Model Rains On Nello Umbrella

November 12, 2007 -- RESTAURATEUR Nello Balan is at war with a stunning model he says borrowed his $1,000 umbrella to stay dry, then got mad when he wanted it back and had a pal return it with a vengeance - broken in two.

It all started when Nello lent his leather, limited-edition Jean Paul Gaultier umbrella to blond catwalker Le Call at his Madison Avenue eatery last summer, then e-mailed her when it wasn't returned.

"I am an [--]hole. I will bring it in this weekend," promised the 5-foot-10 stunner, who then complained about Nello's menu prices. "Our last lunch there was ridiculously expensive. We were so psyched before, then kinda sick after. So we gotta wait until there are boys in town to take us, and Saturday I think there is a couple of out-of-towners who offered. See you then!"

Weeks passed, but, still, no umbrella, prompting Nello to rage: "Can you FedEx that umbrella? Or you decided to keep it?"

Le Call shot back: "Listen to me. I am in Los Angeles. I did not ask U for that umbrella and honestly forgot about it. I gave it to [banking heir] Nat Rothschild's driver to give back . . . I don't want to see, hear or think about that stupid umbrella again."

Nello replied: "I offered it to you because it was raining because I am a gentleman and I thought you are a lady. You called yourself an [--]hole! . . . it may be true . . . Stop behaving like a boulevardier [street person] and a petite voleuse [petty thief]. You don't give me the umbrella, I sue you."

Nello's lawyer, Bill Beslow, says that Rothschild's driver tried to drop the umbrella off last Tuesday but that Nello refused to take it because the shaft was snapped in two. A messenger tried to redeliver it, haphazardly glued together, on Friday. Beslow said he'd be in court today to sue for "an act of disinterested malevolence, intentional infliction of mental distress, willful destruction of property, and whatever else I can think of."

A miffed Le Call told Page Six: "How ridiculous is this? . . . It accidentally got sat on in a car . . . It is pretty funny, though. An umbrella that I didn't ask for or want and refused to take two or three times from a man who if he is so ridiculously upset about an overpriced, ostentatious umbrella, he probably shouldn't own one that expensive . . . Nello is desperate for attention, I guess."

Unmanageable

THINGS in Britney Spears' world just got a little nuttier. Her mom, Lynne, who said in interviews last week that she blames herself for her daughter's being such a mess, now has her own manager. When reporters trying to get interviews with Lynne called her new publisher (she just signed a deal with a Christian group to write her memoir), they were told, "You'll have to call [Lynne's] manager." Meanwhile, Britney has her own new manager - her friend Sam Lufti.

Save Our Dogs

RUSSELL Simmons stars in a public service announcement debuting on YouTube tomorrow. The spot shows a tiny, blindfolded Jack Russell terrier being offered up to a pit bull for the kill. "There is nothing slick, cool or glamorous about dogfighting," Simmons states. "It hurts the human spirit as much as it hurts the animals." BeKind founder Frances Hayward and Wayne Pacelle of the Humane Society offered the NFL the spot to air during its games, but the league, still reeling from the conviction of Atlanta Falcon Michael Vick on dog-fighting charges, punted. Vick is to be sentenced on Dec. 10.

Not My Girl!

LENNY Kravitz has a reputation as a skirt-chasing rocker, but when it comes to his daughter, he's Mr. Conservative. As 40 friends gathered in his SoHo loft the other day to listen to his upcoming CD, "It Is Time for a Love Revolution," Kravitz's 18-year-old daughter, Zoe, prepared to go out in an ultra- abbreviated pink skirt. "Lenny turned into dad mode and said, 'Isn't it a little too short?' " our spy relates. "It was fantastic seeing Lenny is just like every other caring dad out there."

Nancy Pitching In For Mike

NANCY Reagan and Mayor Bloomberg have a thing going on - a mutual-admiration thing. The former First Lady is flying here for a dinner on Wednesday at Bloomberg's townhouse to raise money from about 40 well-heeled guests for the Reagan Library. "Nancy told friends recently she wants Bloomberg to run for president. She doesn't like Rudy Giuliani," said a source who recently saw Reagan in California. She and Bloomberg see eye to eye on stem-cell research, which might some day lead to a cure for Alzheimer's, the disease that debilitated Ronald Reagan in his last years. Hizzoner had lunch with Nancy last summer at the Hotel Bel Air just before he announced he was leaving the Republican Party to become an Independent. She could help him a lot in certain powerful circles in California.

Scoring Twice

WHILE her sister, Ashley seems happy with her aging lover, Lance Armstrong, Mary-Kate Olsen should watch her back with her sportsman squeeze. Spies said New York Ranger Sean Avery, who was introduced to Mary Kate by a mutual pal, Bungalow 8 owner Amy Sacco, has a straying eye and, behind Mary-Kate's back, has been seeing his ex- flame, Lake Bell, as well. Avery is not known for his gentlemanly ways; after his split from Eli sha Cuthbert, he went around telling everyone he dumped the actress, not the other way around.

Locking Lips

FORGET Dax Shephard; Kate Hudson has moved on to an actual movie star. Hudson, having dumped funnyman Shephard, was linked to Dane Cook, but Thursday night she only had eyes for Heath Ledger. Spies at Beatrice Inn said they spent their evening at the trendy watering hole "kissing and making out." A rep for Hudson said, "This is absolutely untrue. They ran into each other and chatted briefly, but that was the extent of it." But our spy insists on the liplock.

Jessica Fan's A Crash Dummy

ONE Jessica Simpson fan was so excited to see the singer dining at the Waverly Inn last week that when she stood to get a peek at her leaving, she toppled over, crashing into a table for two, sending plates and glasses flying. "This woman sees Jessica leaving and gets up and runs through the crowd to get a peek," said one spy. "She fell over into the fireplace, but not before she crashed into a table and went down head first. All to see Jessica Simpson. Then she disappeared. I think she was embarrassed."

Sexual Feeling

EVAN Rachel Wood has no problem kissing women. "I'm not a lesbian, but I don't think it's weird or gross or anything," the hottie girlfriend of Marilyn Manson tells YRB magazine. "I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm bisexual - I don't sleep with women. But I definitely appreciate women and there have been times where I have been attracted to a woman." Wood, who stars in "Across the Universe," adds: "I'm not afraid of sexuality. I think too many people get s - - - and get called skanky or a whore just because they are sexual."

Ex-cop's Zero Respect Toy

AN ex-NYPD cop has grown so annoyed at the slow progress of rebuilding Ground Zero, he's sunk $50,000 of his own cash into a cheeky board game that "sheds light on the incompetence" of everyone involved in the project, including Bernie Kerik and former FDNY Commissioner Thomas Von Essen. Peter Gleason, a former cop and city firefighter who is now a lawyer, is having 10,000 games made to start, and plans to sell them along Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton's campaign trails. The game features trivia cards with photos of Giuliani wearing a Boston fire hat and running with a bag of money. "That's him running with the money he made from [9/11]," said Gleason. Von Essen is made fun of, as is Kerik, who is portrayed in the game "caught with his pants down." "I'm outraged with regards to how Ground Zero is still a hole," said Gleason when asked why he created the game. "No one is immune, from the local community boards to the White House."

Too Close For Comfort

NEW Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine isn't rushing out to see the season's hottest crime flick, "American Gangster," and there may be a very good reason why. The top pol's girlfriend, Upper East Side psychotherapist Sharon Elghanayan, was once married for five years to the movie's crime-fighting hero, Richard Roberts, played by Russell Crowe. "The governor hasn't seen it," Corzine's flack told us. As an assistant prosecutor in Essex County, Roberts helped bring down once-untouchable Harlem heroin kingpin Frank Lucas, played in the movie by Denzel Washington, putting him behind bars for 25 years by linking him to a Newark drug ring. Elghanayan was more recently married to Thomas Elghanayan, president of the Rockrose real estate development company.

Jack's Big Pitch For The Yankees

JACK Nicholson once nearly owned the Bronx Bombers. "I could have bought into the Yankees for $41 million, and the Lakers for less, with a friend," the superstar actor tells next month's Golf Digest. "I've been a Yankees fan since my days as a bleacher-street kid in the '50s. Lorne Michaels and I go to Yankee games, and Lorne wanted me to throw out the first ball at Yankee Stadium for my 70th birthday this year. That sounded fun until I started getting nervous and then completely crazy, thinking, 'Should I try to throw a slider?' Backed off that one, too. I've got my shy side."

Sightings

MEG Ryan buying dark-color slips, camisoles and dresses at Only Hearts on Mott Street . . . TOM Stoppard walking away from a female fan who lamely said, "I recognize you, but I never go to plays," at John Richardson's book party at MoMA.

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