HACKENSACK, N.J. -Geraldo Rivera is suing the co-op board of the housing development he lives in, alleging members wrongly kept a $10,000 deposit on one of his properties and prevented him from buying another.

The Fox News senior correspondent owns two homes in the 26-acre Edgewater Colony, where residents own their homes but share ownership of the land.

Rivera said the board refuses to return the security deposit for construction of the first home he bought about five years ago, among other allegations.

"They are arbitrarily and capriciously interfering with my house, down to minimalist details like whether or not I should have a fish tank, or whether I should plant a certain kind of flower or tree," he told The Record of Bergen County for Saturday's editions.

Karen Painter Randall, a lawyer for Edgewater Colony, said the lawsuit is "entirely without merit."

"We intend to aggressively defend the case and have reserved our right to seek an award of counsel fees and costs due to the frivolous nature of the lawsuit," she said in a written statement.

In a letter sent earlier this year to the colony's board, Rivera said he believes that work he has done on his property has improved the value of all the development's properties.

"I pay my taxes, pick up my trash, donate to local charities and cherish the Hudson and the rich history of Burdett's Landing," Rivera wrote. "I intend living here always, hopefully in peace and loving my neighbors.

"But if you want war, then you will get one,"he wrote.

Film tells pope's life story

WARSAW, Poland - Italian producers began shooting a television film about the life of Pope John Paul II in southern Poland, where the pontiff grew up and began his church career.

The film crew began shooting scenes Saturday of a young and athletic Karol Wojtyla kayaking in Lake Dobczyce near Krakow, where he served as bishop from the 1950s, said Marcin Marcinkiewicz, a spokesman for the producers.

Karol, the story of a man who became popeis to be broadcast in two 90-minute segments on Italian television. Production is expected to finish next spring, but no date has been set for the broadcast.

The film is adapted from a historical account by Italian writer Gian Franco Svidercoschi, with the first part set during World War II and the second in postwar Poland.

"The pope has seen the screenplay,"Marcinkiewicz told the Associated Press. While most of the movie will be filmed in Poland, some scenes will be shot at the Vatican, he said.

Single page