Gayle King expressed her astonishment on Tuesday's CBS This Morning that two Catholic sisters were unmoved by Katy Perry, after the hyper-sexualized pop singer sang to them in an attempt to get them to sell their property in Los Angeles to her: "I was surprised to hear they met her, and still weren't impressed, because – you know, she's a doll! She's a really, really nice, nice girl." [video below]
Correspondent John Blackstone noted that "the nuns aren't swayed by the fact that Perry grew up the daughter of two evangelical ministers," and played up that "this fight over the nunnery may be more about money than morals."
Blackstone led his report by detailing that the "sprawling eight-acre estate in Los Angeles was home to the Sisters of the Most Holy and Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Now, pop superstar Katy Perry wants to move in and make it her own – to the tune of $14.5 million. But the singer is hitting a sour note with Sisters [Catherine] Rose and [Rita] Callanan, who lived there for years." Sister Callanan asserted that "it's a conscience matter. I do not want to sell the motherhouse and the retreat house to Katy Perry."
The CBS journalist then followed in the footsteps of NBC's Hallie Jackson from June 2015 in spotlighting the pastoral background of Perry's parents. He continued with his cynical line about "this fight over the nunnery...[being] more about money than morals," and outlined the dispute between the sisters and the Archdiocese of Los Angeles:
SISTER CATHERINE ROSE: The only thing is we want the money to come to us. The archbishop wants the money to go straight to him.
JOHN BLACKSTONE (voice-over): The nuns claim the archdiocese doesn't have the right to sell to Perry or anyone. They say they have already sold it to developer Dana Hollister.
CALLANAN: Dana Hollister is going to allow people to walk the grounds. It will be open.
BLACKSTONE (on-camera): Open to the public?
CALLANAN: Right.
BLACKSTONE: That's important to you – open to the public?
CALLANAN: It is.
BLACKSTONE (voice-over): But the archdiocese claims it's protecting the sisters from a bad deal – saying it was 'forced to take legal action to protect all the sisters from the unauthorized transaction by Dana Hollister,' who 'took possession of the property for only $44,000 in cash, and does not have to make any payments whatsoever to the sisters for three years.'
Near the end of his report, Blackstone again pointed out that Perry "started her career singing Christian music," and ended with the sisters' anecdote about their meeting with the singer:
BLACKSTONE (voice-over): Katy Perry, who started her career singing Christian music, even met the sisters to make her case.
BLACKSTONE (on-camera): Sang a gospel song for you?
CALLANAN: Oh, come on. (laughs)
BLACKSTONE: What did she sing?
ROSE: 'Oh, Happy Day.'
BLACKSTONE: It didn't impress you?
CALLANAN: Well, no.
BLACKSTONE: They may be getting on, but they can still 'roar.' (clip of Katy Perry's music video "Roar")
King, along with co-anchor Norah O'Donnell, then chimed in with their two cents on the dispute:
NORAH O'DONNELL: I think anybody who went to Catholic school knows, do not mess with the nuns, right? Yeah.
KING: Yeah. The sisters are definitely roaring. But it seems like there's more than just the dispute between them and Katy Perry.
O'DONNELL: No. And I think it's a dispute between the nuns and the archdiocese – yeah, really-
KING: Yeah. I was surprised to hear they met her, and still weren't impressed, because – you know, she's a doll!
O'DONNELL: She is!
KING: She's a really, really nice, nice girl.
O'DONNELL: Looking forward to see what eventually happens in that case.
