The former owner of a shopping
center Wednesday sued actress Debbie Reynolds and her son,
Todd Fisher, for allegedly breaching their contract to display
Hollywood memorabilia.
TrizecHahn Hollywood said in
a Superior Court lawsuit that it had signed a lease agreement
with Reynolds and Fisher in June 2001 to house the merchandise
at the center located in Hollywood.
The company said that
Reynolds announced in March that the collection - valued
between $30 million to $50 million - would be moved to the
Belle Island Village Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. She and her
son also failed to make lease payments, the lawsuit said.
Another company, the CIM
Group, now owns the shopping and entertainment complex.
Phone calls and e-mail
messages to Reynolds and Fisher were not immediately returned.
The collection consists of
more than 3,500 costumes and thousands of props, movie
posters, photographs and other precious items, including the
white dress Marilyn Monroe wore as she stood above a subway
grate in the 1955 film "The Seven Year Itch," the
resort said in a statement.
The lawsuit also names as
defendants the Hollywood Motion Picture Collection and the
Hollywood Motion Picture Museum, which was formed by Reynolds
in 1972 and its chief executive officer is Fisher.
TrizecHahn is seeking $2
million in compensatory damages and unspecified punitive
damages, the lawsuit said.
Reynolds, the mother of
actress Carrie Fisher, starred as Gene Kelly's dance partner
in the 1952 film "Singin' in the Rain." She received
an Academy Award nomination for the 1964 movie "The
Unsinkable Molly Brown."