Just when you thought the mystery of where ex-Beatle George Harrison died might have been solved, it may actually have deepened.
A spokesman for ex-Beatle Paul McCartney Thursday strongly denied a local television report that said Harrison, who died of cancer in Los Angeles on Nov. 29, passed away at a house owned by McCartney. He also said McCartney did not even own a house in California.
The Los Angeles affiliate of the UPN network, UPN News 13, reported Tuesday that Harrison died at a secluded home in Beverly Hills that McCartney bought from rock star Courtney Love six months ago. The station said that two weeks before Harrison’s death, McCartney visited him and told him he could borrow the secluded home, tucked away behind a gated driveway and located near the UCLA Medical Center where Harrison received cancer treatments in his last weeks of life.
But McCartney spokesman Paul Freundlich told Reuters Thursday that the report was “complete and utter fiction.” He added, “The fact is that Paul McCartney does not own a home in the state of California, never mind Beverly Hills.”
Freundlich said McCartney had briefly rented a house in California several months ago while recording his new album, “Driving Rain,” but that he had “absolutely not” offered any purchased or rented home for Harrison’s use in his last days.
UPN News 13 News Director Larry Peret declined immediate comment on Freundlich’s remarks.
Since Harrison’s death last month rumors and controversy have swirled over the location of his death. At the time the media were told he died at the home of a friend, security consultant Gavin de Becker, who made the announcement that he had passed away.
The official death certificate, however, listed an address which postal and other authorities have since said does not appear to exist.
A Los Angeles police spokesman said no one had been charged with any offense over the elusive address, saying the practice was sometimes used by celebrities to avoid their place of death being besieged by fans or souvenir hunters.
A Los Angeles attorney last week filed an official complaint over the accuracy of the death certificate because it listed an apparently nonexistent address as his place of death.
Attorney Gloria Allred said she lodged her complaint with the Los Angeles Police Department because the “integrity of public records is at stake.” Police said it was not a crime to list a false address as long as there was no intent to defraud.
Harrison, 58, shied away from publicity after the breakup of The Beatles and his death was not announced until his body had already been cremated.
