'SNL' Star Sues Over Bedbugs In Her Loft

Lawsuit Says Insects Chewed On Family At Rented Apartment

(AP)  When "Saturday Night Live" star Maya Rudolph and her family moved into their new apartment, nobody warned, "Don't let the bedbugs bite."

A $450,000 lawsuit says that immediately after Rudolph, movie director Paul Anderson and their baby moved into the third-floor condominium loft apartment they were renting in SoHo last month, something began chewing on them at night.

"The plaintiffs were bitten over portions of their bodies by bedbugs," the court papers say. "Apparently unbeknown to plaintiffs, the premises were infested with bedbugs."

Rudolph, in her seventh season on the NBC variety show, and Anderson, director of "Boogie Nights," had been told the apartment was "perfect" and was in a "first-class luxury" building, their court papers say.

The couple had signed a $13,500-a-month lease, paying two months' rent and a month's security as well as a month's rent as a broker's commission, say papers filed Wednesday in Manhattan's state Supreme Court.

Almost as bad as the bedbugs, court papers say, was that the couple were unable to flee the infestation conveniently because the elevator was out of order for at least six of their first 11 days in the building.

After Rudolph and Anderson complained, an exterminator showed up on Oct. 17 and advised them to leave, at least for a few weeks, for the sake of their year-old baby. They left and never returned, said their lawyer Kenneth J. Glassman.

The lawsuit names Halstead Property LLC, the broker, and Francis Feeney, the owner of the apartment, as defendants. It seeks a total of $450,500 in compensatory and punitive damages, repayment of rent and broker's fees and legal fees.

Robyn Kammerer, director of communications at Halstead, said she had no comment on the lawsuit.

Feeney, who has a residence in Palm Beach, Fla., had an unlisted telephone number.