Katy Perry Gets Her Convent

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge recently sided with Katy Perry in her two-year fight to buy a former Los Feliz convent and convert it into her residence. Perry had planned to pay the Archdiocese of Los Angeles $14.5 million to purchase the 1927 compound, which was designed by architect Bernard Maybeck.

Curbed Los Angeles, citing LAist, reports the judge’s ruling now clears the way for Perry to finally purchase the property after a two-year legal battle with an unexpectedly formidable foe — a group of elderly nuns of the order the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The nuns, who had been given the residence in 1972, wanted to sell the house to local restaurant owner Dana Hollister; however, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles claimed it had the power to sell the contested convent, and it wanted to sell to Perry.

In her ruling last Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephanie Bowick wrote, “The court finds that the sisters did not have the authority to sell the property to Hollister. The Pope did not consent to the sale of the property to Hollister and there was no written approval from the Holy See or the archbishop.”

This marks the second time that the courts have ruled in Perry’s favor in this high-profile case. In April 2016, the courts originally ruled the nuns’ sale of the convent to Hollister was invalid, opening the possibility of a sale to Perry, but that decision was later overturned by an appeals court. The singer has expressed her desire to move into the estate “with her mother and grandmother, sit in the meditation garden, sip green tea and find herself.”