Director's suit claims buggy apartment

NEW YORK, Nov. 3 (UPI) -- Filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson and his girlfriend have filed suit in New York claiming they have been forced out of their apartment by bugs.

In the court papers, "Boogie Nights" director Anderson and girlfriend Maya Rudolph say they and their 1-year-old daughter were forced out of their SoHo apartment by bedbugs and broken promises, the New York Post reported Friday.

The owner of the apartment, Francis Feeney, and the couple's real-estate broker, Halstead Properties, "sold them a bill of goods," said their lawyer, Kenneth Glassman.

Glassman is seeking the return of Anderson's rent, security deposit and broker's commission and $350,000 in damages.

Anderson and Rudolph signed the lease for their apartment on Sept. 28, believing that they were moving into "a first-class luxury building" where "everything was near new and in excellent working order," the suit says.

The couple quickly discovered that Feeney hadn't done the repairs on the third-floor apartment that he'd agreed to do and that the elevator, which was a deciding factor for the couple, rarely worked, their suit claims.

The suit also claims Feeney and Halstead knew or should have known about the alleged bug infestation before renting the apartment.