Game... blouses

My friend Matt points out this article over at the Smoking Gun. Apparently The Artist Formerly Known as Illegible Symbol has gotten into a little legal skirmish with spawn of Satan Carlos Boozer. Symbol was renting an LA-area house from Spawn, and seems to have decided to paint the exterior of the house with "purple striping." This didn't go over too well with the Booze, though I imagine he likes it better than Carolina blue.

MARCH 20--Claiming that his $70,000-a-month tenant Prince undertook an extremely tacky makeover of his Los Angeles mansion, an NBA star recently sued the mercurial singer over the purple-hued alterations. In a January complaint, Carlos Boozer, a forward with the Utah Jazz, sued Prince/MPG Music over unauthorized work done on the 10-bedroom, 11-bath West Hollywood property, which is owned by the C Booz Multifamily I LLC. According to the lawsuit, Prince/MPG Music violated its eight-month lease by "painting the exterior of the [house] with purple striping, 'prince' symbol, and numbers 3121." Prince's new album, "3121," is scheduled for release tomorrow. Inside the home, among other renovations, a purple monogrammed carpet was installed in the master bedroom and plumbing and piping was added in the downstairs bedroom "for water transfer for beauty salon chairs." As part of a promotion, Prince is expected to hold a private concert at the Hollywood property--which recently was listed for sale at $11.9 million--for album purchasers who find a Wonkaesque "purple ticket" inside their CD cases. The Boozer corporation filed its lawsuit two months after hand-delivering a "three-day notice to cure or quit" to the Sierra Alta Way property (which can be seen in the aerial photo above). Responding to the lawsuit, Prince's counsel denied the owner's allegations, adding that rent was accepted for December and January "without objection." In mid-February, a month after the complaint was filed, an attorney for the Boozer company sought the suit's dismissal, a request the court approved. Since the dismissal was granted "without prejudice," the landlord has the ability to file another suit on the same claims. The Prince/MPG Music lease, which ends May 31, stipulates that all parties involved in the rental agree to sign a confidentiality agreement about the deal. It also states that the tenant may cancel the lease with 45 days notice "should the weather conditions of the Los Angeles rainy season...prohibit enjoyment of the property."

As a lawyer, I'm normally all for sticking it to people who violate a contract. But in this case, I gotta say I'm behind the pancake man.