The ongoing legal battle between a luxury property owner and an adult film company has taken a bizarre new twist…
Leah Bassett is the owner of a beachside rental property in Aquinnah, Massachusetts. Back in March, she filed a lawsuit against Monica Jensen, owner of Mile High Media, claiming the production company used her property to shoot at least two dozen gay adult films without permission.
In the lawsuit, Bassett accused the production team of utilizing “nearly every room of her home for their porn production purposes” including “her bedrooms, her living room and family room sofas, her stairway, atop her dining room table, her bathrooms, her basement, atop her laundry room appliances.”
In addition to all that, they “deliberately used her linens and bedspreads, including the decorative bedroom pillows hand-sewn/designed specifically by Ms. Bassett, for their condom-less ejaculatory porn scenes.”
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But it didn’t stop there.
Bassett also accused Mile High Media of having a “history of predatory practices,” including pedophile-themed plots in their films. She specifically pointed to the films Schoolboy Fantasies 2 and His Son’s Best Friend Volume 1 as examples, both of which were filmed inside her house.
Bassett’s lawyer, John Taylor, told the Vineyard Times in March that the porn company deliberately “chose to relocate” their production from California to a “state that was ground zero for the sexual misconduct charges brought against the priests in the Catholic church,” as well as the location of the rape and murder of Jeffrey Curley in 1997, which he claimed only added to the “emotionally disturbing and objectionable nature of some of the predatory-themed ‘fantasy’ porn films” filmed on the property.
Now, Jensen is counter-suing, accusing Bassett of defamation and claiming her lawyer’s remarks about pedophilic-themed films led to an “international news smear campaign” against Jensen and her company.
“There exists absolutely no basis or justification for associating Mile High or Jensen with the instances of sexual abuses in the Catholic Church or the attempted sexual assault and murder of 10-year Jeffrey Curley,” Jansen’s suit reads.
It continues: “Rather, these defamatory remarks which have absolutely no relevance to the claims in this action, are evidence of Attorney Taylor and Plaintiff’s clear intent to inflame and prejudice the public against the defendants.”
Jensen is now seeking injunction in the case, claiming “it is very likely that more false statements will be made by both the Plaintiff and Attorney Taylor in the upcoming months of litigation.”
Meanwhile, Bassett remains an emotion wreck. She says she’s suffered severe emotional distress that required her to see a therapist to help deal with the “emotionally and psychologically traumatizing effects” of everything that had happened.
Related: Woman horrified to learn her pristine Martha’s Vineyard rental was used for a gay adult film shoot
Mack
Sounds a lot like right wing bs to me.
RnDC
IDK. I’d be pretty pissed off too if a porn company rented my house to shoot porn.
Chrisk
@RnDC. If you open your place up as a business then what difference does it make what they were doing as long as they’re not destroying the property? Porn is legal. I don’t see them having any legal standing.
gayjim1969
@Chrisk
The only way I can see Bassett having a case is if the rental agreement specifically included a clause prohibiting the rentee from subletting it or doing so for business reasons. Regardless, she will now, if she failed to do so in the past
PinkoOfTheGange
The rental agreement doesn’t have to have a no commercial use clause if the house is in a residential district.
ruffboy
Chrisk would you be happy if you rented out your place for the weekend and the tenant used it to host a KKK white supremacist gathering?
Chrisk
@ruffboy. Yeah kind of like if i find out they used it for a SSM ceremony. I mean what if the neighbors find out? I don’t care if I opened up my place as a business. I’m just not going to allow that nonsense.
MacAdvisor
One cannot defame someone in a legal pleading. Such filings have immunity. Moreover, one can accurately quote such pleadings and not be subject to defamation. I do not know the laws there in Massachusetts, but one cannot typically use photographs of such a place for commercial purpose without the owner’s consent. I can rent a beach house and take all the photos I want of my vacation, but I can’t take pictures of the house to sell.
The production company is welcome to use my place here in Sacramento.
toto2
According to the article, Bassett’s lawyer made the allegedly defamatory statements in a publication called the Vineyard Times, not the initial legal filing.
Outside the defamation issue, I’d agree that Mile High Media is clearly in the wrong for filming in this woman’s home without permission. Nevertheless, Bassett’s over-the-top moral outrage about the whole thing has been consistently ridiculous.
Chrisk
I should have read your comment first. I’ll defer to you as the resident lawyer here.
mhoffman9532
Plus it potentially devalues the home. If the homeowner were to sell the home, potential buyers may not buy it because its known as a porn house
Billy Budd
They could cum to my house and cum in my house as many times as they wished. LOL. I like eye candy.
jpcolter
As much as I personally enjoy porn, I am with the homeowner on this one. The porn company had no right to conduct commercial activity like this in her house and I totally agree that it could have an effect on her ability to lease it in the future. I personally wouldn’t want to use any of the things that were used in the film again. The porn company behaved very shadily here.
Felecia
Let’s look at why this homeowner is REALLY pissed off; because a family-member of mine who owns a beach house on Oahu, of the Hawaiian Islands USA, regularly rents his property to college kids on Spring Break/summer vacation. ‘Artifacts’ left from the heterosexual hook-ups are simply expected if not considered occupational hazards. At $3,000/per week for a 5bdrm home, my Uncle is doing just fine raking in the funds…even after supplying brand-new linens and such after each rental. And whether students or porn stars, nobody there gives a damn if the furnishings are Walmart-cheap, lol…put the heirloom stuff away in storage instead of assuming that tenants will appreciate your things as much as YOU do. This story has me thinking that the homeowner is ‘scandalized’ by the totally homosexual scripts and scenes, and perhaps now the neighbors are whispering, lol…I’m a lesbian, I agree with the film company’s right to make gay porn legally. I know the rent on this place wasn’t low, either. The owner should have packed her personal items away BEFORE accepting a check. Still; shooting juice all over homophobic Great Grandma’s needle-point, knowing the old gal is probably spinning in her grave over it, is waaay too tempting, lol….
PinkoOfTheGange
This was off season month to month rental. In the past people have respected her things, like most people do.
And Martha’s Vineyard isn’t party central even during high season.
tricky ricky
they shot porn in a rented house where they did not have permission to shoot it. the production company should have settled this. I think another blog has been requested by the woman’s attorney to supply information on the film company and the whackadoodle director.
to toto2: bassett can b*tch as much as she wants and as over the top as she wants. IT’S HER PROPERTY.
chris33133
Interesting case. I’m not sure that (legally) everything that is not explicitly prohibited in a rental agreement is therefore allowed.
Anyone want to bet that everything gets settled out of court BEFORE the production company has to show all the filming and spill all the details.
PinkoOfTheGange
Any one who is question the home owners basic rights being violated have never been property owners nor land lords.
Lvng1Tor
Beyond the legal questions involved in whether they had the right to film there, you are only assuming that everyone else “respected” her items. Just because it wasn’t caught on film (or that she never saw it) doesn’t mean someone else didn’t get down on the kitchen counter. As far as it being offseason, that property probably still goes for a pretty penny and I can tell you, don’t let the manicured lawns, garden parties fool you…there are some sick pervs out there doing things that would shock you (or not) I’ve personally been to some very nice properties that have fun rooms and there was always a mirror with weird white powder remnants on it. Not filming it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Plus, legal questions aside, it doesn’t say they trashed the place or destroyed her property. Does she take a black light through it after every rental? Doubtful.
SteveSE
I think you be clear though, when the owner of the house starts to rent out her ‘home’, it ceases to become a home, and instead becomes a business asset. It is she who has changed the status of the property from residential to commercial and in the first instance, and was she permitted to do that?
With regard to the comment made about the use for making porn films could devalue the property, similarly other residential home owners in the area may feel that he vacating her home and hawking the vacant property out to every Tom, Dick and Harry on Airbnb has a negative impact on their property values. I think someone needs to look first at whether she is permitted to do what she has done before getting started on the pornographers.
Having established that the house is not actually a home, but a business now – frankly as far as I’m concerned, you’re dumb as a plank of wood if you enter into a letting contract without ensuring that contract provides the restrictions and limitations you wish imposed on the person with which you are conducting business.
When you go rent a car there’s usually about 4 pages of 6 point font clauses we all fail to read on what we can and can’t (mostly can’t) do with the vehicle.
Yes, she’s upset – we’re all upset when we do something dumb, but upset because you’ve screwed up does not a law suit make.
ruffboy
Steve what if I rented your home and used it to host a party where me and my friends watch gay bashing videos recorded by other people. It’s not illegal but I doubt you’d be happy about that.
I’m not an attorney but I’d say this is more about respect than anything else. If they weren’t afraid why didn’t just ask the landlord if it was okay to shoot porn in the house prior to the contract being signed?
Chrisk
@SteveSE. The people that are for this woman and her lawsuit don’t realize that they’re making the case for the Bakers and the florist refusing SSM too. Hey it’s their business after and they shouldn’t have to cater to things they don’t like.
mhoffman9532
@Chrisk
A rental property is different than a bakery. You’ve clearly never owned rental property before.
Plus, upon further reading about the actual facts of this story from reputable news sites, unlike Queerty, it appears the porn company left the home in disarray and was delinquent on some rent payments.
The company was for Icon Male and disgraced porn producer, Nica Noelle, was in charge of this shoot. Nica Noelle allegedly created disgusting and unhealthy work environments for the porn stars in the home. Nica Noelle then fired the man who secured the lease agreement which made him delinquent in rent payments. Later on, some of the porn people on set contacted local newspapers and word got back to the home owner that this home was used for shooting porn. The homeowner was already furious about the failed rent payments and trashed home and was already planning to sue. This made it worse.
ruffboy
I like porn but I gotta say I’m on the landlord’s side. If anything its about respect. Why didn’t the porn company tell her what they planned to use the home for if they weren’t worried about it? I saw a preview of a case like this on judge judy I don’t know who won though.
oaksong
Unless the rental agreement had a o filming clause she has no case.
Juanjo
I own a place in Puerto Vallarta which I rent out. I have some issues with this woman’s claims. First, NO ONE puts specially designed, hand sown anything in a house they rent to the public. Most of my rentals are to middleaged couples, both gay and straight who are staying for a month or longer during the season. For the most part, they have been medical professionals, as I do not use BnB or other commercial rental services. So my rentals have been word of mouth from people who have been to PV in the past and stayed at my place or another of the nearby places and know the area.
I hate to break this to you but people fuck in vacation rentals. They fuck in the bedroom, the living room, on the terrace, on the kitchen counter, in the bathroom and probably on the dining room table. I have to regularly replace “stained” bed clothing. I have had the couch recovered once and the new covering is stain treated. My cleaning lady has regularly advised me of things she has found not to mention occasionally sent a photo from her phone because she figured I wouldn’t believe her. And a friend of mine sent me some photos he found in an online group which showed a little sex party in the bedroom. Nothing commercial, just amateur shots.
I have had people rearrange all the furniture. I had one guy walk off with two paintings he really liked. I told him I would contact the head of his medical department who had vouched for him and he returned them. I do not know what this woman’s rental agreement says but if it does not specifically say the property cannot be used for commercial purposes, she might have an issue with her case. As for the damage she claims occurred to the property, I hope she has video of this damage, documenting every bit of it. I personally or through an agent, I use, go through the place along with the renter, at the start of the rental with an inventory list and document everything in the place. I make the renter sign off on the inventory. At the end of the rental, we do the same thing.
nitejonboy
I love the choice of pictures in this article,,, the guy on the bed in the first picture looks like he has down syndrome,LOL…I can picture Corky from Life goes on begging for more!!
WhatUp86
Sounds like this lady is just trying to get something, Im in MA, Mile High Media, you can use my place to shoot! ha
Teddy Ready
It will be very Interesting to see how this Legal Battle will End. Personally, I see the angles of arguments on both sides. What I am not clear on is whether or not the Mile High Media Co. informed the Leasor of it’s intention of use and had permission to do so. The outcome of the Case will probably depend on a number of circumstances. Did the Rental Contract state a list of Rules and Regulations that forbids the sell of photography of the Rental Property, Did the Actions of Media Mile High break any Rules or Local Ordinances by their Actions, and Did the Media outfit Violate the Rental Property by Destruction of Property and any Damages incurred upon any Persons, Associates or Inhabitants of the Rental Property. For Mile High Media, they will have to Convince a Judge or Jury that the Portrayal of the Company in the Media by the Plaintiff was Negligent, misleading, inaccurate or purposely defamed by Negative Language or Demonstrated Descriptions that project unacceptable Social Behaviors that are illegal and grotesque.