices back in 2008, his empire had already began to unravel. The lifestyle and investment title — aimed at pro athletes — had pulled out of New York City months before, leaving behind a string of unpaid bills from printers, publishers, landlords, editors and others.
He was eventually forced to hock some of his possessions, including a 1986 World Series ring, and last July filed for bankruptcy, with debts estimated around $50 million.
The bankruptcy judge later barred Dykstra from the mansion, in part because of allegations that he was trying to pull out expensive furnishings — even fixtures like the kitchen sink.
A hearing on the office space is set for Jan. 27.
Dykstra could not be reached for comment.
E&P returns
Editor & Publisher is back in business two weeks after its forced closure.
Duncan MacIntosh, the Irvine, Calif., company that publishes Boating World, Sea Magazine and The Log Newspaper, has taken over the newspaper industry publication, according to E&P’s Web site. The site had been dark since Jan. 1.
The 100-year-old publication was left behind when e5 Global Media bought the Hollywood Reporter and other media trade properties from Nielsen Business Media at the end of last year.
After skipping a January print issue due to the shutdown, E&P said it would resume monthly publishing in February and continue to operate the Web site.
Longtime E&P veteran and Editor-at-Large Mark Fitzgerald is the new editor, replacing Greg Mitchell.
RDA mayhem
The Reader’s Digest Association is back in court today hoping to get its latest pre-packaged bankruptcy plan approved even as a group of angry retirees is hoping to derail it.
The Reader’s Digest Retiree Group objects to the plan to give them only $4 million to divvy up among themselves.
The retirees says they expected to receive more than $100 million after they left RDA.
The group is composed of 300 former senior executives — including former RDA president Thomas Kenney, who is also involved with RDA’s creditors — as well as long-serving writers, editors, salespeople and middle managers.
Most of the classes of creditors have signed off on the reorganization, and RDA is hoping it can emerge from bankruptcy on Jan. 31.
The faster the company gets out of bankruptcy, the bigger the pot of money CEO Mary Berner and other top executives get to share. It starts at $3.7 million and drops from there.
The bonuses have also been a lightning rod for criticism.
“It’s corporate leaders exploiting the situation for their own selfish gain,” said one person recently laid off from RDA.
Under the proposal, most of the trade creditors are to receive payment in full while RDA trims its $2.2 billion in bank debt and hands over control of the company to bondholders with a new debt load cut to $550 million.
In a compromise, RDA said it would sweeten the pot outside of the bankruptcy, to give more money to the neediest of the retirees.
The general pension for most current and past employees is fully funded, the company has said.
Private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings, which put up the original $1.6 billion to take the company private in 2007, is completely wiped out by the bankruptcy.
The debtors in possession, led by JPMorganChase, will trade a significant part of the debt for equity in the new firm.
Faulty wiring
The publishing industry needs some barn burner books — not house burner books.
Time Inc. is recalling nearly one million copies of home improvement books published by its Oxmoor House subsidiary. Bad wiring advice inside the nine different books, including “The Sunset Home Repair Handbook,” “Lowe’s Com plete Home Improvement and Repair” and “AmeriSpec Home Repair Hand book,” could cause electrical fires.
The Birmingham, Ala.-based publisher discovered the error after it was alerted by a reader in mid-December, a spokeswoman said.