By Natalie Finn
He may have once said America is still "growing as a nation," but Johnny Depp would prefer it if the country didn't grow right in his own backyard.
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The Finding Neverland star is currently embroiled in a lawsuit against the city of West Hollywood to stop the construction of a Sunset Strip shopping center that he says will ruin the view of Los Angeles from his Hollywood Hills home. Depp is arguing that the city violated environmental quality laws by approving the project, which is set to include shops, a restaurant and a parking garage.
The city ruled against him last year and the case is currently being appealed by Depp's sister and personal assistant, Christi Dembrowski. Meanwhile, the West Hollywood City Council unanimously approved the $10 million project in 2004 and the lawsuit has delayed the start date by about a year.
Although Depp lives in Paris most of the time with his wife, French singer Vanessa Paradis, and their two children, six-year-old Lily-Rose and four-year-old Jack, he apparently wants his $5.4 million home away from home (no matter how little time he spends there) to be just as he feels it should be. The 42-year-old actor has said that the proposed structure on Sunset Boulevard would block his children's view when they're out in the backyard playing. Whenever that may be.
John Cotti, an attorney representing West Hollywood, told the Los Angeles Times that Depp's camp has claimed that the wall of the planned four-story building would "potentially be blocking their view" when they're out on the terrace. Oh, don't you hate when that happens?
Depp's eight-bedroom mansion, sitting on 2 ? acres of land, was built in 1932. For privacy's sake, the backyard is surrounded by trees and bamboo to block views of the gated estate from the street. (Even though it's perfectly understandable and reasonable, it's still technically ironic that Depp wants to see out but nobody can see in.)
According to the Times, the roof of the proposed Sunset development would hit about 40 feet below the level of Depp's home, which is on a side street. However, the building will end up blocking a portion of the view from the back terrace, which slopes down from the house.
While his legal reps have been handling this protracted battle for him, the Oscar-nominated actor has been busy doing battle with ghosts and other nefarious sorts. He'll swing into theaters July 7 as the heavily eye-penciled Captain Jack Sparrow again in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man?s Chest, the sequel to the 2003 hit The Curse of the Black Pearl. Other than some hot summer box-office action, the looming pirate movie can mean only one thing:
People's Sexiest Man Alive of 2003 will have a mouthful of gold teeth when he heads out on his next publicity blitz.
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