Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 20:02:17 -0700

Hollywood knives scandal shocks stars by Kevin Smith in Los Angeles Sylvester Stallone burst into an operating theatre, interrupting surgery on his girlfriend, to insist she be given bigger breast implants, a Los Angeles court has been told. He demanded that they be made "big but perky, kinda like a 17-year-old". The doctor complied and Angie Everhart was given much larger breasts than she had asked for. When she discovered what the Rocky star had done, she had the implants removed four months later. The allegation was one of many extraordinary claims made against Hollywood's leading plastic surgeon Dr Steven Hoefflin, who is accused of lewdly mocking Michael Jackson, Elizabeth Taylor and Don Johnson while the stars lay naked on his operating table. Hollywood's rumour mill has been busy for nearly two years with talk of what an ongoing malpractice case against the man who became known as "Doc Hollywood" would involve.

For 25 years his techniques for nipping, tucking, folding and sucking had seduced Hollywood's ageing stars and made him their equal in wealth. When a scandal broke, and Los Angeles Superior Court judge Ronald Sohigian demanded four former employees give evidence against Dr Hoefflin, patients like Joan, Rivers, Ivana Trump and Tony Curtis were braced for the worst. In fact they escaped mention, as did former patient Dodi Fayed when the fat dossier of evidence against Dr Hoefflin was finally lodged in a Los Angeles court today. It hardly disappointed, however, as the multi-millionaire surgeon was accused of routinely abusing, ridiculing and fondling a number of celebrity clients in one of the most salacious cases Hollywood has known.

Dr Hoefflin says the allegations are slurs that can be traced to his jealous former partners who tipped off the Medical Board of California in July, 1996. He is accused of abusing prescription cocaine and tax fraud, but it is the naming of his clients and the details of what happened to them while they were unconscious which will shock and, in all likelihood, delight Hollywood. Barbara Maywood, Dr, Hoefflin's operating room coordinator, described how Stallone intervened as his girlfriend Miss Everhart was having her breasts enlarged. In her sworn statement she said the actress talked about having her breasts augmented during an appointment in March, 1995. Ms Maywood added: "She was very clear during her consultation that she wished to remain a small breast size as she was famous and needed to maintain the lithe appearance that accounted for her success. "After she was anaesthetised, her boyfriend Sylvester Stallone proceeded to enter the operating room. To my knowledge, his presence during the procedure was not discussed nor authorised by the patient. Mr Stallone was not wearing proper surgical attire to ensure a sterile environment and I ushered him out. "Once properly attired, Mr Stallone returned to the operating room, at which time he instructed Dr Hoefflin concerning the surgery. Mr Stallone told Dr Hoefflin to make her breasts 'big but perky, kinda like a 17-year-old'. Dr Hoefflin acquiesced. Ms Everhart had a difficult overnight recovery, which I assisted her with. Shortly thereafter, demand was made of Dr Hoefflin to remove the oversized implants. The surgery was performed, restoring Ms Everhart to her natural state." Stallone, 52, broke up with Miss Everhart in 1995, shortly after she had his preferred implants removed. He has since married Jennifer Flavin and had two children. As well as performing surgery against a patient's will, Dr Hoefflin is accused of pretending to operate on Michael Jackson and sending him a bill for work that had never been done. "By 1993, Hoefflin had established the practice with Michael Jackson whereby surgery would be feigned and a surgical charge would be generated," said Ms Maywood, who worked with the surgeon for 17 years. She said it happened several times. "Mr Jackson would be anaesthetised and the clocks in the operating room would be turned ahead by hours," she added. "Mr Jackson would then be revived, look around the room and settle back to sleep, at which time the clocks would be reset to reflect the correct time. This gave Mr Jackson the perception that he had just undergone a nasal surgery of several hours, when in fact he was only unconscious for several minutes. On multiple occasions Dr Hoefflin had Mr Jackson's wristwatch turned ahead and later returned to the correct time so that the scheme would be foolproof."

Eventually Dr Hoefflin was deceiving the reclusive singer so regularly that other doctors tried to intervene, arguing that the constant anaesthetic was dangerous, she claimed. Dr Hoefflin defended himself, saying if he didn't pretend to work on the star he would go to another surgeon who was prepared to do the work. Ms Maywood said Jackson demanded that he remained fully clothed for all surgery, but some years ago Dr Hoefflin became curious about whether he had a distinctive mark on his penis.

"During a facial procedure, while the patient was under general anaesthetic, Hoefflin undid Jackson's pants," she said. "He then exposed and obscenely manipulated Jackson's penis while thoroughly scrutinising it. After Hoefflin satisfied himself that no such mark existed I was cavalierly ordered to 'put him back together and get him ready for surgery'. Dr Hoefflin then left the operating room with a chuckle. "On another occasion Dr Hoefflin fondled Mr Jackson's genitals and remarked 'you know he's never used it'." Another star who will be horrified to read the allegations is Miami Vice actor Don Johnson, who visited the practice for upper eyelid surgery and liposuction on his abdomen. After exposing Johnson's genitals, it is claimed, the doctor remarked: "Why would such a beautiful woman as Melanie Griffith settle for that?"

Dr Hoefflin did not reserve such scathing criticism to male patients, however. Elizabeth Taylor was anaesthetised for facial surgerywhen the doctor peered at the fat around her lower torso and made a crude remark, adding: "What's a young guy doing with this old stuff?" Ms Maywood also alleged that he intimately inspected the body of Vidal Sassoon's daughter Catya, even though she was only in for facial surgery. "He removed the blankets revealing her pubic area," she said. "He then rolled her from side to side. His probe finally revealed a tattoo on her buttocks which he leered at for over a minute. Dr Hoefflin ridiculed his patient because she had shaved her pubic hair." Surgical scrub assistant Kim Moore Mestas backed up

Ms Maywood's allegations, saying the doctor would also mislead patients into thinking he was carrying out all surgeries when sometimes other junior workers carried out his work.

Assistant Lydia Benjamin claimed Hoefflin would offer cash discounts to patients to avoid tax. And receptionist and personal assistant Donna Burton said Hoefflin encouraged her to try out the latest surgical techniques, then used her as a human catalogue to show prospective patients and their male companions. All four women previously sued Dr Hoefflin for sexual harassment and racial discrimination, but their cases were settled out of court. For today's case, however, they were ordered to testify. Their stories should cause even the most vain of Hollywood wives - or husbands - to think twice before having plastic surgery.

© Associated Newspapers Ltd., 18 February 1999

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