Actor Testifies in Suit Over Home Repairs

In Los Angeles Superior Court Wednesday, actor Michael J. Fox took the stand to deny that the master suite of his former Studio City home looked like a “teen-age boy’s fantasy” of a “playboy’s life.”

“Actually it was a 21-year-old boy’s fantasy of a playboy’s life,” quipped Fox, now 32, who was in his early 20s when he had the room remodeled.

Michele Ader, who filed suit against Fox to recover landscaping and repair expenses to the $750,000 ranch home she bought from the actor in 1990, had earlier in the trial described the bedroom as a “teen-age boy’s fantasy” of a “bachelor pad.”

Fox’s off-the-cuff remark, and others made throughout his brief and otherwise uneventful testimony, triggered laughter from jurors as well as from the actor’s entourage of attorneys and publicists.

“This is pretty dry stuff,” Fox said after the court recessed for the day. “This isn’t the Buttafuocos.”

At issue is who is responsible for landscaping and repairs to a gated house nestled in the mountains between Mulholland Drive and Laurel Canyon Boulevard.

Ader contends that Fox failed to repair a leaky roof and deal with a potential termite problem in the home’s foundation. Furthermore, she contends, he should have replaced numerous ficus trees killed by frost and more than a dozen diseased cypress trees that subsequently died.

Fox, who now lives in New York, testified that he was unaware that the cypress trees were sick when he sold the house to Ader. He also told jurors that he entrusted his accountant and his father-in-law with negotiations regarding the specific terms of the home’s sale.

Fox’s real estate agents also testified in court that they sold the house to Ader in an “as is” condition. Ader disputes that claim, saying the “as is” clause was not included in the written sales contract.