The current owners of Marilyn Monroe’s former Los Angeles home, a wealthy real estate heiress and her reality TV producer husband, are suing the city for the right to demolish the abode where the star died.
Brinah Milstein and Roy Bank filed the lawsuit Monday as an ongoing landmark designation process has stopped them from razing the iconic Brentwood residence, which they purchased for $8.35 million last summer, KCAL-TV reported.
The couple, who live next door and bought the sprawling Spanish colonial as a tear-down so they could extend the size of their house, were initially granted a demolition permit from the city — but their plans were halted when city leaders got wind.
The city council temporarily stopped the demolition of the late star’s final home at a September hearing, arguing it should be designated a cultural monument landmark.
Since then, the Cultural Heritage Commission and the city council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee have greenlit its landmark application, according to the local news station.
The application still needs full city council approval before it can become official — which must happen by mid-June.
But Milstein and Bank are trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.
They accused the city of “illegal and unconstitutional conduct” and using “backdoor machinations” in its fight to save the house, which Monroe purchased for $75,000 in 1962.
The couple also said Monroe’s connection to the house has been exaggerated — calling it “the house where Marilyn Monroe occasionally lived for a mere six months before she tragically committed suicide 61 years ago,” KCAL-TV reported.
They also argued that it doesn’t meet the city’s landmark criteria.
“All of these backroom machinations were in the name of preserving a house which in no way meets any of the criteria for an `Historic Cultural Monument,” the lawsuit states, according to the station.
“That much is bolstered by the fact, among others, that for 60 years through 14 owners and numerous remodels and building permits issued by the city, the city has taken no action regarding the now- alleged `historic’ or `cultural’ status of the house,” the suit says.
The couple is seeking a court order to block the landmark designation process.