Ja Rule was hit with a lawsuit by the owner of a mansion in the plush Star Island
section of Miami, Florida.
According to a
lawsuit filed yesterday (August 26), Jeanette Varela said the rapper hosted
a party for 600 people and damaged the home.
The lawsuit also
named The Inc., Universal Studios and MTV, claiming the network is illegally
showing clips of her home on the show “Cribs” and billing the residence
as Ja Rules’.
“She lives
there," Varela’s Robert H. Cooper told the Miami Herald. "They filmed
and showed her bedroom, her living room."
Varela said she
was paid $46,000 for Ja Rule to stay at the waterfront mansion for Memorial
Day weekend of 2001 and the party took place shortly thereafter.
MTV taped scenes
of Ja Rule walking around the mansion for "Cribs," and the lawsuit
alleges the clip has been played regularly and is slated to run this weekend
during MTV’s 2004 Video Music Awards.
The lawsuit says
The Inc. and Ja Rule breached their contract by holding the party. Varela alleges
holes were knocked in the walls, doors were broken and the mosaic tile in the
driveway was severely damaged.
She says that Universal
Studios unjustly benefited by using the footage to promote “The Fast and
the Furious,” which stars Ja Rule.
The lawsuit says
“there were numerous syringes and condom wrappers strewn about the mansion”
and that damages to the house were in excess of $1 million dollars."
”The privacy expectations
would be a lot different if this were a rental home,” Cooper said. "MTV
has profited from the use of having my client’s house as the basic subject matter
of this video. They have collected revenues from this. There should be some
restitution.”
Varela’s
lawsuit says the party caused strain in her relationship with neighbors. Such
celebrities as Shaquille O’Neal, Rosie O’Donnell, Gloria Estefan
and others live in the exclusive area.
Ja Rule is planning
to release his latest album, R.U.L.E. on November 9th.