Orlando Bloom is off the hook. The Pirates of the Caribbean actor will not be required to testify at an upcoming trial involving the $15 million California mansion that plunged his former fiancée Katy Perry into a headline-grabbing real estate war with 85-year-old Texas millionaire Carl Westcott.
At a hearing on Friday, Los Angeles County Judge Joseph Lipner ruled that Bloom’s proposed testimony, sought by Westcott, appeared duplicative and would only serve to waste time. The bench trial, set to begin Aug. 21, is due to determine the damages Westcott owes Perry after she prevailed at a prior trial on the issue of liability. Westcott’s lawyer previously argued Bloom is key to the case because he’s the one who showed up for inspections at the home in April 2024 and stated he would be handling repairs on behalf of Perry. Westcott wanted to question Bloom about how much the repairs ended up costing.
“Why do you need Mr. Bloom to do that, other than to make it a celebrity circus?” Judge Lipner asked before making his ruling. “Why don’t you just talk to the construction person who actually did it?” (In a prior filing opposing Bloom’s testimony, lawyers representing Perry’s business manager said the subpoena for Bloom’s testimony was meant “to harass Mr. Bloom so as to further sensationalize and turn the narrow scope of this remedies phase of the trial into a media circus.”)
The battle over the Montecito mansion started soon after Westcott signed the the sales contract with Perry in July 2020. Almost immediately, the businessman sought to undo the deal. He, his family, and his lawyers would go on to claim he was suffering from a degenerative brain disease, symptoms of dementia, post-operative delirium, and the effects of heavy pain killers following a lengthy back surgery when he finalized the contract. At the liability trial in 2023, Perry and her lawyers brought in text messages, emails, and witness testimony showing Westcott was alert and cognizant during his sale of the luxury estate. They showed Westcott was so engaged, he even courted a rival bid from yet another high-profile interested buyer, Maria Shriver, before going with Perry.
Though Perry initially faced public backlash over allegations she tried to push an elderly, ailing veteran out of his home against his wishes, the trial revealed that Westcott purchased the coastal estate on May 29, 2020, just six weeks before signing his deal with Perry’s representative, Bernie Gudvi. Lawyers for Gudvi argued that Westcott badgered his broker about when Perry’s initial offer was expected to land, rejected her initial $13.5 million bid, signed a counteroffer for $15 million on July 15, 2020, actively organized Perry’s tour of his property on July 17, 2020, agreed to extend the deadline on his counteroffer when the initial deadline lapsed, and criticized his agent for requesting a five percent commission.
In his 2023 ruling siding with Perry and ratifying the deal, the judge noted that Westcott’s own medical expert failed to “offer a cogent explanation” that would allow the court to find Westcott “lacked competence” to sign the sales contract.
After Perry prevailed at the initial trial, she placed $9 million in escrow and took control of the property in April 2024, leaving the remaining $6 million of the purchase price unpaid pending the outcome of the damages phase. She now alleges the four years she had to wait to take control of the property caused her to lose more than $3 million in fair-market rental income. She also alleges Westcott’s “lack of maintenance” while the litigation was pending caused $2.29 million in necessary repairs to get the property back up to the condition it was in when she purchased the luxury property. (The estate includes a main house, a three-bedroom guest house, a one-bedroom pool house, a gym building, a pool, and an equipment building.)
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In court filings, Perry and her reps allege the house suffered “pervasive flood damage” in early 2024 and had a large tree fall on a structure, cracking its foundation. Westcott claims Perry has only produced estimates for the repair work, not final contracts or receipts.
At the hearing Friday, Westcott’s lawyer, Andrew J. Thomas, argued his client was entitled to information on what the repairs ended up costing. He said the house has since been rented to actor Chris Pratt and his wife Katherine Schwarzenegger, Shriver’s daughter, so he was confident the work was completed.
Perry’s lawyer said Westcott knew the work started last year and failed to seek information before the discovery deadline. He also said Perry isn’t seeking “reimbursement” for her completed work because she wasn’t obligated to restore the house and ultimately made some changes. He claimed the onus was on Westcott to hand over the house in its purchase agreement condition, and for that reason, the estimates Perry submitted reflected what it would have cost to get the property back to the original condition.
Though Bloom is now off-limits, Perry, 40, is expected to testify at the damages trial, likely by video, considering she’s now on a world tour. The judge said he planned to limit her time under oath to one hour.
Westcott’s lawyer said he wanted assurances Perry would be focused during that time. “She should not schedule herself with other people, nor should she have assistants bringing her coffee and chocolate-covered coffee beans, or whatever it was she was doing at her deposition,” Thomas said. “If she’s going to be here [in person], that’s one thing. But if she’s gonna be on video, we need to know who’s around her.”
Alex Linhardt, a lawyer for Perry’s camp, made a point of disputing “the characterization” of Perry’s deposition. “She was very professional,” he said in court.
“I’m not going to restrict her from getting coffee or snacks,” the judge said from the bench. “But we should know, if she’s on video, who’s in the room.”
Perry has been in the news repeatedly this year. She took an 11-minute trip to sub-orbital space aboard one of billionaire Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rockets in April, shortly before news of her split from Bloom surfaced in June. This week, she was spotted dining out with Justin Trudeau, the former prime minister of Canada. He later popped up at her concert.
From Rolling Stone US
