Have you seen Beyoncé's video for "Why Don't You Love Me"? She engages in some high-heeled homemaking, spills her martini, dusts her Grammys, and wiggles all over a house in Mt. Olympus. It looks like fun! But on the other side of the camera, Philip Markowitz, the man who lives across the street from that Mt. Olympus house, says he suffered "inconvenience, annoyance, ridicule, scorn, embarrassment, humiliation, and hurt feelings" throughout its day-long shoot (So did Beyoncé's character in the video, coincidentally.). He filed suit last week against Beyoncé, the shoot's production coordinator, and a couple of companies involved, and is asking for $25,000, according to the AP. TMZ has the filing, and it leads off with the fancy neighborhood offensive: "Houses in [Mt. Olympus] range in value, all in the millions of dollars. People in that community, including without limitation Mr. Markowitz, pay for and reasonably expect some level of peace and privacy in and around their homes." Here's what Markowitz says happened:
7 am: Markowitz is "awakened by his dog barking from crew in his driveway," when he would normally be asleep since "he keeps late hours."
7:30 am: A neighbor calls him to ask him to move a car that isn't his. He can't get back to sleep.
9 am: Markowitz tries to leave in his car, but has to wait for the film crew to move clutter blocking his driveway.
9:20 am: He returns to the house and has to wait for the film crew to move equipment again.
10:30 am: He leaves again in his car and an off-duty police officer has to direct him around obstructions.
10:45 am: Markowitz returns, but has to "drive around the block several times before a path could be cleared for his entry to his home."
11:30 am: He tries to leave again, is blocked again, and talks to the shoot's production coordinator. He "demand[s] compensation" and tells her "he had been able to receive upwards of $10,000 for the use of his property." She tells him it's "a 'student,' low budget film shoot" and that they can't pay him.
Nearly 11 pm: Shoot ends.
Markowitz says he spends most of his time in his home office (and at some point during the shoot was sleeping on the couch in there), which has a window "3 feet from his driveway." He says he was disturbed by noise, his dog barking, and cars turning around in his driveway and that he "missed several business calls while arguing calmly in his driveway." He also says the crew used his "fence walls as tables for plates of food and beverages and used his lawn as a receptacle for garbage (much of which was cleaned at night)."
And the video!
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