'Heidi Klum of Foot Models' Sues Neighbors

Nov. 23, 2009 — -- World-famous hand and foot model Christina Ambers has filed a $10 million lawsuit against her posh Manhattan apartment building, alleging she's faced discrimination since she married the building's former doorman last July.

"These snooty Upper East Side people who live in co-ops are very upset that the gentleman who once hailed the taxi for them or announced the guest for them is now the husband of a shareholder in the building," said Ambers' lawyer, Josh Price. "They resent that he is being treated as one of them."

Dubbed the "Heidi Klum of foot models" by New York magazine, Christina Ambers has posed in ad campaigns for beauty giants, including Maybelline and Clinique. Her hands and feet have appeared in several films.

"I enjoy what I do, though it is hard work," Ambers said.

Last week Ambers filed suit in Manhattan Supreme Court against the management and residents of Avon House, her building in a wealthy Manhattan neighborhood. Some apartments in the 12-story apartment house have sold their homes for more than $1 million.

Ambers alleges that since she married Angel Rotger, a former Avon House porter and doorman, the building's staff and residents have verbally harassed them and, in one case, physically assaulted Rotger. Her lawyer alleges the building's board is trying to push them out of the apartment Christina purchased.

Avon House residents are "discriminating against these people because she chose to marry the Hispanic doorman in an Upper East Side Building," said Price.

"The other people in the building looked down on them, snickered at them, glared at them, made them feel very unwanted, very uncomfortable," Price continued.

"We have been treated very badly," said Ambers. " There has been resentment, and we have truly been shunned by everyone here."

Ambers first moved into Avon House in 2003 and said she enjoyed living there. In 2006 Angel Rotger became a doorman at the building on East 74th street.

"We met in the building and developed a friendship. That friendship developed into love," she said.