ola raye

ola raye
The former Playboy centerfold who played Michael Jackson's crush in his legendary "Thriller" video wants a jury to end her nightmare of trying to collect royalties.

Ola Ray, 48, filed a lawsuit in Santa Monica, Calif., Tuesday claiming Jackson deadbeat when it comes to paying for her her famous strut and blood-curdling scream in the 14-minute zombie fest.

"She just wants to get her fair share of payments from this extremely successful project that she's very proud of," her lawyer Jason Feldman told the Daily News. "She did receive some payments early on, but we don't believe they were complete, and they were never timely."

A Jackson attorney reportedly paid an unspecified amount to Ray through the Screen Actors Guild in 1998, but payments to date have fallen short, Feldman said.

"We're expecting it to be a significant sum that she's owed," he said. "The video continues to sell a lot worldwide and was just released again for it 25th anniversary."

He said licensing of the video's content and images to various DVDs and video games might also add up to a "substantial sum."

Now living away from the spotlight in Sacramento, Calif., with her 14-year-old daughter, Ray declined to comment on the lawsuit.

"I'm a stay-at-home mom, everything is good, especially now," she told the News, referring to the lawsuit.

She still pursues her acting, modeling and music work Feldman said. She was busted for cocaine in 1992 and later told People magazine that she stopped working after "Thriller" because she refused to give "sexual favors" to producers.

Ray isn't the first to sue Jackson over the ground-breaking video. Famed director John Landis, who wrote and shot the mini-movie, sued Jackson for back royalties on Jan. 21.