Also, I simply loved him in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape".
Posted on 05/13/2007 8:23:09 PM PDT by LdSentinal
Leonardo DiCaprio has been fighting to save the world from climate change — but the star's neighbours claim it is he who is wrecking their environment.
The Departed actor — who will debut his environmentalist call to action film The 11th Hour at Cannes next week — is being taken to task in court for allegedly undermining and trashing the garden of his neighbours' multi-million dollar mansion.
DiCaprio is being sued for "maliciously" crossing onto a neighbouring couple's property while renovating his Hollywood Hills home — cutting and removing hedges, excavating earth and bedrock which the couple claims destabilised their swimming pool and patio decking, according to the lawsuit.
Ronald and Joan Linclau filed the documents in Los Angeles Superior Court suing for a sum of at least $300,000 for trespass and removal of the support for their land — and for being a nuisance.
The pair claim the damage was done while DiCaprio was renovating his home to build a basketball court.
DiCaprio owns a home in the ultra-exclusive Hollywood Hills on Oriole Way, a property that ajoins the Linclau's home on Thrasher Avenue.
The documents state: "Properties of Plaintiffs and Defendants adjoin each other at Plaintiffs' southern boundary. Plaintiffs land in its natural state was receiving and continues to receive lateral support from Defendant's adjoining land."
The couple claim in the papers that DiCaprio undermined their property when he began building his basketball court.
The papers state: "On or about July 1, 2004, defendants (DiCaprio) commenced construction of a basketball/sports court on the Oriole property behind defendants home.
"In the process of constructing the basketball court on the Oriole Way Property, defendants entered Plaintiffs Thrasher Property, cut and removed hedges and other plants that were the property of Plaintiff; excavated earth, granite and bedrock that was part of Plaintiff's property; and cut, excavated and removed the toe of the slope located in part on the Thrasher Property and in part on the Oriole Way Property, compromising and interfering with the lateral and subjacent support of Plaintiff's land.
"In doing the same, Defendants destabilized the hillside slope running behind Plaintiffs Thrasher Property and in the process undermined the support for Plaintiff's deck and pool above.
"Defendants action, as alleged above were done without the consent or permission of Plaintiffs, were done without authority and were done intentionally with Defendants full knowledge that they were encroaching on Plaintiffs land and doing damage to Plaintiffs Thrasher Property."
The couple claim to that DiCaprio ignored warnings from them that he was damaging their home.
The suit states: "During and after the first instance of trespass, Plaintiffs demanded that Defendants stop trespassing on their land immediately and take no action to excavate or otherwise harm Plaintiff's property.
"Defendant's ignored Plaintiff's demands and continued to trespass onto Plaintiffs Thrasher Property and damage it."
The neighbors assert that damages exceed (A$300,000) $250,000.
A rep for the actor was not immediately available for comment.
DiCaprio — who presented former U.S. president Al Gore with the Oscar for his film An Inconvenient Truth — has also has refused to pay for the damage, according to the lawsuit.
Why? You don't practice what you preach either?
"Hey! Wooo!"
"Stuffed it."
I try but sometimes fail; I am afraid I would not be beyond reproach.
Too bad Tony Soprano isn’t his neighbor..
Also, I simply loved him in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape".
In this case, I suspect it’s because Leonardo DiCaprio is tired of the masquerade and wants to admit he is really a GIRL.
Am also wondering this—but bulldozers work quick—sometimes when the owners aren’t home. If the ‘intentional’ part is true, they can also go after him for other stuff, like intentional tort, which is like a criminal claim in civil court. If the claims are true, I’d be madder than $300K.
Big mean dogs about the property tend to be more visible.
-LOL-
Leo is a VERY NICE person. I have a freind who knows him well. And, although he is an Environmental-whacko liberal - he not only talks the talk - but walks the walk. He is NOT a hypocrite - and I respect him for that.
Of course, the article - as always - is short on facts - so you assume the worst.
Wouldn't you stop somebody cutting your bushes AS they were cutting them? Why did this not happen? It could have been an honest mistake about property borders - in which case I am sure he would pay to have it all restored.
But, with NO fact and knowing nothing personally about the man, you judge him.
Disgusting behaviour.
These are the threads that make me ashamed to be a conservative.
That was my thought too. Why weren’t they standing out there every day with a shotgun or a baseball bat, or calling the police to come out and remove people trespassing on their property and damaging it?
So if I’m understanding you correctly, the only way to care about the environment is to go out and live in it with no modern amenities. Doesn’t that seem a little far fetched. He is making an effort to walk the walk in a lot of ways as opposed to just talking the talk. I’m not going to hate on him just because he isn’t perfect. People in glass houses and all that.
Assorted fun stuff from Leo’s website. Like watermelon? With stuff like this he needs to live in a cave to make up for it.
Quotes from Leo:
That shortsighted industrialist only took into account the monetary cost. And had to eventually pay a much higher price - the hidden environmental cost.
Since that time, problems have compounded. According to scientists throughout the world, we are on a downward slope.
Our fresh water and oceans are being polluted, soils are eroding, rivers are running dry, wetlands are disappearing, fisheries are collapsing, rangelands are deteriorating, temperatures are rising, coral reefs are dying, and not since a meteor hit the Earth 65 million years ago have so many species of plants and animals become extinct in such a short time
He has fought many a polluter, bringing lawsuits to protect his beloved Hudson River, and other precious waters across the nation. He has led the Riverkeepers Alliance nationwide in championing the people and the fish and wildlife whose lives depend on clean water.
And over the past 4 years he’s witnessed the dismantling of the protections of our air and water by the Bush Adminsitration. What he saw was so dire, and so unprecedented, that he felt he had to spread the word. That’s what led to his book, CRIMES AGAINST NATURE - which I hope all of you will go out and get, and read, and understand. It is a call to action, and a demand that each of us do what we can to speak up for the environment with our own words and deeds.
But don’t be fooled by semantics, thousands of climate scientists agree that global warming is not only the most threatening environmental problem, but one of the greatest challenges facing all of humanity.
The fact is we are pumping way too much carbon dioxide from our cars, refineries and power plants into the atmosphere much faster than the land and seas can absorb it. The accumulating gas is trapping heat and upsetting the world’s climate.
It only took five to nine degrees to take us out of the last ice age. Now a couple degrees difference in today’s temperatures may seem insignificant, but again, five to nine degrees is all that separates us from catastrophic global change.
Junior Quote:
George W. Bush will go down in history as America’s worst environmental president. In a ferocious three-year attack, the Bush administration has initiated more than 200 major rollbacks of America’s environmental laws, weakening the protection of our country’s air, water, public lands and wildlife.
- Robert Kennedy, Jr.
NRDC
For a blow-by-blow list of the Bush Administration’s attacks on the environment, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Bush Record site lists them by date and topic
Bush Green Watch
This is MoveOn’s tracker on the Bush Administration’s environmental misdeeds.
ScoreCard.org
Get the facts on local pollution by using the 10 maps put together by scorecard.org.
League of Conservation Voters (LCV)
Under the Bush Administration, corporate polluters have been able to write the laws. The FIRST President ever to receive an “F” from the League of Conservation Voters.
League of Conservation Voters Presidential Scorecard
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s article Crimes Against Nature
“The Bush White House has actively hidden its anti-environmental program behind deceptive rhetoric, telegenic spokespeople, secrecy, and the intimidation of scientists and bureaucrats.” — Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Scientific Integrity in Policymaking
An Investigation into the Bush Administration’s Misuse of Science
Check out this lampoon from the International Fund For Animal Welfare
I’m shocked I tell you...........SHOCKED!!!!
One redeeming quality doesn’t relieve Gilbert Grape from responsibility for all other virtues.
;-)
“Education: Attended Seeds University Elementary School at the University of California, Los Angeles; Center for Enriched Studies, Los Angeles; John Marshall High School, Los Feliz.” Period.
That’s all I need to know. It almost makes Gore’s abysmal grades in college look respectable.
Neither is any authority on any science, short of what they read in comic books.
Well, since everyone says Leo is such a great guy, I guess maybe they trusted him to have the property surveyed and do the right thing. But they learned too late they were wrong to trust him.
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