Milli Vanilli Singer Fails In Suicide Attempt

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Robert Pilatus, half of the disgraced lip-sync duo Milli Vanilli, was hospitalized for observation early yesterday after an apparent suicide attempt.

Pilatus, 27, was taken into custody in his ninth-floor room at La Mondrian Hotel after apparently taking some pills, slashing a wrist and straddling a balcony railing several times, said a deputy sheriff, John Ashley.

Pilatus called The Los Angeles Times switchboard operator at nearly 5 a.m. and told her he was tired of his family in Germany being bothered because of the Milli Vanilli scandal, Ashley said. He also told her he had taken pills, the deputy said.

A Times reporter called the sheriff's department and deputies went to the hotel.

"Pilatus came out onto the patio and straddled the railing four or five times, saying that he was despondent over his family's welfare in Germany," Ashley said.

A pass key failed to open the door to Pilatus' room, but a neighbor let deputies into his adjoining room, which shared the same patio. A deputy telephoned the room. When Pilatus went inside to answer the phone, other deputies moved in and seized him.

A note and a bottle of prescription pills were found.

Pilatus and Fabrice Morvan won sudden fame as a singing duo in 1989 and collected a Grammy. They were later exposed as lip-sync performers who hadn't sung a note on their best-selling album "Girl You Know It's True."