Date: 30th December 2000

Insurance Company Sues Macauley Culkin


Former child star MACAULAY CULKIN is being sued by an insurance company for money it paid to tenants who suffered losses in a fire that began in his family's high-rise apartments.

The suit by TRAVELERS PROPERTY CASUALTY, which names Culkin's parents, and the owners and managers of the apartment building, seeks more than $113,000 (£75,000) paid in claims to five policyholders. Fire investigators said the 23 December 1998 blaze apparently started in a wall-mounted heater in one of the Culkins' two 19th- floor apartments.

Fire officials said the fire and the smoke spread through nearby floors of the 51-story building because the Culkin children's mother, PATRICIA BRENTRUP, left her apartment door open when she and her children fled.

Brentrup and several of her younger children live in the apartments. KIT CULKIN, the father of their seven children, is estranged from their mother and lives in another apartment in the building. JOHN BLOCH, a spokesman for the Culkins, said he had not seen the lawsuit and had no comment.

(MCM/WNWCFU)

Source: WENN