Huffington Post matriarch Arianna Huffington just got buggywhipped with a lawsuit alleging the outspoken Occupy Wall Street defender acted like a fool in her lavish 4,000 square foot Chelsea apartment, causing more than a quarter of a million dollars in damages some three miles from Zuccotti Park, where she had defended the hippies and vagrants who battled, and subsequently failed, to make rich people like herself feel bad.
The anti-HuffPo—the New York Post—has the deets:
When Huffington departed the 4,400 square foot, seven-story apartment at 227 W. 17th Street in January she'd caused $275,000 in damages ranging from "gouged, stained and otherwise damaged" walls, "scratched, punctured" wood floors, bloodied mattresses and broken appliances, the Manhattan Supreme Court suit charges.
"Huffington was using the apartment for large parties and business functions in breach of the sublease and Huffington's promises," court papers allege.
"Dishwasher racks, stove knobs and a refrigerator drawer were broken and had to be replaced," the loft's owner Eric Steel gripes in the complaint.
If the accusations are true, the failed California gubernatorial candidate, who drew less support from the public than political savants Cruz Bustamante and Peter Camejo, had a little too much fun at gatherings with fellow quinquagenarians she’s met from OurTime.com.
The alleged damage in Huffington’s flat includes an irreplaceable dining room table from Gwathmey that "had to be crated, hoisted out of the apartment and repaired by the original manufacturer."
So, in addition to appearing on Guardian Magazine’s ‘Best Dressed Over 50’ list along with Dame Helen Mirren and David Bowie, Arianna joins the ranks of distinguished personages who have been accused of having no regard for property, such as Major League Baseball pitcher Tim Lincecum and absentee father Jon Gosselin.
Huffington denies the charges and says she will fight the allegation. In similar pickles in the past, though, she has settled out of court.
Fellow media mogul and Obama supporter Jay-Z said it best. "You can pay for school but you can't buy class."