US singer Katy Perry’s dream of owning a hilltop convent near Hollywood is going to have to wait a while longer.
The convent, which Perry has wanted to buy to be her personal residence for several years, is in the middle of a legal fight between a group of elderly nuns and the archbishop of Los Angeles over who has control of the sale and its proceeds.
At least two of the nuns do not want Perry to buy their former home and last month hastily sold the convent to a businesswoman with ambitions of turning it into a boutique hotel.
Superior Court Judge James Chalfant on Thursday said that he believes the sale to entrepreneur Dana Hollister is invalid. Still, he blocked Perry and representatives of the archdiocese from visiting the convent until after the court case is resolved.
That could take months, if not years, the judge said.
“You’re not selling to Katy Perry anytime soon,” the judge told lawyers for the archbishop.
Archbishop Jose Gomez wants to sell the convent to Perry, but the sale cannot go forward because Hollister has already registered a deed for the property.
The Roman villa-style convent sits on 3.2 hectares in the Los Feliz neighborhood.
Perry’s involvement, as well as infighting between the nuns and archbishop, packed the courtroom on Thursday with journalists, concerned residents, Hollister and two of the nuns.
Chalfant’s mixed ruling requires Hollister to pay US$25,000 a month to the nuns until a September hearing, when he is to determine who should pay rent on the property while the court battle is waged.
An attorney for Perry, who performed her hit Roar at this year’s Super Bowl halftime show, said the singer would pay rent on the property.
With a pair of nuns watching in the audience, Chalfant said it appeared they had acted improperly when they sold the convent to Hollister last month.
“There is no doubt in my mind sale to defendant Hollister was improper and invalid,” the judge said.
The Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary have owned the property for more than 40 years, but they have not lived in the convent for several years. Only five sisters, ranging from 77 to 88, remain, and their order has bickered with the archbishop for years on various issues.
Chalfant said the case boiled down to control and ruled that the dispute should be governed by church, not civil laws.
However, at one point he chided the archbishop’s lawyers over the church’s treatment of the sisters.
“They don’t need your help, so long as you let them have their own money,” Chalfant said, drawing cheers from the audience.
Bernard Resser, an attorney for the sisters, said after the hearing that the judge seemed to recognize the nuns’ concerns about their welfare.
“The Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary have shown great courage in maintaining their independence and have demonstrated they are self-sufficient and capable of conducting their own affairs,” Resser wrote in a statement.
The archdiocese wrote in a statement that the wellbeing of the sisters is its primary concern, and it sued Hollister over the sued to protect their interests, as well as the property.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese