Billionaire Bill Gross And His Wife Have Been Trolling Their Neighbors By Blasting The “Gilligan’s Island” Theme Song In A Dispute Over An Ugly Sculpture
If you think being a billionaire is all just eating bonbons and committing felonies with impunity, you’re only partly right. There are also some downsides to the accumulation of immoral levels of wealth. Take for example poor Bill Gross, the 76-year-old billionaire co-founder of Pimco. Not only was he saddled with a dumb name at birth, but he also has the misfortune of not being able to get his way every single time without consequence, no matter how hard he stamps his little feet.
According to The Los Angeles Times, Bill and his partner, former professional tennis player Amy Schwartz, are involved in a protracted legal dispute with their Laguna Beach neighbors over some ugly ass art they have in their yard. Their neighbors, tech entrepreneur Mark Towfiq and his wife complained to the city that the net Bill erected to protect their $1 million Chihuly sculpture was obstructing their view. So Bill and Amy retaliated in the pettiest way possible. They started blasting The Gilligan’s Island theme song “at all hours” in an effort to get Mark and his wife to drop the complaint.
But here’s the thing, it didn’t stop Mark and his wife from filing a lawsuit with the Los Angeles Superior court. Sadly, it also didn’t stop Bill and Amy from filing their own lawsuit “accusing Towfiq of developing an obsession with them.” LA Times reports:
It’s another in a long line of bitter quarrels between well-to-do neighbors in Southern California’s most expensive neighborhoods, who sometimes find that with a coveted address comes deep-pocketed adversaries and little peace of mind.
At issue this time is an artwork that can be lighted at night and features cobalt-colored reeds stretching nearly 10 feet in height, swimming marlin and globes inspired by traditional blown-glass Japanese fishing floats. It was created by Dale Chihuly, an artist whose striking blown-glass work adorns the ceiling of the Bellagio hotel’s lobby in Las Vegas.
Here’s the piece of shit in question.
raise the top marginal tax rate to 95 percent, in my view https://t.co/J86TGcHL7t
— ryan cooper (@ryanlcooper) October 26, 2020
The problem arose when the sculpture got an owie, as expensive glass things left outdoors sometimes do.
The lawn sculpture was installed in 2019 and in itself appeared not to foment any trouble. The dispute began when Gross and Schwartz installed netting this year to protect the work after it was damaged, according to legal filings and city records.
Gross and Schwartz in a lawsuit say more than $50,000 damage, “apparently” caused by a thrown rock, is evidence of an “escalating campaign of vandalism”; Towfiq and his wife say it was probably damaged by something falling on it.
LAT says that the city of Laguna Beach has in their records that the protective netting was supposed to be temporary, and was meant to protect the sculpture from “trees and mother nature,” which might indicate that God was actually the one to throw the first stone in this dispute. After Mark complained, the city issued a letter to Bill which stated “that the netting, lighting and sculpture lacked the proper permits.” “Permits, we don’t need no stinking permits” — Bill probably.
The neighbor’s lawsuit accuses the billionaire and his partner of playing blaring music at all hours, including the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song, rap and pop, in an effort to force him to drop the complaint. The couple say they have had to take refuge twice either with relatives or in a hotel room. In an application for a temporary restraining order filed Oct. 15, which was granted, Towfiq cites a text message allegedly sent to him by Gross after he asked the music to be turned down: “Peace on all fronts or well [sic] just have nightly concerts big boy.”
“Defendant William Gross is a 76-year-old billionaire used to getting his way no matter what. As proven by their behavior here, Gross and his decades-younger-girlfriend, defendant Amy Schwartz, are bullies,” states the Superior Court lawsuit filed by Towfiq and his wife.
In Bill and Amy’s defense, it was the extended remix which in all honestly slaps. Sure it was a window-rattling levels, but bullies? These two angelic love birds?
Does Bill look like the kind of guy who would sabotage his ex-wife by leaving the $36 million mansion she was awarded in their divorce “in a state of utter chaos and disrepair” by using “foul-smelling sprays” (fart and barf scented!) to “leave the place a stinking mess — and placed dead fish in the air vents“? (via The New York Post) Bill? A lover of love?!?! By the way, the ex-wife got back at him by taking the $35 million Picasso that was mounted over his bed and replacing it with a replica she painted herself. She also absconded with a “7-foot, 300-pound rabbit sculpture.” As for Bill’s dispute with big boy Mark, LAT says that Bill’s countersuit accuses Mark and his wife of spying on him and Amy, “particularly when the pair are swimming and thus wearing minimal, if any, clothing.” But come on, who could blame them!
As for Amy, the sculpture is actually hers and apparently, it has sentimental value.
Schwartz issued a statement that the dispute was “very upsetting” to her because the sculpture, with its assorted blue pieces, was bought for her by Gross because her mother was ill.
“Since I have no children of my own, they are like my babies. My mother, who has Alzheimer’s, and I pray to them and she enjoys looking at them because it’s her favorite color and makes her smile,” she said in the statement.
Why is it always the children that end up being the real victims? It’s such a shame. And from the sound of things, the fight over Amy’s babies isn’t going to be over anytime soon.
A hearing on Towfiq’s request to convert the temporary restraining order into a lengthier civil harassment order is set for Nov. 2. Meanwhile, Gross has been given an extension until Nov. 16 to seek the proper permits, which a spokesman said were being pursued.
Hopefully, at the very least, we’ll get a riveting season of Ryan Murphy’s Feud out of this.
Pic: YouTube