Teri Hatcher Wins Court Ruling In Lip-Plumping Lawsuit

[Brian Damage]

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Teri Hatcher has won a ruling in a feud between rival lip plumpers worthy of Wisteria Lane. A judge ruled Monday that a $2 million lawsuit against the 43-year-old ''Desperate Housewives'' star should be moved out of court and into arbitration.

The lawsuit from cosmetics company Hydroderm, filed late last year in Superior Court, claims that a 2005 endorsement agreement with Hatcher's production company stipulated that she would not pitch competing products. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Helen I. Bendix ruled that both sides are bound by a prior agreement to arbitrate all of Hydroderm's claims rather than litigate them in court. The two sides signed the agreement Nov. 30, according to Hatcher's lawyers, who filed the motion to move to arbitration.

According to the lawsuit, the company learned Hatcher was also pushing CityLips, a lip plumper made by City Cosmetics, which competes with Hydroderm's Volumizing Lip Serum. ''Hatcher's name, image and likeness have been linked to so many competitors' products,'' the lawsuit said, ''that it is anyone's guess as to what product keeps her skin and lips youthful.''

Hatcher's attorney Alan Wertheimer has called the lawsuit an ''unjustified and public assault on Teri Hatcher's good name, reputation and celebrity.'' Wertheimer has said that the deal with Hydroderm did not affect Hatcher's previous deal with CityLips.