Nuns Ramp Up Legal Battle Against Katy Perry
Katy Perry continues to be locked in a Los Angeles real estate battle...with a couple of nuns.
The pop singer is attempting to purchase a defunct convent on an eight-acre estate in the tony Los Feliz section of L.A. She had been negotiating the $14.5 million sale with Archbishop Jose Gomez of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles — which makes sense, since we totally bought our last convent through an Archbishop, too. But before Katy has her contractor convert those musty old prayer rooms into hot-stone massage suites, she's got a significant obstacle to overcome: Two Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart say that Katy can't have it — because it wasn't the Archbishop's to sell.
According to court documents, Sister Rita Callahan and Sister Catherine Rose Holzman already promised the place to another layperson, interior designer Dana Hollister. As two surviving (former) residents of the convent, they feel they have a right to select its future owner, and despite Katy's reported attempts to charm them with a performance of the hymn "Oh Happy Day," the sisters don't feel right handing it to the "I Kissed a Girl" singer. As Sister Rita said following an informative Google search, "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.”
Billboard reports that the battle just got more intense. On Friday, July 17, the two nuns filed legal documents obtained by the New York Times that claim selling the convent to Katy would force them to "violate [their] canonical vows to the Catholic Church." Does this mean that letting Katy have the convent is literally against their religion?
How this will all pan out remains to be seen, but the entire story sounds like a wacky sitcom premise in which Perry ultimately decides to move in with her two pious adversaries. Two Sisters and a Katy? Fine, we'll workshop a better title as we pray for a pleasant resolution.
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