Mork or dork?

Robin Williams sues dude who duped Strib columnist

Last September, a guy with B.O. and blond hair convinced C.J., the celeb-starved Strib gossip columnist, that he was Robin Williams. He arrived at the airport with an escort (an ornament of the celebs, according to C.J.) and spoke in an affected monkey/Minnesota accent: "Don't do [drugs] now...Make you crazy like me," C.J. reported Williams as saying. Now, C.J. is involved in a lawsuit being brought forth by Williams against the celebrity impersonator.

In the glowing C.J. article, titled "Zip! Zing! Zoom! Williams flies in!," the over-60-looking "Williams" (a fact she revealed later) chatted up C.J. and riffed on Prince and Michael Jackson as the two strolled through the MSP Airport accompanied by Michael Pool, Williams' "Midwest agent" who signed up the whiffy Williams for anti-drug speaking gigs at schools across Minnesota. For most folks, these would be surefire signs the tow-haired guy was an impostor. But C.J. bit like Mike Tyson on this chance to dish the dirt on someone other than local newscasters Randi Kaye and Cyndi Brucato. (Note to Julie Nelson: If you spelled you name like "Juli," then maybe you'd get more ink.) This is a blond version of the male version of the Mrs. Doubtfire!

Instead, the guy turned out to be Williams impersonator Michael Clayton, and C.J. was forced to issue a red-faced mea culpa: "When Pool arrived with 'Williams,' I was surprised by the blond hair," she wrote five days after the incident. "My suspicions eased when I saw Clayton's hairy arms. (Williams is famously hirsute.)," she said. Yes, and Williams also is known for not calling on local gossip columnists to meet him at the airport.

According to Celebrity Justice (also known as C.J., but is a show not a woman), Williams is suing Clayton and has outlined C.J.'s Strib story as part of the lawsuit. C.J., the woman, however, points a finger at Northwest Airlines: "You'd think that Northwest Airlines would know what celebrity they were escorting through the airport," she told the show. And you'd think that a celebrity gossip columnist would know the difference between a 60-something dude with B.O. and a 50-something actor with ADD.