Faye Dunaway Left Before She Could Be Evicted

At least that's what she told The New York Times

In a follow up to yesterday's report on her eviction, actress Faye Dunaway called The New York Times to tell them she has already moved out of her New York City apartment. Her landlord filed court papers to evict her from her rent controlled apartment Tuesday. He requested she move out on July 31, the last day of her lease. He stands to make twice as much money from rent when she leaves. The actress phoned and left three messages with The Times explaining that she could not have been evicted. "I have not been evicted," she said. "I have chosen to leave because of the state of the apartment, and also because I am spending less and less time in New York." She said in one her phone messages she left the apartment in May because of the awful condition of the place. The landlord refused to paint the yellow walk-up and there were bugs everywhere, she said.

She also told The Times her mentor, playwright William Alfred, lived at the apartment and she was working to donate his belongings to the Brooklyn College. This turned out to be true. Dunaway has donated "some of Mr. Alfred’s books, play posters and collection of eight cuckoo clocks," over the last year, according to a spokesman for the school. She contacted the school as early as last week to donate more of Alfred's items. Unfortunately, her landlord's lawyer, Craig Charie, says she isn't out of the apartment yet.

He provided three voice mail messages that Ms. Dunaway left for Mr. Moses on Wednesday morning in which she offered to hand back the apartment keys, told the landlord that she had moved out in May and informed Mr. Moses that she was arranging for a moving company to pick up some papers.

Charie said his client isn't allowed to remove any of her stuff until he has her consent. "What if she goes in there and later claims, ‘I had the Hope Diamond there and my Oscar in there and you took it’?" he said. In response to the pesky insect accusations, Charie told The Times the apartment has an exterminator service come by once a month to prevent bug infestation, and tenants have the ability to request special visits if they have an emergency. When Dunaway called The Times she called her landlord "a slum lord" and said that "he has no class." Charie played another message Dunaway left for his client to The Times where she simply said, "I hope you have a terrible life."