GEAR'S SPELLING TROUBLE

Television powerhouse Aaron Spelling is not amused over the March issue of Gear - but not because it features a seminude photo spread of teen actress Jessica Biel. Spelling is fuming - and threatening a lawsuit - because Gear editor Bob Guccione, Jr., kiddingly listed the producer as a senior editor of the magazine in the issue, which includes his being quoted as telling the 7th Heaven star, "I own you!"

Biel appeared in the Gear spread, she has admitted, as part of a bid to get herself taken off 7th Heaven because, she says, the gentle drama about a minister's family has typecast her as a goody-two-shoes type enough that she was turned down for more sophisticated acting parts, including in American Beauty.

Biel is the cover girl for the March Gear. His attorney, Bertram Fields, tells TV Guide the man who gave the world Beverly Hills, 90210, Melrose Place and other sex-heavy hit shows as well as 7th Heaven is outraged by Guccione's masthead joke and appalled by the Biel article. Fields says Spelling plans to sue for defamation, false endorsement, and violation of publicity rights.

TV Guide says Fields sent Gear a letter calling the magazine sleazy and denying Spelling ever told Biel he owns her. The letter also says the masthead joke implies Spelling approved and even arranged for the Biel story, "featuring eleven nude and highly salacious photos of a minor child."

Biel was 17 when she posed for the photographs, but her father and manager were present for the sessions, Guccione tells TV Guide, adding Spelling's lawsuit threat doesn't make him nervous.

He defended the masthead joke by pointing out he listed himself therein as Bob Pinochet, an allusion to his reputation as a tyrant, TV Guide says, adding that Spelling calling Gear sleazy was a case of "the pot calling the kettle black. We are an entertainment magazine with serious journalism. But I must have missed the serious cultural references in Melrose Place and 90210."

Guccione even took a swipe at Spelling's daughter, actress Tori, who enjoyed a long run on 90210. "Here is a man that basically pimps his own daughter and turns her into a cardboard cutout slut," he tells TV Guide.