Tattle | His trapped 'mouse' - ouch! - springs lawsuit

FOR YEARS, "actor"

Perry Caravello

was either the butt of a long-running practical joke (the movie "Windy City Heat") or he was in on the joke and we were all the butt.

So news that Caravello is suing "Jackass" star Johnny Knoxville, TV talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel and radio personality Adam Carolla is either a sign that Caravello has had enough of being a laughingstock or he's merely keeping the joke going - shrewd promotion for the little-known movie.

Here's what allegedly happened: Caravello was led to believe that he was going to be an action film star in a movie called "Windy City Heat." But the actual movie "Windy City Heat" is not an action film but a comedy and Caravello is the punchline - he's a gullible wannabe willing to perform every demeaning task asked of him.

Could he possibly be as dim as he seems or is "Heat" surreal fake-reality comedy in the tradition of Andy Kaufman?

Whatever, Caravello claims he was never paid for his "performance."

Fast forward to the DVD release and Johnny Knoxville, the king of idiot stunts, allegedly promises Caravello $10 million last fall if he would agree to place his genitals in a mousetrap while plugging the DVD on Carolla's radio show.

He said yes.

Snap.

Ouch.

It hurts just writing about it.

"Plaintiff agreed to do so, and, much to his emotional tranquility and to his physical harm, was severely injured when the trap literally went on his manhood," his suit contends.

Well, what did he think would happen? He's lucky it didn't snap his head off.

Caravello's suit also claims he was humiliated when clips of the incident, which he says were filmed without his permission, made it to the Internet.

Tattle hates to assume, but

we're guessing it was also a bit humiliating when he was hopping around a radio studio attached to a mousetrap.

Thank goodness he wasn't asked to put his wiener in a George Foreman grill.

The suit, filed Thursday in L.A., alleges fraud, negligence and unjust enrichment.

It claims that Caravello signed a contract with Kimmel's Dakota North Entertainment but that Kimmel, Knoxville and others never paid Caravello or gave him an accounting of profits and royalties from DVD sales of "Windy City Heat."

It seeks a total of $10.5 million in damages - and perhaps some warm lube.

Tattbits

* In a statement to People,

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson announced he and his wife of 10 years, Dany Garcia Johnson, have separated.

They have a 5-year-old daughter, Simone Alexander.

"We've been fortunate enough to spend the last 17 years together as a couple and look forward to spending the rest of our lives together as best friends and business partners," the statement said. "We will continue to advance and manage our business interests, our philanthropic efforts and most importantly the raising of our child together."

Garcia Johnson is the CEO of a wealth-management firm.

* Paul Newman is donating $10

million to Kenyon College to help start a scholarship fund.

He graduated from the central Ohio liberal-arts college in 1949 with a degree in drama and economics.

Both degrees seem to have served him well.

"My days there were among the happiest and most formative of my life," Newman said in a statement from Kenyon on Friday. "I believe strongly that we should be doing whatever we can to make all higher-education opportunities available to deserving students. I hope others will support Kenyon in this manner."

The donation will fund partial and full scholarships for 15 to 20 students a year, college spokesman Shawn Presley said. The first Newman's Own scholars will be announced this summer.

The salad-dressing scholar, the popcorn scholar, the cookie scholar, etc.

* It didn't take "Law & Order"

long to hire a new detective. Jeremy Sisto ("Six Feet Under," "Waitress") will replace Milena Govich (Det. Nina Cassady).

* The Hollywood Reporter says

the Weinstein Co. has picked up U.S. rights to the Woody Allen drama "Cassandra's Dream." Ewan McGregor, Colin Farrell and Tom Wilkinson star.

Love her, hate her, just don't heckle the book tour.

Rosie O'Donnell is finishing a memoir, she said yesterday at BookExpo America in New York.

"Celebrity Detox" should be out this fall.

Maybe she'll go on "The View" to promote it.

Speaking at a breakfast gathering, Rosie said the book will not be "vindictive" or "mean-spirited," but will offer a candid look at her very public life, including her stint on "The View."

"It is, in fact, a drug," she said of fame, and spoke of seeing peers so radically, and scarily, transformed by celebrity that they looked like victims of "crystal meth."

* At a Saturday BookExpo

breakfast, Stephen Colbert ("I Am America") introduced Khaled Hosseini ("The Kite Runner," "A Thousand Splendid Suns") by stating that he had not read the million-selling "Kite Runner," assuming it was a book about a boy who loves kites.

"I loved yo-yos, so I can relate," Colbert said. He then referred to "Splendid Suns" by groaning, "Great, another book about global warming."

Asked by Hosseini why he trashed "The Kite Runner" on "The Colbert Report," Colbert responded, "I was a little mad at you at the time; I don't remember why."

After making fun of the novel, Colbert said his yard was "filled with women's book clubs." *

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.

Send e-mail to gensleh@phillynews.com