Daily News from New York, New York • 1916

"1 OsiHislsy susd by heroin lasers -H yr.t 5 1 I 0 ''I 5 ft- I ART CLASS from Arlington Middle School in Poughkeepsie sits outside Frick Collection on E.70th St. Tuesday. The students, aged 13 and 14, were too young to enter museum without adult supervision. susan stava if ate JU Frick museum fites to keep kiddie ban By JOANNE WASSERMAN By SALVATORE ARENA Daily News Staff Writer Leona Helmsley's appellate lawyers are tired of appealing to her to pay her legal bill. Now they've taken her to court Just two months after the hotel queen finished her jail term for stiffing the IRS, she finds herself back in court for allegedly giving her attorneys the same royal treatment.

The Manhattan firm of Dershowitz Eiger is su-ing Helmsley for the $84,200 it says she still owes for the effort to keep her out of jail after she was convicted of tax evasion charges in 1989. Nathan Dershowitz said his firm was brought into the case by his brother Alan, the famed Harvard Law School professor who headed the appeals effort He said Helmsley has a long history as a deadbeat "It's typical of her," Nathan Dershowitz, a partner in the firm, said. "If she needs you she is your best friend. The day she doesn't need you anymore, she doesn't pay her bills. "We worked, our butts off on her behalf and she decided not to make the final payment" Court papers say the original bill was just under $200,000.

But through her spokesman, Howard Ru-benstein, Helmsley denied owing Dershowitz anything. "She firmly and unequivocally denies that any obligation is owed to Nathan Dershowitz or his firm," said Ruben-stein. "Mrs. Helmsley will counter-sue for overpayments made. She has already paid well over $1 million to that firm." Alan Dershowitz, who billed Helmsley separately for his services, would not say whether or not he has been paid.

nied by an adult. The Frick, in its stiff upper-lip waiver request, insisted that admitting children would forever "change fundamentally the experience of visiting the collection" which is housed in the former E. 70th St residence of Henry Clay Frick. The way things are now, visitors can walk through large, sweeping rooms and get up close and personal with priceless paintings, furniture, and sculnture. Now, if gasp! children were admitted, the collection would be "imperiled, so much so that nearly every work of art (would be placed) behind a barrier of some type that would prevent the damage which a child might cause accidentally." The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston also has priceless art works displayed in relatively open settings but they let kids in.

Gardner spokeswoman Joan Norris said the guard staff is trained to "notice restless children" and keep them from touching the art. Frick officials said there are many more visitors to the collection than to Gardner each year. This includes tourists from all over the world who arrive, children in tow, unaware of the Frick's policy. "I could go in there alone without touching anything," said Antonio Mig-liore, 14, who traveled with his family from Stuttgart, Germany. "I know a little bit" Antonio's younger brother, Francesco, 9, also said he could manage to keep his hands off the art.

The boys and their father, Giovanni, waited outside in the cold while their mother, Ulla, toured the Frick. "We took a walk," said Antonio. "It's boring in there." Daily News Staff Writer A 59-year-old tradition at the hoity-toity Frick Collection could well end today if the museum is forced to admit gasp! children. The prospect of gasp! children roaming the Xanadu-like halls of the upper East Side museum has sent its curators into a tizzy. So the museum has hired the high-powered law firm of Proskauer Rose Goetz Mendolsohn to win a waiver from a new city Human Rights Commission regulation that prohibits discrimination based on age.

But Human Rights Commissioner Dennis deLeon is scheduled to visit the Frick today, and will decide whether to let stand the Frick policy that, since 1935, has barred children under the age of 10. Those under 16 must be accompa MiJy By JANE FURSE many of their customers are calorie conscious and moderate their fat intake. "I think our most popular pasta is our spaghettini in tomato basil sauce," said Bob Driscoll, the manager of Pa-lio in Manhattan. "Everybody seems to like it, and it's not fatty." Chefs Vincent and Pat Vi-tiello of Queen Italian Restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, who learned their craft from their father, said his favorite dish was pasta with olive oil, garlic and lemon. "Of course, if you add cheese, then you start to add to the fat content," said Pat.

Grilled fish, pasta without cream sauces and cavatelli pasta made without eggs are low in fat, he said. But Hurley, who last year did a study that pointed out the high fat content of Chinese food, said, "The worst Italian dishes are in a class by themselves" and likened fettuccine Alfredo to "a heart attack on a plate." She said, 587c of its calories come from fat more than twice what doctors say is a healthy daily intake. "See if your cardiologist is on call before you order," she advised. Daily News Staff Writer Mama mia! A Washington-based nutritionist says fettuccine Alfredo is a "heart attack on a plate." But the good news is that many Italian dishes can be quite low in fat, according to Jayne Hurley, who studied the fat content in Italian cuisine for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "I was shocked," said Hurley.

"Many of the dishes I thought would be outrageously high in fat, spaghetti with meatballs or Italian sausage, wound up on our low-fat list." The news didn't surprise local restaurateurs, who said Mistrial in Mcnendez case LOS ANGELES The judge in Erik Menendez' murder case declared a mistrial yesterday after jurors reported a third time they could not reach a verdict The jury deliberating charges against Erik's brother Lyle continued its talks after asking the court for more help with legal instructions. Erik, 23, and his brother, Lyle, 26, admit killing their parents, Jose and Kitty Menendez, in their Beverly Hills mansion Aug. 20, 1989, but claim it was self-defense. -4 Leona Helmslsy.