Cindy Crawford is being accused of less-than-model behavior by an irate neighbor who says excessive noise and the "intimate sounds of daily life" from the actress-model's apartment are disturbing her.
Marina French, 59, says she hears telephones ringing, doors opening and closing, baths running and toilets flushing in the apartment directly above hers where Crawford and her husband, nightclub owner Rande Gerber, live.
On sections of the floors that are not carpeted, French says, she can hear heels pounding. She says chandeliers shake and crystal glasses rattle inside her sixth-floor apartment when people walk in Crawford's apartment.
French and her husband, attorney John French, have lived in the 11-story co-operative building on Manhattan's Upper East Side since 1972. She says the limestone and brick building, which was built in 1929 and has 64 apartments, has thick concrete slabs that separate the floors.
In the fall of 1998, when Crawford and Gerber renovated their apartment on the seventh floor, workers apparently removed soundproofing material from between the floors and ceilings and failed to replace it, court papers say.
"Guests visiting the (French home) have commented on the disturbances and have marveled at the clarity with which activities in the Crawford apartment can be overheard," French says in court papers.
Despite French's complaints, nothing was done to abate the noise, court papers say. She said the alleged disturbances from the Crawford-Gerber apartment are "insufferable invasions of the daily lives" of her and her husband and are "actionable wrongs that must be recompensed."
Besides Crawford and Gerber, French's lawsuit names as defendants several members of the building's co-operative board of directors, including writer Joan Didion Dunne and movie producer Morton Swinsky.
The lawsuit does not specify a damage amount, but asks for the difference in the fair market value of the French apartment and its allegedly depressed value since Crawford and Gerber created the "nuisance" described in the complaint.
Annett Wolf, Crawford's spokeswoman, said neither she nor her lawyer had seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it. French reportedly was out of the country until Saturday.
I actually kind of like a little noise, to be honest.