American circular singer and writer Katty Perry has offered
to buy a Los Angeles convent in a fight with nuns and bishops. Read the rest of
the story below.
According
to Maria Puente from religionnews.com, no one ever expected to read these
words: Katy Perry wants to live in a hilltop Catholic convent in Los Angeles.
But wait,
there’s more: She wants to buy a convent that two elderly nuns have already
sold to someone else, and they don’t want to sell to the likes of sexpot singer
Katy Perry (even if she was raised a good Christian girl). But now the nuns are
in trouble with their local archbishop who says they don’t own the convent and
had no right to sell it. And he wants to sell to Perry.
So Perry
waits patiently to hand over close to $15 million (hey, it’s in the trendy Los
Feliz neighborhood of L.A) in cash to whoever does have the right to sell it.
For
weeks, lawyers for Archbishop Jose H. Gomez, the nuns and businesswoman Dana
Hollister, who wants to turn it into a restaurant and bar, have lobbed
accusations of dirty dealings over the convent, which sits atop a hill near Hollywood.
A judge will consider whether to block Hollister’s access to the property,
which she has already begun cleaning up after purchasing it from the nuns in
June, according to the Associated Press.
Hollywood
couldn’t make this stuff up. In fact, the story was all over People and US
Weekly Monday, not to mention scores of local media publications, because
there’s nothing more fun for Los Angeles than chortling over a juicy
real-estate battle.
Even one
involving nuns. Maybe especially one involving nuns.
Perry,
who was just named by Forbes magazine as the highest-paid female entertainer in
the world ($135 million), is demonstrating her financial clout by attempting to
purchase the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent, a villa-style
estate on several acres with spectacular views of downtown Los Angeles and the
San Gabriel Mountains.
Two of
the five nuns who once lived there (it once housed more than 50), Sister Rita
Callanan, 77, and Sister Catherine Rose, 86, said the nuns bought the property
years after the diocese forced them to move elsewhere.
In order
to cover their living expenses in old age, they recently sold it to restaurateur
Hollister for $15.5 million. Hollister has already moved in.
But
Gomez, claiming that the property belongs to the diocese, has been negotiating
with Perry, who’s willing to pay $14.5 million in cash.
The Times
reported she tried to sweet-talk the nuns (has this ever worked?) by meeting
with them, wearing conservative clothing, and singing Oh, Happy Day for them.
Sister Rita says Perry told them she wanted to live on the property with her
mother and grandmother, sit in the meditation garden, sip green tea and find
herself.
It
sounded nice but Sister Rita decided to do some Googling.
“Well, I
found Katy Perry and I found her videos and … if it’s all right to say, I
wasn’t happy with any of it,” Sister Rita told the Times. She also tuned into
the Super Bowl when Perry performed Teenage Dream during the half-time show. It
did not leave a good impression.
So now
what? Lawyers are involved, naturally. Real estate agents are involved,
naturally. A judge is involved, naturally. And maybe the Vatican might have to
get involved, too.
“So it’ll
be left to the courts, if not the pope, to figure it all out,” Lopez concluded.
No comments:
Post a Comment