By M&C News Jul 6, 2006, 18:57 GMT
According to PageSix.com, Marlon Brando was in such bad shape three weeks before he died, he couldn't have known what he was signing when he changed his will, claims the woman who took care of the acting legend during the final years of his life.
Brando's caregiver, Angela Borlaza, is suing the Brando estate in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that the will's co-executors, producer Mike Medavoy and his brother-in-law Larry J. Dressler, ignored Brando's wishes.
Borlaza wants more than $2 million in damages. She claims Brando intended for her to keep a house he bought for her in Winnetka section of Woodland Hills, located in the San Fernando Valley, but the executors had her evicted last year.
Medavoy and Dressler gained control of the estate when they added a codicil to Brando's will 13 days before his death on July 1, 2004. It made them co-executors, replacing Brando's personal assistant Alice Marshak and business partner Jo An Corrales.
Borlaza says Brando's signature on the codicil might be forged because he was so ill with a "plethora of diseases," including dementia, he couldn't have been competent to sign any papers.
The suit claims that when Dressler and his lawyer Charles Larson arrived at Brando's house June 18, 2004, they told Borlaza she couldn't witness the codicil signing, and instead insisted that Brando's handyman, identified only as "Sam," serve as witness.
Meanwhile, Medavoy is wasting no time turning part of the estate into a cash windfall of his own. PageSix reports the producer is planning to build a big resort on Brando's Tahitian island and will fly there next month to break ground with actor, Johnny Depp.
The island is said to be worth more than $20 million but could be worth far more after it's developed for tourism. Brando died without much money, and the island is the estate's only big asset. His nine living children are in less than stellar financial shape.
An unnamed source told Page Six, "Apparently this is what Medavoy managed to do by getting hold of the estate. It wasn't about inheriting money, that all went to the kids. It was about managing the island and other business affairs."
Your Talkback on this Story