WILLIAM FRIEDKIN - FRIEDKIN AND LANSING SUE SECURITY FIRM

Director WILLIAM FRIEDKIN is suing a security company, claiming it ignored his house alarm when he was burgled. The Exorcist film maker and his wife, former studio boss Sherry Lansing, allege ADT Security Services let them down when their Bel Air, California home was invaded last December (07). A lawsuit filed at Los Angeles County Superior Court on Wednesday (29Aug07), claims the couple hired ADT because it promised to make their home "three times less likely to be burglarized". But they maintain it took security guards one hour and forty-five minutes to arrive on the scene after the alarm was set off, and they then left without investigating or notifying the couple or police. The suit claims when the couple's housekeeper arrived at the house the following day, the alarm was still sounding and the house was disturbed. Jewellery, some of it irreplaceable, was stolen during the raid. Friedkin and Lansing are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.