Tenant Loses Bid to Oust Crew of Rob Lowe Film

A street-corner preacher who took movie star Rob Lowe and his Hollywood production company to court Wednesday lost his legal battle to stop the filming at his co-op apartment building of what he called an “immoral and sinful” movie.

John Medford, 47, a church maintenance chief and tenant at Glen-Donald Apartments, was denied a temporary restraining order by Superior Court Judge Kurt Lewin, who ruled that Trans World Entertainment and the “Bad Influence” production company had a legal contract with the board of governors of the building to shoot scenes there.

The judge suggested that Medford could “go to Carmel or pull his window blinds” while the filming is going on in the old Victorian-style building west of downtown. He added that Medford and other disgruntled tenants could get rid of their governing board if they did not like how they were conducting business.

“God’s will will be worked out,” said Medford after hearing the ruling. He had bowed his head in prayer while his attorney was in chambers with the judge.

Medford, who came to court with his attorney and a Bible, cited Lowe’s recent notoriety in allegedly videotaping himself in a sex act with a 16-year-old girl as reason for opposing the filming.

Hollywood producer Steven Tish, who came to court with an entourage of attorneys and assistants, said that the issue was one of free speech and a valid business contract. “I’m relieved that we won’t have to rebuild a $150,000 set. It’s time to go to work,” he said.

Medford’s attorney, Chris Troupis, argued that his client’s right to privacy was jeopardized by the movie filming and that co-op owners should have been able to vote on the issue.

“It’s tacky, disgusting and wrong as can be,” Medford said. “They are using the movie . . . to exploit what happened in Atlanta. He (Lowe) is a bad influence on millions of young teen-age fans.”

Lowe in May was accused by a Georgia mother in a federal suit of enticing her teen-age daughter into performing with him in a sexually explicit video. The “Lowe tapes,” as they are being called, allegedly were made by Lowe during an encounter with a then-16-year-old girl and another young woman during last summer’s Democratic National Convention in Atlanta.

Medford had a petition with signatures of 27 residents of the building at 2121 W. 9th St. who he said agreed with him.

But Erban Flinchum, president of the co-op governing board, said that a majority of tenants agreed to the filming. The co-op will use the $6,000 rental fee to put in a new security buzzer and fencing. Several other films, including two in which Clint Eastwood starred, have been shot at the building, prized by film companies because it looks like a Manhattan apartment building.

Lowe portrays a handsome but manipulative cad in “Bad Influence.” Screenwriter David Koepp recently described the character as “one of those guys who your friends tell you to stay away from, but you don’t want to because he’s so much fun.”

Lowe has been one of the darlings of Hollywood the last few years, commanding $1 million to $1.5 million per picture. He has been linked romantically to Fawn Hall, Melissa Gilbert and Princess Stephanie of Monaco, among others. Since the lawsuit in Atlanta was filed, Lowe has been subject of much controversy. Teen-age girls make up a big part of Lowe’s audience, and Teen magazine pulled his picture from an upcoming cover. Lowe’s attorney, Dale Kinsella, said recently of the federal suit: “Rob has been the subject of a bungled, yet deplorable, attempt to extort money.” Court papers allege that the girl’s family sought as much as $500,000 to ensure that no suit would be filed.

Medford, who said he is a worship leader at the Southern Baptist Church in Hollywood and does sidewalk preaching downtown weekly, said that during his “hippie days” he used to smoke marijuana and once did jail time for selling drugs.

But he said, “I got spiritually saved at the downtown Produce Market in 1974.” Medford said he was walking out of the basement of the vegetable company where he worked as a laborer when a revelation hit him, and he changed his ways.

“I hope the same (spiritual awakening) happens to Rob Lowe,” he said.