It’s been a legal battle featuring two reluctant nuns and two long years to get Katy Perry the mansion of her dreams, but LA judges have officially ruled that it can happen. The pop superstar has been involved in a very strange court case since 2015 to allow her the right to spend $14.5m on a former convent near Hollywood and convert it into a mansion - but not without backlash from the nuns who used to live there.
The convent went up for sale in 2015 and Katherine Hudson, aka Katy Perry, put forward her interest to buy it two years ago ($10m of it in cash, no less). But when the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary nuns found out who Katherine Hudson really was, they were less happy about letting her settle in to their former home.
In case you’re wondering why the A-Lister - who broke into the music industry singing Christian pop songs - would kick nuns out of their home, fear not: The convent has been vacant since 2011 and the Archbishop of Los Angeles has been trying to sell it since.
But the two nuns publicly involved in the case, Sister Rose Catherine Holzman, 86, and Sister Rita Callahan, 78, really, really didn’t want to hand the keys over to Katy. They claimed the house was theirs to sell as it ‘belonged to them’ (rather than the archdiocese), so agreed to sell it to businesswoman Dana Hollister to turn it into a hotel. But, according to judges, the way they did the deal wasn’t legally sound, so now the house looks likely to go to Katy.
The Catholic sisters didn’t give up the fight easily, denouncing KP as a witch (okay), and, weirdly, questioning the I Kissed A Girl singer about why she attended a Salem Witch Walk in 2014. The Witch Walk is held every year and is kinda touristy, with ‘each guest receiving a magic crystal blessed by a real Salem witch’. Hmm. But Katy said she didn’t remember going, and instead drew the nun’s attention to the ‘Jesus’ tattoo on her wrist. ‘But what about the one on your behind?’ replied Sister Rita (although, after doing some extensive Googling, I can’t seem to prove if Katy Perry does indeed have a tattoo on her behind, and if she does, exactly what it’s of).
The nuns even got the Pope’s lawyers in Rome involved to support them in the case, claiming they were serving ‘under the Pope’ when LA Archbishop Jose Gomez said he was up for selling to the pop superstar.
But the battle was finally over yesterday, as LA Superior Court judge Stephanie Bowick said the nuns didn't have the authority to sell the property. It seems that Sister Rose might just be a teeny bit bitter that they had to move out of their eight-acre mansion in LA, saying, in the weirdest sentence ever, 'I just don't think the Pope will ever let the Archbishop sell to Katy Perry.' Katy's bid still needs to be approved by the Vatican before it can go ahead, although, when questioned, Katy said she wants to use the house to 'sit down, drink green tea, and just meditate', so fingers crossed she gets it.
Yesterday it was also confirmed live on Nick Grimshaw’s R1 breakfast show that Katy will headline Radio 1’s Big Weekend in Hull on 27-28 May. She joins a massive line up including Little Mix, Kings of Leon and Stormzy.
Who knows, if the Pope doesn't approve of her convent-converting wishes, she might consider settling down in Hull. She’s a massive fan of ‘fresh-baked’ Yorkshire puddings apparently, and British food is just not the same Stateside.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.