HARTMAN IN-LAW SUES PFIZER

The brother of the wife of actor Phil Hartman is suing Pfizer Inc. and
a psychiatrist, contending that his sister was under the influence of
the anti-depressant drug Zoloft when she killed her husband and
herself a year ago. Brynn Omdahl, 40, shot Hartman, 49, a star in the
TV sitcom News Radio, on May 28, 1998, after spending the previous
evening drinking with a female friend.

She shot herself four hours later. The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles
Superior Court Thursday by Gregory Omdahl, acknowledged that an
autopsy found alcohol and cocaine in her body but contended that she
snorted the cocaine after killing her husband.

Omdahl said in the lawsuit that Pfizer, which makes Zoloft, had "done
all that it can to downplay the possibility that Zoloft causes
violence or suicide in some people." Celeste Torello, a spokeswoman
for Pfizer, said there was no evidence to suggest that Zoloft causes
suicidal or violent tendencies. Omdahl also sued Dr. Arthur Sorosky, a
Los Angeles psychiatrist who gave Hartman's wife a sample of the drug
provided to him by a Pfizer salesman.

Sorosky was not available for comment.