Thanks to nearby residents who endure large trucks, smelly diesel generators, bright lights shining in their windows and even the occasional explosion, Alverno Heights Academy in Sierra Madre has been a wildly popular location for film and television studios.

The Italian-style of architecture of the school’s historic Villa del Sol d’Oro — a two-thirds replica of the Villa Collazzi near Florence, Italy — has been a backdrop of such productions as “The Princess Diaries,” “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Beverly Hills 90210” and “Legally Blonde.” Guns N’ Roses’ music video for “November Rain” shows a wedding at the villa.

But now, the school’s latest starring role has raised questions about the legitimacy of the approval process for these large productions.

Several residents allege that a Paramount television production used fake signatures and addresses to secure a city permit in January to shoot scenes from “The Offer,” a miniseries about the production of “The Godfather.” Sierra Madre requires more than half the neighbors within 250 feet of a filming location to approve of the production before a permit is issued, according to a city spokesperson.

But because the city does little to verify whether the names and address are valid, the episode exposes a critical gap in the process that gives Hollywood access to location shoots — in Sierra Madre and possibly elsewhere.

Resident sleuths

The Southern California News Group confirmed with six residents that the names listed with their addresses for the Paramount production were not accurate. Those same residents said they did not recognize any of the 40 names on the list.

Resident Leesa Puleo, who has spent years battling Alverno and the city over disruptions caused by filming, was surprised to see her address listed among the residents approving of the production. The name next to it, however, was not hers.

Puleo and other neighbors opposed to the filming checked the names on the list against those on petitions they’d collected related to the school in the past. None matched. Then they went door to door and found a similar response.

“All of the people I spoke with indicated that their names were incorrect,” Puleo said.

Beyond names, the signature sheet lists a street and house numbers that seemingly don’t exist, according to maps and property records. Several addresses were listed on West Michillinda, an avenue that runs north and south.

Alverno Heights Academy is a frequent location for film productions in the Los Angeles area. Neighbors, however, have complained of bright lights, loud noises and even explosions in Sierra Madre on Friday, March 4, 2022. (Photo by Keith Birmingham, Pasadena Star-News/ SCNG)

Puleo and the other residents said this specific production stood out because none of them could remember receiving any information about it in advance. The signature collectors typically go door to door, provide a memo about the size of the production and ask residents to check a box indicating whether they approve or disapprove of the filming.

Someone knocks on the door on a weekly basis, according to Puleo. For “The Offer,” not a single resident checked “no,” though filming is a hot-button issue in the neighborhood.

Honor system

Reached by phone, Lawren Heinz, Sierra Madre’s film coordinator, initially denied the possibility that the signature sheet could have been fabricated. She said she verifies signatures by matching “them the best I can.” Residents said they’d been told in the past that the city does its “due diligence” to check the signatures.

Heinz then forwarded a reporter to the city’s spokesperson, who stated the city does not conduct extensive verification. In fact, it seems to rely on an honor system.

Laura Aguilar, Sierra Madre’s administrative services manager and spokesperson, said the city accepts the applications for film permits with the belief that the “supporting documentation is true and factual.”

“The City of Sierra Madre does not contact the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office to determine if the signers are the true owners of the property,” she said. “Nor does the city contact each signer to determine if the signature is theirs. Up to this point, the City has not had any claims that the dispute the validity of any of the supporting documents attached to a film permit.”

According to Aguilar, the city previously sent out its own staff to collect the signatures, but the process was deemed too labor intensive and costly. Now, the applicant is responsible for the costs and they hire a third-party vendor to carry out the task, she said.

Aguilar plans to forward the concerns to the Sierra Madre Police Department to investigate. “These are serious allegations and we do not take them lightly,” she said.

Jake Torres, the location manager listed on the film permit, did not return a call for comment. Neither did Andrea Bertollini, the film liaison for the school.

Bustling venue

Nearby residents have clashed with Alverno Heights Academy and the city over filming and events at the school for years. The city has approved 20 film permits at the school in the past 12 months, according to Aguilar. That doesn’t include the weddings, parties, extracurricular sports and other events hosted there daily, beyond the typical school activities. Though originally an all-girls preparatory high school, Alverno Heights Academy expanded in the 2020-21 school year to include coed classes for transitional kindergarten through eighth grade.

Residents interviewed spoke of numerous disruptions to their day-to-day lives. Productions have closed off the street, requiring residents to show identification just to get home. Cranes have blocked driveways, and shoots that are supposed to end at 7 p.m. have allegedly continued hours past the cutoff.

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A few said they don’t oppose filming in general and have signed off on productions in the past, though they also noted what they perceived as an increase in activity at the school in recent years.

Puleo said the school is rented almost daily, while filming is typically limited to the weekends.

“We’ve gone to many City Council meetings, many city planning meetings, and told them what is happening,” Puleo said.

But she and others say complaints often elicit the same response: “They have a permit.”