• Roman Polanski Sued Over Use Of Photographs

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Roman Polanski Sued Over Use Of Photographs

SANTA MONICA, Nov. 21 – Roman Polanski, husband of slain actress Sharon Tate, was sued for $848,000 yesterday by the owner of the Benedict Canyon estate where Miss Tate and four others were murdered last Aug. 9.

Rudolph Altobelli charged in a suit filed in Santa Monica Superior Court that Polanski illegally gave Life Magazine permission to photograph the home following the murders. As a result, he said, resale value of the property was damaged.

The suit stated the Cielo Road mansion was leased to Polanski for one year on Feb. 15, 1969, at a rental of $1500 per month.

Altobelli contends the Life pictures including one of Polanski seated in front of the door on which the murderer had scrawled “Pig” in blood — hurt his chances to sell the estate.

Polanksi and Life were sued $650,000 and Polanski alone for $198,000, including three months rent Altobelli claims is due him.

He said the rent was not paid for the month of August, when the Life article appeared.

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9 Responses to Roman Polanski Sued Over Use Of Photographs

  1. Jamie says:

    Did Rudy Altobelli really expect Roman Polanski to continue paying rent after the murders?

  2. Sherry Mendiola says:

    So did altobelli win?

    • James Varela says:

      He settled out of court with Roman Polanski. Sharon’s estate did not have to pay anything. They were supposed to take out an Insurance Policy – renters – while renting and never did. The house was worth $250k in 1969 and to repair the damage was around $34k A brand new Rolls Royce was $21K in 1969.

  3. Kitty says:

    It sounds like Altobelli was a total a hole! He made Sharon’s father clean up the place, under threat of a lawsuit. This didn’t affect the value of his crappy house at all. He later sold it for about 1.6 MILLION dollars. What a creep!

  4. Woody McBreairty says:

    Rudy should not have borne the huge expenses of rehabilitating the house all by himself. Other responsible parties should have stepped forward to help instead of ignoring everything & making Rudy feel compelled to take complete responsibility. It wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t Polanski’s fault, it wasn’t the victims’ fault so Rudy should have had some kind of support system develop from within the ranks. Even the Beach Boys should have taken some responsibility since they seem to be the reason that Manson approached the house in the first place. This was far from a “crappy’ house. It was a masterpiece of French Country architecture & was totally unique in both structure & environment. It can never be duplicated in Beverly Hills again. I know. I used to live there.

  5. Nicole says:

    Despite the photos being taken and published, that house would still be potentially hard to sell regardless if they were or were not taken.

  6. Nalyd says:

    $198K is a bit rich to replace some furniture and carpet. Altobelli was a nasty old queen.

  7. James says:

    In the aftermath of the murders, Roman moved in to Julie Andrews’s suite at Paramount Studios. Then with his friend Jack Nicholson, and they had quite a time parting around. I think it must’ve happened is Altobelli felt that he was left holding the bag. The Polanski’s were supposed to take out an insurance policy when they moved in and never got around to doing it after Altobelli died everyone had nothing but good things to say about him. Right after the murders, it was impossible to rent the house or sell it, so he was right. At the time the whole situation revolving the murders did affect the value of the house at the time. Roman should’ve very quietly paid the bill, which he did in the end. The lawsuit against Sharon was probably a legality as they were married at the time he was very fond of Sharon, and I don’t would’ve accepted a penny from her state.

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