Life imitates "Melrose Place"
     NEXT, ON "MELROSE PLACE": The former producer of the canceled Monday night soaper "Melrose Place" is seeking $10 million from Spelling Television, claiming he was wrongfully fired and made a scapegoat for an underling's sexual harassment case.
     Chip Hayes, formally known as James W. Hayes III, also is seeking $974,000--his payment for the 1998 season.
     Hayes' suit says he was fired a year ago, allegedly for "failing to exercise proper supervisorial judgment" on the set during the 1997 season. One of the show's assistant directors, according to court papers, claimed that a production manager had brought Internet porn onto the set and created a "hostile work environment."
     "At no time," the suit states, was Hayes advised that it was his responsibility to enforce any Spelling sexual harassment policy, "or that violation of that policy by one of his subordinates would be grounds for termination." When Hayes signed his contract in 1992, Spelling didn't even have a sexual harassment policy, the suit says.
     The suit by entertainment attorney Barry B. Langberg alleges that Spelling violated Hayes' privacy by breaking into his locked office and snooping through his computer files the day before he was canned. It also contends that Spelling defamed Hayes by saying he had blown the production budget.
     A Spelling spokesperson could not be reached.