Riches-to-Rags Film Draws Lawsuit
The opening film, “The Queen of Versailles,” for this year’s Sundance Film will sure garner the majority of attention not just for the drama unfolding before our eyes but because the person of focus in the documentary is suing the filmmaker for defamation.
Time share tycoon David Siegel agreed to participate in the filmmaker's project in 2007 to document the construction of what was to be the nation's largest family home, an enormous 90,000-square-foot mansion named "Versailles."
After four years and a housing market collapse Siegel filed a $75,000 lawsuit against filmmaker Lauren Greenfield and the Sundance Film Festival, where the documentary premieres on January 19, for defamation of character, according to Reuters.
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When promoting the film, Sundance called it a "rags-to-riches-to-rags" story that highlights the "innate virtues and flaws of the American Dream."
The promotions characterize Siegel's Westgate Resorts time share business as failing, a description Siegel's attorneys say is not only damaging but false.
"I don't know anyone in the last three years that didn't suffer (economically), but they are certainly far from being in rags and the company collapsing," Siegel's lawyer Michael Marder told Reuters.
Greenfield’s publicist, Chris Libby, would not make any remark regarding the suit, while Sundance stood behind the film in a prepared statement.
"Sundance Institute maintains its long-held and firm commitment to freedom of expression and looks forward to screening this film by an award winning filmmaker at the opening of Sundance Film Festival 2012."
There are two larger private properties in the U.S., the 135,000-square-foot Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina is a museum and the 109,000-square-foot Oheka Castle in Huntington, New York is a hotel.
The house never was completed due to the economic conditions. The house was listed for sale $75 million in 2010, when it was described as 12 to 18 months from completion.
