Realitytea fans: Here’s the article I posted back in September. Hope you can link it now
A Dispute Magnified by the Glare of Celebrity
By Andrea Adelson
Lynne Curtin The cable television audience for “Real Housewives of Orange County” sometime this season can expect to see the real life eviction of one of the show’s stars, but their Laguna Beach landlord was in court this week in an attempt to fast-forward the drama.
Teri Iannotti filed court papers in Laguna Hills that set the stage for the county’s sheriff to make an entrance at her Arch Beach Heights home as early as next week, if Frank Curtin, his wife, Lynne, a new addition to “Housewives,” and their two teen-age daughters, don’t leave first.
Though seeing a deputy physically escort the family from the contemporary, two-story home may make good television, Frank Curtin said Tuesday the family is packing up and intends to leave before law enforcement arrives to evict them. “She misjudged the situation to try to discredit us,” said Mr. Curtin. “When you’re in the public eye, you’re scrutinized,” he said.
Iannotti’s local attorney, Carter Mudge, expects the show’s producers to capitalize on the Curtins’ probable move. “Producers thrive on this conflict,” Mudge said. In fact, a crew was on location shooting exterior scenes at the house on Wednesday, though there were no signs of the Curtins or the movers. The Bravo cable network, a unit of NBC Universal, owns the production, now in its fourth season.
The town’s celebrity cache was cemented by the lush production values of MTV’s reality show, “Laguna Beach: The Real OC,” documenting the lives of local teenagers for three seasons beginning in 2004. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but since the Curtins moved to Laguna from Capistrano Beach in July, “Housewives” film crews have been spotted in recent weeks at local hot spots, such as the St. Regis hotel and Casa del Camino’s rooftop lounge, managers have confirmed.
Curtin, 52, a Laguna Beach contractor whose license was suspended last month, according to the state contractor’s license board, said his business last year was the worst he’s experienced. “I hit a rough spot with finances,” said Curtin, who blamed himself for failing to fulfill the lease’s terms. He described the lease dispute with Iannotti as “a tiny issue with money. She decided not to be patient.”
Iannotti, whose business in real estate sales has also nosedived, jumped at the $65,000 windfall the Curtins offered through an agent for her 3,200 square feet home during the show’s expected eightmonth production schedule. A colleague checked their credit and she assumed Bravo paid them well for allowing the intrusion of cameras into their private lives.
To accommodate the show’s production schedule, Iannotti scrambled to move her belongings out and dislocate a border. She said the Curtins paid the first month’s rent in July, but reneged on two promised security fees and deposits totaling $15,000. When Iannotti forbid the production company from filming in the house due to the tenant dispute, the independent producers agreed to pay a per day rate directly. She says the producers forbid her from disclosing the fee.
“Everyone thought it was an amazing opportunity,” Iannotti said. “Now, I’m feeling like an idiot.”
Instead of profits, Iannotti is sleeping on her parents’ couch, without the anticipated funds to secure a rental herself, and hiring a lawyer to draft an unlawful detainer complaint, which was served on the Curtins on Aug. 26. The law gives tenants five days to respond to the eviction notice. Frank Curtin said he intends to do so, even though the five-day period has lapsed.
In Iannotti’s neighborhood, reactions to the new tenants and their pending departure were mixed.
Downhill neighbor Ross Fallah, walking his two dogs Tuesday, welcomes Iannotti’s return. His litany of complaints with the Curtins ran long: their barking dog, cigarette butts dropped in his sideyard, and overhearing the “confession booth,” as filming went on next door.
Other neighbors, Hesh and Debra Lansky, appreciated that the Curtins came over to introduce themselves when moving in. They haven’t been troubled by the film crew’s SUV, which generally parks off the street.
Even so, their loyalties are clear. “They didn’t take care of their obligations,” Mr. Lansky said.
Fans of blogs and the Internet celebrity news site TMZ may learn where the Curtins end up next. Frank Curtin declined to say. He defended his wife, Lynne, a jewelry designer, as an innocent party in the dispute, which he blames on his own lack of contracting work. “I fell short,” he said. “I’m in good company,” he added.
“We did the show thinking it was light hearted fun. We were hoping for careers for our daughters,” he said.
2/12/10 Update: As revealed on the last episode, Lynne and the girls moved in with her mother and Frank went to a hotel.
They have since avoided a third eviction
Related Links:
Recent Comments