Monday, June 4, 2012

Amy Winehouse's Father Lists Her London Bedsit

SELLER: estate of Amy Winehouse
LOCATION: London, U.K.
PRICE: £2,699,950
SIZE: (approximately) 2,500 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Listen children there has been a death in Your Mama's family—RIP Meemaw—so we've been a bit sluggish in getting to some of the hottest stories the last week or so and expect we'll be bringing up the celebrity real estate rear for another week.

In an effort to fill in a few of the many gaps we left gaping last week, over the next couple days we're going to briefly give our meaningless two cents about a few stories that some of y'all may (or may not) have already heard and/or read. Iffin that's the case, and you're just so over this big of celebrity property business, then move along little doggy. Your Mama will have some fresh meat for you to gnash at and gnaw on soon enough. Capisce? Capisce.

Everybody knows throwback (and throw-it-down) rocker Amy Winehouse died tragically and young—she was just 27—in July 2011 when she, quite literally, drank herself to death inside her walled and gated, Georgian-style home on London's Camden Square.

After months of mulling, Miss Winehouse's estate–managed by her father Mitch—has opted to sell his deceased daughter's architecturally dignified semi-detached and recently listed the structurally and cosmetically renovated and upgraded residence with an asking price of £2,699,950. A quick consult with Your Mama's currency conversion contraption reveals that amounts to 4,146,450 U.S. dollars at today's rates.

Miss Winehouse's modestly-scaled if hardly-inexpensive house measures about 2,500 square feet over 4 floors with a total of 3 bedrooms and 2 full and 2 half bathrooms. A stoop set in the walled and gated front garden opens to a long entry/stair hall with dark mocha-colored hardwood floors, crisp white walls, period moldings and, at the back under the stairs, a could-still-use-a-redo powder pooper.

The dark wood floors continue into the sitting room at the rear of the main floor outfitted with more period moldings, a decorative fireplace flanked by open shelving and a broad bay window with back garden view. The eat-in kitchen at the front of the house has vinyl black and white checkerboard flooring, glossy black lacquer cabinetry, jet black granite counter tops and a pair of side-by-side vintage-style white fridge/freezers.

One floor below, in the all-but-above-ground, wood-floored basement, there's a sound-proofed family room slathered an unholy shade of lipstick red paint, a modernized half crapper and a still-fully-equipped home gym with French doors that connect to the back garden. It's hard to believe all this equipment was used by Miss Winehouse who never looked particularly healthy or fit. Thin maybe, but robust, no. Whatever.

On the second floor—that's the first for for Brits—two guest/family bedrooms with custom wardrobes share a hall bathroom. One more flight up the full-floor master suite has a vaulted ceiling; over-sized wardrobe-lined dressing room; separate bedroom; and adjoining, en suite facility with black and white marble tile work, separate, glass-enclosed shower and freestanding and claw-footed soaking tub set unnecessarily at a catty wompus angle

A walled and gated courtyard at the front of the property probably didn't see much use by Miss Winehouse who was regularly besieged by fans and paparazzi outside her front gate. The area opposite her former home is still treated as a bit of a shrine with an apron of flowers, candles, and notes written to and/or about the multiple Grammy winner. The rear garden—unfortunately only accessible via a potentially treacherous trek through the gym—perhaps saw more use by the usually very pale-skinned Miss Winehouse with its sunken stone terrace, small patch of grass and tree- and shrubbery-ringed perimeter.

There has been a bit of brouhaha, we've bee told by a Brit or two, instigated by some of Miss Winehouse's still-faithful fans who feel Daddy Winehouse is profiteering by the sale of his deceased daughter's house. We're not sure what these people think Mister Winehouse ought to do with the multi-million dollar mini-manse where his daughter lived and died in such a dreadful and deadly (if wildly creative) manner. Move in to it?

We know there was talk of running some sort of Amy Winehouse foundation out of the house but, be honest, would you want to go to work in the same house where your 20-something year old, global superstar daughter met her early and ugly end? What we say isn't worth the time it takes to type it but as far as we're concerned Mummy and Daddy Winehouse ought to do what they need to do to settle their hearts no doubt left jagged by the loss of their daughter and if it's selling her damn house, then sell the damn house.

listing photos and floor plan: HouseNetwork.co.uk via RightMove.co.uk

Edie Falco Dumping Downtown Duplex Digs

SELLER: Edie Falco
LOCATION: New York, NY
PRICE: $5,500,000
SIZE: 3,006 square feet, 3-4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Much lauded and applauded (and actually talented) film and television actress Edie Falco, we learned from The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial, recently put her duplex penthouse pad in lower Manhattan's trendy and expensive TriBeCa 'hood on the market with a celebrity-sized asking price of $5,500,000.

Famously low-key Miz Falco has toiled in the high-gloss Big Bizness of Show since the late 1980s and by the mid-1990s she'd worked it out as a tough-talking staple on a number of urban cop dramas including Homicide: Life on the Street, New York Undercover, and Law & Order. She catapulted to boob-toob super-stardom in 1999 on The Sopranos as the long-suffering, materialistic and blunt-edged Carmela Soprano, a plum part for which she picked up 3 Emmys plus 3 more nominations.

When The Sopranos came to an end in 2007 she quickly landed a guest-starring role on 30 Rock, for which she received an Emmy nomination. For the last two years Miz Falco has sublimely starred as the savvy, deeply-flawed, steely-spined and desperately vulnerable Jackie Peyton on Nurse Jackie. She received an Emmy in 2010 and an Emmy nomination in 2011 (plus two Golden Globe nominations) for that part.

Along the way she's exercised her thespian extremities with a handful of stage performances both on and off Broadway. Last year she received a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Bananas Shaughnessy in the Broadway revival of the black comedy House of Blue Leaves with Ben Stiller and Jennifer Jason Leigh. As far as Your Mama is concerned the lady is the real damn deal and not one of those awful and overly injected, straw thin ingenues who, bless their hearts, always get paired romantically with a actor-man well beyond old enough to be her father or grandfather.

But anyhoo, we're not here to critique Hollywood's creepy casting ways so let's move on to the matter at hand, shall we? Property records show Miz Falco, a 20-years-sober and never-married single mother of two adopted youngsters, scooped up her downtown duplex penthouse in July 2004 for $3,800,000. Current listing information shows the pricey-and-well-conceived-but-not-particularly-fancy penthouse occupies the top two floors of a non-descript, doorman-less building opposite a titanic tri-towered housing complex and measures a somewhat modest 3,006 square feet with 3-4 bedrooms and 3 (windowless) bathrooms.

Floor plans included with listing information shows the open-plan, loft-like main living space has lustrous, honey-colored hardwood floors; 12-foot ceilings; a trio of 4-pane, west-facing windows; a wood-burning fireplace in the living room area with integrated wood storage box; one, long (and, let's be honest, rather cliché) exposed brick wall; and a contemporary, cook-friendly kitchen with sleek cabinetry (that may or may not be walnut or cherry), center work island with snack counter and all the customary higher-grade stainless steel appliances.

The day-core in the main living area is, to be sure, spare and entirely uninspired. The over-stuffed, beige sectional sofa is one thing but we are stricken with an uncontrollable panic over what appears to be a chocolate brown recliner in her living room. Hunny. No. Your Mama knows you are probably ex-owstuhd after a long day of taping Nurse Jackie and that thing is probably a deliciously ass-coddling place to settle in to. However, maybe for your next home you'll let a nice-gay or lady decorator find you a luscious, dignified and equally ass-coddling armchair and ottoman in to which you can tumble in the evenings, weary from work? Please?

A long corridor gets wider as it stretches east from the kitchen/dining area back towards two squeezy guest/family bedrooms that share a (windowless) hall bath. In between the bedroom and kitchen dining area there's a convenient but windowless study (or fourth bedroom) and a service area that contains laundry facilities tucked into a closet, some desirable storage space and a three-quarter guest bathroom.

A narrow-looking, floating steel staircase with riser-free wood treads hugs the exposed brick wall and connects to the penthouse's second floor where the quite-petite master bedroom has a raised platform for the bed and a full wall of wood-framed, floor-to-ceiling glass sliders that glide open to an east-facing planted terrace a couple of sun-bathing beds. A short hall passes the walk-in closet/dressing room and connects to a sky-lit bathroom with double sinks and nicely-tiled but pretty pedestrian combination tub/shower.

The trapezoidal stair landing/gallery also has sliding doors that access that east-facing terrace as does a den/family room/potential bedroom that opens through a full-wall of floor-to-ceiling, wood-framed sliders to an approximately 600 square foot west facing terraced sparsely planted and furnished with a matching set of probably expensive patio furniture that may be teak or bamboo or ipe or some other elements withstanding wood.

Your Mama isn't really sure what Miz Falco's real estate future holds—a move to the west coast seems improbable—but our research shows in the fall of 2010 Miz Falco sold a modest house in Northport, NY on Long Island where she went to high school and in early 2005, shortly after she bought the penthouse she now has up for sale, she sold a 3 bedroom and 2.5 bathroom West Village townhouse built in 1837 for $3,495,000 to pop singer Paula Cole (and her hubby) who renovated the four-story abode and sold it in May 2009 to a neurosurgeon and his wife.

listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran

Friday, June 1, 2012

Oprah's Ever-Increasing Hawaiian Holdings

Former chat show queen turned struggling tee-vee network owner Oprah Winfrey may be downsizing her property portfolio in her long-time home base of Chicago, IL but according to The Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial (and some additional research into the property records by Your Mama) the big-livin' billionairess continues to spend boo-coo bucks enlarging her somewhat remote ranch near the community of Kula on the Hawaiian island of Maui.

As best as we can surmise from public property records, Miz Winfrey's ever-expanding Hawaiian hideaway currently encompasses at least 31 parcels that combined span just over 782 acres. Most of the the various parcels are contiguous although some key pieces remain missing from the middle of her property puzzle and Your Mama would fall off our inflatable donut with shock if over the next few years she didn't drop a substantial wad of dough to snatch those up too.

Although some of the property records are a mite confusing, Miz Winfrey has, buy our rudimentary and unscientific calculations, spent at least $44,000,000 and perhaps more than $60,000,000 on the various properties that altogether have at least a dozen homes and scores of outbuildings and farm-related structures. She's had at least one of the many houses on her ranch photographed for her magazine.

Property records indicate Miz Winfrey first starting buying up property on Maui in October of 2003 when she shelled out $5,300,000 to purchase a pair of adjacent parcels that combined span 23.7 acres and include a recently re-built compound with an 8,838 square foot main mansion plus at least 3 additional structures.

Over the last nearly 10 years Miz Winfrey has steadily bought up dozens of surrounding properties. Some of her most recent acquisitions came in March 2011 when she snapped up three vacant parcels that combined measure 24.5 acres and cost $3,300,000. At just about the same time she picked up a 12.57 acre spread with a 4,253 square foot house (plus equestrian facilities) for $4,400,000 and just about a month later she dropped another $4,500,000 on a 6.87 acre spread with a couple of modestly-sized residences.

Most of Miz Winfrey's Hawaiian holdings are contiguous but there remain a healthy handful of key properties missing in the center of her real estate puzzle that Your Mama would be shocked if she doesn't purchase in the the not so distant future.

After years in Chicago (IL) where her eponymous and insanely influential talk show taped, Miz Winfrey now makes her primary home at The Promised Land, a 42-acre, fully-landscaped estate in Montecito, CA with a 23,000(ish) square foot mansion, numerous outbuildings and a distant, sparkling view of the Pacific Ocean. She paid, so the story goes, around $52,000,000 for the property which carried 2011 taxes of more than $886,000.

Miz Winfrey still owns her long-time, 4-unit combination Chicago duplex at Water Tower Place as well as a 4,607 square foot Streeterville condo she bought in 2006 for $5,600,000 and recently (re-)listed for $2,800,000. It's now in contract. She also owns a number of less significant properties in Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana, most of which are believed to be occupied by family members.

Real estate watchers expect Miz Winfrey will eventually purchase a posh pied-a-terre in Los Angeles since the commute from Montecito to her OWN offices in L.A. is considerable, ninety minutes on a good day by car. Of course, she may be holding off to see if her limping network is going to sink or swim. We shall she, puppies, we shall see.

Rumor Has It...

...Johnny Depp has been hanging around Nashville, TN and just may want to set down some real estate roots in the country music capital.

The Kentucky-born, Oscar-nominated actor (Dark Shadows, Pirates of the Caribbean, Alice in Wonderland), who recently vehemently squashed rumors and tabloid reports he and his French lady-mate and baby momma Vanessa Paradis were on the fritz, is a serious real estate baller with a fat portfolio of luxury properties around the globe so it wouldn't be such a crazy surprise to Your Mama if he wanted a house to call home in Nashville.

The famously private couple maintain a residence in the upscale Paris suburb of Meudon, a remotely situated villa in Plan-de-la-Tour, about 10 or 12 miles from St. Tropez in the South of France, and an all-but-undeveloped 45-acre private island in the Bahamas called Little Hall's Pond Cay. In Tinseltown Mister Depp owns at least 5 of the 7 houses on a curvy cul-de-sac just above the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood including a multi-acre compound with a spooky-looking chateau-style mansion built in 1922.