Katy Perry has found herself in the mother of all unholy rows by trying to buy a convent from an archbishop, which the nuns who live there had already sold to someone else.
The Firework singer had been trying to get the five nuns remaining at the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent in Los Feliz, California, to sell her their property since May, but despite visiting them and giving an impromptu gospel performance of Oh Happy Day, the sisters were unconvinced.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Sister Rita Callanan said: “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.
“We have given many years to this archdiocese and we have served them well. For the archdiocese to… put us under a bus and run over us, I’m sorry, it was just too much for me.”
Apparently, Katy had said that “she wanted to live on the property with her mother and grandmother, sit in the meditation garden, sip green tea and find herself”.
The problem is that the nuns, aged between 77 and 88, had sold the property to restaurateur Dana Hollister two weeks ago for $15.5 million (£9,865,000), who has already moved in – but now Archbishop Jose Gomez has done his own deal with Katy for $14.5 million (£9,228,000) cash and she has been visiting the estate with an architect.
Nuns at the convent say they pooled their money to buy the house decades ago, but the Archbishop has signed documents from three of the nuns saying that he has the power to decide on a buyer which the two nuns who do not agree, Sister Rita and Sister Catherine Rose, say were signed under duress.
A lawsuit over the dispute has now been filed and the archdiocese released a statement saying it had taken legal action to prevent Dana from taking control of the property, claiming the sale was unauthorised.
Dana’s attorney, Randy Snyder, said the dispute had nothing to do with Katy, but was a battle between the diocese and the nuns.
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