Dance Break!

Katy Perry Dumps Husband and N.Y.C. Penthouse

SELLER: Katy Perry
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $2,750,000 (list); $2,625,000 (sale)
SIZE: 1,450 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: It will come as no surprise to celebrity real estate watchers that soon-to-be divorced blue-haired pop star Katy Perry wants to unload the petite New York City penthouse she bought just before her extravagant wedding to English comedian Russell Brand in the fall of 2010.

No official listing for Perry's penthouse appears online—at least not one Your Mama could find in our two admittedly half-assed few minutes of looking—but recent reports out of New York City indicate the California Gurl wants $2,750,000 for the loft-like aerie in TriBeCa that records reveal she scooped up in September 2010 for $2,680,000.

Listing information from the time Miz Perry purchased the penthouse shows it measures about 1,500 square feet with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room with exposed wood ceiling and built-in cherry wood cabinetry, a stainless steel kitchen open to the dining area, and a lower level limestone bathroom with radiant heated floor. A sculptural cherry wood staircase winds up to the penthouse's petite second floor master bedroom that does not appear in the floor plan to have a single closet but does offer a convenient if itty-bitty bathroom and direct access to a south facing terrace with open city views.

Your Mama discussed Miz Perry's penthouse pied a terre back in September 2010 when she added the penthouse to her property portfolio. The children will note that, as of this morning, the above listing photos and floor plan for Miz Perry's penthouse are from the time and show it as it was when she acquired it and, depending on any alterations they may have made, may not be a very good indication of the state of things today.

It's not clear if Miz Perry's soon-to-be ex-husband Mister Brand has any official/legal ownership of the penthouse but at the time of the purchase an anonymous source told the NY Post the couple purchased the property to help with their (no doubt) considerable tax burden. Make of that what you will.

The penthouse was sold at a small loss in July 2012 for $2,625,000.

Mister Brand and Miz Perry married in a lavish ceremony on a tiger preserve in India did not, for reasons unfathomable to Your Mama, sign a prenuptial agreement. Lucky for her Hello Kitty pocketbook, in a chivalrous (and probably good-for-publicity) move Mister Brand has allegedly declined the to accept the 50% portion of Miz Perry's earnings he's legally entitled to, which would be somewhere around twenty million clams.

That's all well and good but what Your Mama really wants to know is what's going to happen to the Los Angeles mansion the once happy couple picked up last summer for $6,500,000. Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran

Did Twilight Stud Rob Pattinson Buy a House?

Ever since he catapulted to international super-stardom in 2008 as the pasty-faced, 200-ish year old vampire Edward Cullen in the supernaturally successful Twilight film franchise, real estate gossips like Your Mama have spent far too much time wondering if and where publicity shunning English actor Rob Pattinson might set down some real estate roots in Los Angeles.

All the gossip glossies and celebrity-based blogs went bug-eyed berserk in summer 2010 when it was revealed 25 year old Mister Pattinson and his on- and off-screen love interest, the usually glowering 21 year old actress Kristen Stewart, were quietly shacked up in a leased Bel Air love nest on a secluded property perched directly above the sensationally scenic Stone Canyon Reservoir. It's not known—at least not by Your Mama—what exactly the young celebs paid for the hush-hush hideaway but we have seen evidence the glassy and very contemporary two-story, 1 bedroom and 2 bathroom cottage had been listed earlier in the year at a whopping $22,500 per month.

Once Miss Stewart and Mister Pattinson packed their bags and hightailed it out of Bel Air their real estate trail went bone dry. Then—listen for the screeching tires—out of nowhere: Kablam! Two days ago Your Mama stumbled upon a meticulously restored and beautifully maintained Spanish Colonial-style residence in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles with a long celebrity provenance and quietly purchased through a mysterious trust last September (2011) for the very-celebrity price of $6,275,000.

Being a curious and industrious beaver, we dug and drilled around in property records and quickly queried a few of our better informed informants, sources and resources who included a leg up by The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial. Several of our contacts determined the house in question was purchased through a trust with various and very direct connections to Rob Pattinson. One of the numerous clues, noticed by Your Mama and pointed out by two of our little helpers, is the purchasing trust's trustee is none other than Nicholas "Nick" Frenkel, the Twittering, long-time manager of Mister Pattinson who is often seen in photographs standing behind his professional charge.

The walled, gated, and no doubt heavily secured house, all but invisible from the street, was originally built in 1921 for an insurance executive by architect Stiles O. Clements. In 1993 the house, then in a sad state of neglect, was purchased for about $650,000 by English actor Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show) who fixed it up but good and had it photographed for the November 1998 issue of Architectural Digest. Mister Curry told Los Angeles magazine in 2000 that the extensive xeriscaped gardens, various terraces, amphitheater, and swimming pool situated at the top of the property, required the services of a full time gardener plus a garden consultant on retainer.
Mister Curry listed the house sometime around the turn of the last century for just under three million dollars and sold it in July 2000 for exactly $3,000,000 to a non-celebrity who quickly flipped it at a substantial loss to E.R. actor Noah Wylie who records (and previous reports) reveal scooped it up in October 2001 for $2,600,000.

Mister Wylie held on to the house for about three years when he sold it for $3,325,000 to Oscar winning cinematographer Robert Richardson (JFK, The Aviator, Inglourious Basterds, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and II) who flipped the property in less than two years with a significant profit for $5,200,000. Are y'all following along? At the time it was sold to Mister Richardson, it was described in the L.A. Times by celebrity real estate column pioneer Ruth Ryon as having 3 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms in just over 4,000 square feet of interior space with hand carved and hand stenciled ceilings.

We're not exactly sure who purchased the property from Mister Richardson in 2006 but property records are clear that in early September 2011 a trust our (re)sources, including the always impeccably informed Lucy Spillerguts, can link to Mister Pattinson—or at least Mister Pattinson's people—swooped in and scooped up the celebrity-style property for $6,275,000. We find no evidence the house was listed on the open market.

Now listen, chickens, let's use them noodles for a moment, shall we? Even though all signs (and sources) point to Mister Pattinson as the new man of the house, Your Mama has no direct knowledge him ever setting foot on this property. That means it's all just rumor and gossip at this point, just rumor and gossip. Plus, the property seems, at least to Your Mama, a bit extravagant and high maintenance for such a young (and unmarried) man. But, then again, the real estate ways of the rich and/or famous are often so baffling and inexplicable to those on the outside looking in.

None of nearby famous neighbors may currently cope with the same level of global popularity as Mister Pattinson does but they are certainly no strangers to the klieg lights of Tinseltown. Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale used to live a few doors down before they bought Jennifer Lopez's old house off Mulholland Drive and Kirstie Alley has been a long time resident of the immediate vicinity. Michael Balzary, otherwise known as Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, is also a new resident of the low-key but very posh 'hood that butts up against Griffith Park; He dropped $4,550,000 last July acquire a gated mini-compound with a long, serpentine driveway.

One more thing, butter beans: Any of you people who have the wild notion to hop in your hoopdie and head on out to Los Feliz to see if you can catch a glimpse of Mister Pattinson setting out his trashcans or pulling out the gated driveway would be wise to just stay at home. Not only is that a damn fool thing to do, the house ain't visible from the street and we imagine Mister Pattinson employs a small army of voraciously choleric security men who would sooner chop your block off than let you roll slowly by or—heaven forfend—stand around in the street with your smart phones gawking and screaming like school girls. Okaaay?

aerial photo: Pacific Coast News

Afternoon Delight: Petra Ecclestone

In case any of y'all ain't seen it yet, the fashion industry bible known as W recently published a lengthy article pun-ishly entitled Lady of the Manor about Formula One racing heiress Petra Ecclestone and the newly overhauled 56,500 square foot Los Angeles, CA mega-mansion she snatched up last summer from wealthy Tinseltown widow Candy Spelling for a throat-tightening $85,000,000.

We're gonna discuss the article a bit here because we thought it was high-larious and just can't resist. However, Your Mama suggests all y'all scoot on over to W and read the entire thing because it'll be damn delicious to anyone who has any interest at all in the lifestyle of an exceptionally pampered 23-year old heiress with seemingly unlimited access to a multi-billion dollar fortune.

Out, the article's writer Dana Goodyear reveals, went all Miz Spelling's chintz-y, Rich-But-Boring-Grandma day-core and replaced with "dark velvets" and "little crystals." Gone is the gift wrapping room, now an office for Miss Ecclestone's assistant. And away went Miz Spellings (in)famous and—let's be honest—freaky-deaky doll museum, replaced by a fully-equipped spa facility outfitted with massage parlor, three hair stations, and two mani-pedi chairs.

Upstairs there remain six "enormous" family/guest suites and a master suite Miz Goodyear pegs at an astonishing and all but unfathomable 7,000 square feet. The mansion-sized master suite contains, as per the article, a living room, bedroom, kitchen, his and her bathrooms and his and her walk-in closet/dressing rooms, the hers of which is described by Miz Goodyear as having a pair of glass-topped center islands, a second floor accessible by not one, children, but two staircases, and plenty of shelf space for Miss Ecclestone's epic, multi-colored collection of 25 Birkin bags.

Miss Ecclestone, now toiling as a handbag designer for her own label, shares her newly redone Holmby Hills residence, described by Miz Goodyear as all dolled up like a "massive VIP lounge," with a pack of pure bred dogs and her 30-year old husband of six months James Stunt. Mister Stunt, Miss Ecclestone told Miz Goodyear, "owns gold mines," which, she went on to say, is "very random."

Only about a year before dropping 85 million big ones on her Los Angeles residence Miss Ecclestone plunked down a staggering $87 million (or thereabouts) on a 20,000 square foot Grade II listed spread in London's Cheslea 'hood.

Now then, with that as an appetizer, get on over to W and get the rest of the juicy details that will surely make any number of the children drool with envy, foam with righteous anger, or both.