Roar, Katy, roar.
Pop singer Katy Perry has prevailed in a dispute with two nuns over a 30,000-square-foot Los Feliz convent she wants to turn into a private mansion, the L.A. Times reported.
The sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary convent will not be permitted to sell the property to a competing buyer, local restaurateur Dana Hollister of Cliff’s Edge and Brite Spot, according to a Wednesday ruling by L.A County Superior Court Judge Stephanie Bowick.
The battle over the eight-acre, French chateau-style estate began last year, when the Archdiocese of Los Angeles accepted Perry’s offer for $14.5 million in cash. But the nuns, who control the deed of the property at 3431 Waverly Drive, had a different plan. They wanted to sell to Hollister, who offered $15.5 million.
The archdiocese claim the estate belongs to the church. The sisters, on the other hand, argue that the convent is among the assets of the order’s nonprofit organization.
“Katy Perry represents everything we don’t believe in,” 86-year-old Sister Catherine Rose Holzman told Billboard last October. “It would be a sin to sell to her.”
Bowick “extinguished” the nuns’ deed to sell the property to Hollister, said J. Michael Hennigan, who represents the archdiocese.
The latest decision does not mark the final ruling in the case. John Scholnick, the attorney representing the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, said the fight isn’t over yet. [LAT] — Cathaleen Chen