[caption id="attachment_1904" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Jerry Buss (1933-2013)"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/111211571.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1904" title="111211571" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/111211571-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" /></a>[/caption]

<strong><em>I haven't written for a while, and this is certainly nothing new. But Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss died this weekend at the age of 80, and it reminded me of something I wrote about Buss in July 1987 when I was sports editor of the Greeley Tribune in Colorado. Buss probably would have laughed at this column, which poked gentle fun at his reputation as a swinger.</em></strong>

There's an old saying in the newspaper business:

"Dog bites man isn't news. Man bites dog is news."

That's why when the story about Puppi Buss came across the wire datelined Los Angeles,, I had my doubts. It looked like a clear case of dog bites man.

The <em>Los Angeles Times</em> story, which we ran in Thursday's <em>Tribune</em>, started something like this:

"A woman who claims she met Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss in the elevator of a West Hollywood hotel in 1969, and lived with him on and off for the next 15 years, filed a $25 million palimony suit against the millionaire businessman Wednesday, charging that he lied when he pledged he would take care of her for the rest of her life."

Following were the sad details of the story of Puppi Buss, nee Marsha Lee Osborne, who lived with Jeffy Buss at various times between 1969 and 1984. She reportedly changed her name from Marsha to Puppi because Buss used the name as a "term of affection" when referring to her.

That's easy to understand. I know I always refer to the people I care about with animal designations. Just ask my brother "Hamster" and my cousin "Warthog."

Why Puppi, though? Why not "Kitten" or "Bunny," certainly more traditional animal nicknames for women? Could it be that "Puppi" became something a little darker when Buss was mad at her?

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At any rate, Puppi reportedly, in the best tradition of California palimony cases, abandoned her own career and professional opportunities so that she could take care of Buss, who is 18 years her senior.

Last year, when Puppi turned 35 (that's 245 in dog years), Buss allegedly stopped making payments to her. That ended a two-year campaign in which he forced her to leave the house he had bought for her and closed the business he had opened for her.

Now Puppi has been reduced to managing day care centers and supervising rental properties (when  she isn't chasing cars). She is asking for $25 million, certainly a fair reimbursement for being named after an animal. What will probably come out in the course of all this is that Buss even made her eat out of a dog dish and sleep in the garage. Just a few more ways of showing "affection." She probably balked at wearing the rhinestone collar and barking at the mailman, though.

It's a shame these two crazy kids can't work their problems out and get back together, because it certainly seems as though Puppi and Jerry are meant for each other.

Maybe that's not entirely accurate. Maybe it's that the two of them deserve each other.

Someone -- I think it was either Pat Sajak or Ed Meese -- once called power the greatest aphrodisiac of all, and it's certain that Puppi wasn't attracted to Jerry because of his manly physique. In fact, her lawyer said she turned Buss down the first time he asked her out because he was "too old and too heavy."

A month later, though, she changed her mind. Her lawyer said Buss had slimmed down. Maybe Puppi found out who he was and how much money he had, or maybe she just realized that good looks aren't everything.

Some people undoubtedly will see this as a case in the worst tradition of rich older men dominating naive young women, but I'm not sure that's true. To me it seems more like a classic "I Love L.A." case.

Remember, it was Southern California that first gave us the concept of palimony back in the '70s, when Michelle Triola sued Lee Marvin.. Her lawyer, Marvin Mitchelson, is the one who's taking care of Puppi these days..

It's tough not to admire a man who has devoted almost his entire career to fighting for a principle. Three hundred years from now, when people think of palimony, they'll think of Mitchelson.

Of course the fact that he stands to make something like $8 million if Puppi gets her $25 million has nothing to do with it. Everyone knows that lawyers would give up everything they own to fight for something they believe in.

As I said earlier earlier, the simple solution to this case would just be for Puppi and Jerry to get back together. All it would take is a couple of concessions on each side.

Jerry would promise to pet her more often and to buy her the food she likes.

Puppi would promise to use the paper.

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