Friday, February 28, 2014

In Case You Missed It: A Brazilian Giga-Mansion

Just for shits and giggles and the freakish absurdity of the whole thing we're gonna wind up this rainy Friday afternoon with a piggy on the back of the impressively focussed fellow at Homes of the Rich (via Veja São Paulo) who unearthed some recently published details about a 191,000+ square foot residential compound in Santana de Parnaiba, outside of São Paulo, Brazil. The recently completed hill top compound is owned by innovative Brazilian television executive Amilcare Dallevo Jr. and his t.v. presenter wife Daniela Albuquerque, a couple of unrepentant real estate size queens if this property gossip has ever seen one.

The high-walled and no-doubt heavily fortified property has a three-plus story main mansion with—so the scuttlebutt goes—a 13,000 square foot master suite that includes a private, roof-top swimming pool. No, butter cups, that is not a drunken typo, we really meant thirteen thousand square feet...a 13,000 square foot master suite. Think about that for a minute because it makes Your Mama need a nerve pill and a stiff, pre-cocktail hour gin & tonic to imagine a bedroom complex larger than some public schools. Anyways, somewhere on the property there's a cinema and spa—natch—as as well his and her offices of 1,000 or more square feet apiece and a 26-foot long fish tank because, let's be honest, what good is a 191,000 square foot giga-mansion without a 26-foot long fish tank that probably requires constant and expensive upkeep and maintenance by a team of fish wranglers, glass cleaners and tank decorators?

In addition to the main mansion the property also includes an entertainment pavilion that looks the offices of a financial services outfit in Manhasset, NY, along with a multi-storied complex next to the swimming pool, and a rather bizarre cylindrical blue glass structure (with adjacent parking lot) located outside the walls. Other features of note include three heliports—including one on the roof of the main mansion, hanger space for four helicopters, subterranean parking for 50 cars, and extensive formal gardens.

Frankly it looks to Your Mama more like a luxury training facility for top tier CIA executives and operative rather than a private residence, but we've never been a residential real estate size queen so what do we know?

photo: Gutho Galiano for Veja São Paulo

In Case You Missed It: Oliver Stone

SELLER: Oliver Stone
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $2,999,999
SIZE: 1,736 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: As far as Your Mama knows the real estate gossips at The Wall Street Journal were the first to reveal that New York City-born and L.A.-based movie maker Oliver Stone put his 1,736 square foot—and patriotically paletted—downtown Manhattan pièd-a-terre on the market this week with an asking price of $2,999,999.*

Property records show the vaunted, three-time Oscar winner (Born on the Fourth of July, Platoon, Midnight Express) shelled out $2.2 million in February 2010 for the two bedroom and 2.5 bathroom apartment on the second floor of high cost, full service and the architecturally anti-intellectual 1 Morton Square complex. The rigorously red, white and blue day-core is the handiwork, it was thoughtfully brought to Your Mama's attention Polly Wannacracker, of upper class decorator Geoffrey Bradfield.

The floor plan included with digital marketing materials shows an angled front door opens into the aggressive, outside point of an L-shaped entrance hall that may or may not be property Feng Shui-d. One leg of the foyer leads to 20+ foot, nearly square open-plan living/dining room that connects through to a small but smartly efficient galley kitchen over a three-stool snack counter. The powder room, nicely situated for olfactory and auditory seclusion, has an interesting lattice-pattern riveting detail on the walls that is both visually stimulating and equilibrium compromising all at the same time.

The bedrooms are nicely separate for maximum privacy. A good-sized guest bedroom, opposite the kitchen across the foyer, offers up a generous walk-in closet and simple, windowless bathroom. The master suite, off one end of the aforementioned L-shaped foyer, includes a modest but adequate bedroom, four closets including a fitted walk-in, and a dressing vestibule outside the Crema Marfil marble-lined bathroom.

Other features of note include 11-foot ceilings, gleaming medium brown hardwood floors, large windows with Hudson River views, and high-grade finishes and fixtures. The 280-some unit 1 Morton Place complex hugs the fast moving and heavily trafficked West Side Highway and offers its well-heeled residents 24-hour doorman and concierge services, a state-of-the-art fitness center, children's play room and an on-site attended parking garage.

Your Mama's research shows Mister Stone's west coast residence—purchased in April 2005 for $5.8 million and located on a private, tree-shaded lane in the lower section of the swankily rustic Mandeville Canyon area of L.A.—has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms in more than 6,500 square feet.

*Mister Stone's West Village pièd-a-terre, with monthly common charges and taxes that total $3,521, is also listed for lease at $13,000 per month.

listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran

In Case You Missed It: Christian Audigier

SELLER: Christin Audigier
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $3,199,000
SIZE: 5,330 square feet, 5 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Over the last several years French-born (and frequently maligned) fashion designer Christian Audigier—he's the fella who foisted the once ubiquitous and now grimly passé Von Dutch and Ed Hardy brands on the world in the early Aughts—failed to sell at least two multi-million dollar properties he owns in the Los Angeles area. In the fall of 2010 he had his exuberantly decorated mansion in Hancock Park listed for $8,299,000. It did not sell and was de-listed in late February 2012. In the fall of 2011 he put his also exuberantly decorated mini-ranch in Topanga, CA up for sale at $3,299,000 and for lease at $16,500 per month. Alas, the so-called C-A Ranch also did not sell and was taken off the market in July 2012. It was taken off the rental market the following month although, to be honest, puppies, we're not sure if anyone actually leased the place or not. Anyhoo...

The lady property gossip at the L.A. Times revealed this week that Mister Audigier has put yet another of his several multi-million dollar houses in Los Angeles up for sale. The asking price is currently $3,199,000—it's also for lease at $25,000 per month—and property records suggest Mister Audigier bought the property, a few short blocks east of the charming (if somewhat vanilla) Larchmont Village shopping and dining district in the downtown adjacent Windsor Square 'hood, in September 2007 for $2,695,000.

Listing details show the 1925 red brick English Tudor residence has five bedrooms and four bathroom in 5,330 square feet of—not surprisingly—exuberantly decorated and liberally chandeliered interior space. There are additional (if less exuberantly decorated and chandelier free) living quarters in a self-contained two-story back house that's clearly suitable as a pool house or for over-nighting guests or a live-in domestic.

The first of the home's innumerable crystal chandeliers hangs in the center hall foyer that's flanked by chandelier-lit formal living and dining rooms. The foyer stretches deep into the house before it links to the roomy and cook-friendly eat-in kitchen where, much to our surprise, there does not appear to be a chandelier of any kind. The kitchen, which opens through French doors to the backyard, is fully modern with a double-wide commercial-style range and a refrigerator/freezer with a most unusual alligator skin (or faux alligator) facing.

As far as Your Mama can tell, all of the bedrooms are lit by one or more chandeliers. In the master bedroom there are at least three glimmering fixtures as there are in one of the several guest bedroom where there are also three hooded twin beds that strike Your Mama as a little too coffin-esque for our comfort. Three more over-sized chandeliers hand from the exposed rafters in a meandering, en-suite bedroom tucked up into the many-gabled eaves on the third floor. Good grief, Your Mama imagines Charlene Chandelierseller was able to retire to Boca after Mister Audigier bought up every chandelier in her shop.

While some of the children will most assuredly consider Mister Audigier's highly curated day-care unacceptably garish—and that argument is most certainly easily made—the interiors also, as Madonna used to shriek, strike a pose. They are not easily dismissed or soon forgotten and there's something to be said for that, children. We can't defend all (or even many) of Mister Audigier's decorative choices—y'all noticed the table in the living room that's essentially some sort of mold of the lower half of a goddamn elephant or hippopotamus, right?—but we'd much rather be in and look around this house than an appropriately beige and gruesomely forgettable macmansion in a generic gated development. But we're crazy that way. Anyways...

The backyard entertainment and recreation areas include flourishing gardens, a swimming pool and spa surrounded by brick terracing, and various decks and patios that include an alfresco dining area lit with—you got it, kiddos—a crystal chandelier.

listing photos: Hancock Homes Realty

In Case You Missed It: Maggie Lawson

BUYER: Maggie Lawson and James Roday
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $1,100,000
SIZE: 1,419 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Six weeks or so ago Your Mama revealed that actress Maggie Lawson (Psych) listed her eco-friendly home in L.A.'s Los Feliz area for $2.2 million. (It's currently in escrow for an unknown amount with an unknown buyer.) This week, the long-legged blonde gal at Trulia Luxe Living let the cat out of the bag about how Miz Lawson and her long-time man-pal and Psych co-star, actor James Roday, opted to downsize their living situation in L.A. and paid $1.1 million for a fully refurbished, late 19th-century bungalow in L.A.'s Bronson Canyon area in the foothills above Hollywood.

Listing details show the 1,419 square foot house has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, parquet wood floors in the adjoining living and dining rooms, and a nicely-equipped (if somewhat small and generic) kitchen with center work island, black granite counter tops atop simple Shaker-style cabinetry, and higher-end stainless steel appliances.

Terraced and high hedged outdoor spaces provide various outdoor living spaces and lounge areas and a detached garage looks just big enough to park two regular sized cars.

listing photos: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

In Case You Missed It: Deepak Chopra

SELLER: Deepak Chopra
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $3,595,000
SIZE: 1,551 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Celebrity-approved New Age guru Deepak Chopra has his two bedroom and 2.5 bathroom corner apartment on the 69th floor at the Park Imperial building* on New York City's Upper West Side up for sale with a $3.595 million asking price. As Your Mama taps our fingers to bloody nubbins for the children this morning the Chopra apartment is in contract to be sold to an unidentified buyer for an unknown amount.

Listing details show the 1,551 square foot apartment (above) has a short entry hall that dumps into a 21+ foot long living/dining room wrapped in floor-to-ceiling windows with Hudson River views. There's a compact but well-equipped eat-in kitchen next door and, just off the entry hall, a well-placed (if windowless) powder pooper. Both of the efficiently sized but well separated bedrooms have reasonable closet space and private (and again windowless) bathrooms.

The sometimes controversial alternative health care advocate has already moved forward with the purchase of his next New York City residence, it was revealed by the the property gossips at Page Six in the New York Post and confirmed by the developers. So the stories go, Mister Chopra and his wife, Rita, will acquire a significantly larger and more expensive spread at the Delos building, a high-priced, wellness-oriented boutique development in Greenwich Village where Leo DiCaprio will also buy a place. The lower floor unit has, according to listing details, three bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms in almost 3,700 square feet. The sale price has yet to be revealed or recorded but the lower floor unit was last listed with an asking price of $14.5 million.

*The full-service Park Imperial complex has been home to a number of other high profile people including man-hunk actor Chris Meloni who tried to sell his family-sized aerie in the spring of 2012 for $12 million but ended up leasing it to some young Saudi prince for at $55,000 per month. Still in residence at the Park Imperial would be P. Diddy—or Diddle Fiddle or Papa Puff or whatever hell name he goes by now—who listed his glammy one bedroom apartment in the fall of 2012 for $8.5 million. The price was eventually lowered to $7,999,000 but to no avail and the apartment was taken off the market in 2013.

listing photos and floor plan: Dolly Lenz Real Estate

Thursday, February 27, 2014

James Wan Buys Nebil Zarif's House in The Birds

SELLER: Nebil "Bilo" Zarif
BUYER: James Wan
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $9,750,000
SIZE: 7,500 square feet, 6 bedrooms, 6.5 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Last night, whilst still in recovery from a fantabulously clamorous four-day weekend with long-time pals Miss Anne, Soozie Soo and the tirelessly trampy Fiona Trambeau, Your Mama received a covert communique from inestimable real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak who let the cat out of the bag about Malaysian-Australian horror movie wunderkind James Wan—now 36 years old—shelling out $9,750,000 to upgrade his living circumstances in the star-studded Bird Streets 'hood high above L.A.'s forever-chic—or, depending on your point of view, sheek—Sunset Strip.

Property records we peeped and perused show Mister Wan acquired the property, via trust, from a fella named Nebil "Bilo" Zarif. Mister Zarif is a Turkish-born businessman and winemaker who was once married to L.A.-based heiress, activist and philanthropist Nancy Davis, the fifth child and third daughter of Texas oil tycoon turned Tinseltown power player Marvin Davis. (Mister Davis once owned and lorded over 20th Century Fox as well as the Beverly Hills Hotel, the Aspen Skiing Company, the Pebble Beach Corporation, and the legendary Beverly Hills estate known as The Knoll, once owned by Kenny Rogers and now owned by tool and die mogul Eric Smidt). Anyways, Mister Zarif sired three children with Miz Davis, two of whom—Brandon and Jason—became tabloid catnip in the early and mid-Aught for the shenanigans they participated in with dimmed but not forgotten celebutantes and gossip glossy veterans like Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. But we digress...

James Wan, born in Malaysia and raised in Melbourne, Australia, may not be a highly recognized name outside of Hollywood but within the insular confines of Tinseltown he's long been a shooting star in the high octane, blood curdling and highly lucrative horror/action flick genre. Ten or so year ago, when just a 20-something year old whippersnapper, Mister Wan and Australian screenwriter/producer Leigh Whannell co-created the globally successful and seemingly ceaseless silver screen psychological horror series Saw, currently in production on its eighth installment.

In addition to his impressive and clearly financially fruitful executive producer credits on about half the Saw films, Mister Wan has also directed an over-flowing handful of other feature length horror films (Dead Silence, Death Sentence, Insidious and Insidious; Chapter 2, The Conjuring). Last year he was tapped to direct the upcoming seventh installment of the also ceaseless and money minting Fast and Furious franchise. In short, he's a very busy—and, hence, wealthy—player in the crowded and competitive horror/action flick sandbox.

As it turns out, children, this isn't the first time Your Mama has (dissed and) discussed this particular property. Back in May 2007, before Mister Zarif gave the property its current modern-minded make over, we briefly discussed the property when it popped up for sale on the open market for an undisclosed amount. The house has been on and off the market ever since at a variety of prices. In October 2013—after Mister Zarif gave the entire property a high-end if fairly generically contemporary and not entirely cohesive overhaul—the property was re-listed on the open market with an indisputably optimistic $13,495,000 price tag that fell steadily and precipitously to $10,250,000 before Mister Wan came along and, at long last, took Mister Zarif's Bird Streets white elephant off his hands in mid-February (2014) for—as we mentioned earlier—$9,750,000.

There are, as per listing details, five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms in the sprawling, approximately 7,500 square foot single-story main house. A self-contained detached guest house provides additional living space with a combination living room and kitchen space, a city-view bedroom, and a bathroom larger and far more luxuriously equipped than most master bathrooms.

An unexpectedly spacious, gallery-like foyer with multiple skylights and concrete floors leads directly into the main living space, an open-concept area with extra-wide plank wood floors and entire walls of glass that slide open to the backyard entertainment and recreation area. A fireplace with a carved stone (or possibly cast concrete) mantelpiece that looks like it came from the Loire Valley (or someplace like that) warms and anchors the far end of the living room.

At the other end of the long, angled space there's a much more modern fireplace surmounted by an inset flat screen television in the dining area that's open to the kitchen across a super-sized double-wide center island that includes snack counter seating for five or more. The kitchen itself is sleek with two-tone cabinetry—white and chocolate, high quality integrated appliances, and some sort of slab stone (or solid surface) counter tops.

The oddly-shaped master suite has a dramatically high vaulted ceiling with exposed wood beams, an awkwardly positioned fireplace, a flat-screen television hung from the ceiling above the bed for optimal—ahem—news and sitcom watching, and two long banks of sliding glass doors that open to the wrap-around back yard.

Other features of note include a walk-in wine cellar, a separate gym located in a detached pavilion, and a compact and fully-carpeted cave-like screening room with a fourth fireplace, suede covered walls, and a super-long sofa opposite a super-sized wall-mounted flat screen television.

The outdoor living and entertaining areas wrap around two long sides of the angled residence. The rooms along the long, angle side open to an expansive flagstone terrace with free-form swimming pool and slightly raised spa. At the kitchen end of the house a slightly elevated and pergola-shaded platform with built-in barbecue, four-stool snack and booze counter, and a pizza oven. The rooms that open to the ass end of the .63 acre lot hook into a mostly trellis-shaded deck that extends from the above-mentioned gym pavilion and out towards a glass railed perch that provides sweeping, multi-million dollar views across a wide swathe of Los Angeles.

Mister Wan doesn't have far to move his things since, our research and resources indicate, he currently lives literally just around the corner in a nearly 3,000 square foot house with three bedrooms and four bathrooms that was purchased in June 2007 for $3,210,000 via the same trust that bought Mister Zarif's house. As of this morning, Mister Wan's old house does not appear to Your Mama to be listed for sale on the open market.

listing photos: The Agency

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Your Mama Hears...

...from Amanda D. Desert that juicy word on the Coachella Valley real estate street is that A-list Tinseltown hot shot Leo DiCaprio just might be the new owner of the old Dinah Shore estate in Palm Springs (CA) that sold this week according to various online resources for a $5,230,000.

The 1.34 acre estate, in the heart of the fabled and celebrity-pedigreed Old Las Palmas 'hood, was custom designed as a series of glass-walled pavilions and built in the mid-1960s for the late and legendary singer/actress Dinah Shore by prominent mid-century modern architect Donald Wexler, now in his late 80s, who in his professional heyday plied his trade predominantly in and around the Palm Springs area.

Your Mama discussed Miz Shore's former desert digs at some length back in May 2009 when five-time Emmy-winning television writer/producer David Lee (The Jeffersons, Cheers, Wings, Frasier) had the glassy, low-slung mid-century modern compound on the open market with an asking price of $5,995,000.

The estate didn't sell until April 2011 when it was acquired for $4.9 million by Ben and Jude Lipps, an obviously rich but not exactly famous couple from Orange County. The Orange County couple, in turn, listed the compound-like estate in mid-January (2014) for $5,495,000 and this time around—lucky for the Lipps—it took just two weeks instead of nearly two years before it was quickly put into escrow and sold this week to a buyer who, according to My Desert required all parties sign confidentiality agreements. That certainly sounds like something an A-list Showbizzer like, say, Mister DiCaprio would do, right?

Anyways, the estate includes a 7,022 square foot multi-winged main house, a self-contained studio-style pool/guest house, and a third, glass walled pavilion next to the tennis court. Listing details show there are six bedrooms and 7.5 bathrooms, a count that may or may not include any sleeping and/or toileting facilities in the guest house and tennis pavilion.

The groomed grounds include two discreet motor courts, an almost enclosed entrance courtyard with water feature, extensive terraces and courtyards, vast swathes of well-watered lawns, a swimming pool and spa set well away but in view of the main house, and the aforementioned (mostly glass) guest/pool house and the (mostly) glass pavilion that's adjacent to a hedge-ringed tennis court.

Although the entire property has been updated and upgraded to modern standards with all new kitchens and bathrooms the three structures retain much of the architect's original features. We look forward to a rousing debate amongst all the mid-century modern aficionados (and otherwise opinionated children) about the merits of the various improvements and upgrades made to Mixer Wexler's original architectural vision.

In the last few months the five time Academy Award nominee—he's up for an Oscar this year for The Wolf of Wall Street, who owns a pair of neighboring houses near the apex of the celeb-saturated Bird Streets neighborhood above L.A.'s the Sunset Strip, has been on a bit of a real estate buying and selling spree so maybe it's not so unusual he might have opted to acquire a pricey pad in the desert. He sold an ocean front compound in Malibu late last year for $17.35 million—he still owns another ocean front house on Carbon Beach below the estate David and Yolanda Foster have on the market for $27.5 million, has reportedly agreed to shell out an as yet unknown amount for a pied a terre in a newly developed boutique building in New York City's Greenwich Village, and was rumored last August—by yours truly, of course—to have made an offer in the $30 million range for Rupert Murdoch's house in Beverly Hills. None the less, for now, his (alleged) purchase of the historic Dinah Shore estate in Palm Springs ain't nuthin' but some delectable celebrity real estate rumor and gossip and the real buyer could very well just be some Richie Rich who prefers to keep his and/or her name under wraps.

listing photos: Surterre Properties

J.J. Abrams Buys Bigger Pac Pal Pad

BUYER: J.J. Abrams
LOCATION: Pacific Palisades, CA
PRICE: $14,469,935
SIZE: 8,030 square feet, 7 bedrooms, 7 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Veteran television and movie power player J.J. Abrams has been a resident of Pacific Palisades since (at least) the late 1990s when he and his long-time missus, Kathleen McGrath Abrams, paid an unknown amount of dough for a 4,100+ square foot house on Marinette Road that they sold in 2005 for $2.625. They moved, according to the Bizzy Boys at Celebrity Address Aerial, about 3.8 miles by car to Pac Pal's quietly ritzy and celeb-approved Riviera 'hood where they shelled out $5.2 million for a somewhat smaller 3,900+ square foot residence with, as per the L.A. County Tax Man, four bedrooms and three bathrooms.

Your Mama now has it on very good authority—that would be the tireless real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak—that Mister and Missus Abrams and their trio of off-spring now plan to move just around the corner to a much larger house described in listing details as a "Connecticut Traditional w/ city & ocean views" and sold, as per property records, to a opaquely named trust in early February (2014) for the unnecessarily complicated figure of $14,469,935.

Mister Abrams, in case any of the children don't know, is a bespectacled former comedy writer turned two time Emmy-winning writer, producer and director known for creating a slew of popular (and lucrative) television programs and incorporating action-packed sequences, party scenes, lens flares, boxes with mysterious contents, and frequent cross-genre references to the fake frozen drink Slusho in the money-minting action/adventure/sci-fi movies he produces and/or directs.

Mister Abrams's professional credits include being the creator and writer for—among others—the television programs Felicity, Alias, Lost, Undercovers and the currently airing Fringe. In the last half decade or she he's become an increasingly in-demand director of high-concept action/adventure movies like Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, Super 8, and Mission: Impossible III as well as the upcoming, eighth installment of the never ending Star Wars movie franchise). He's also a prolific film and television producer whose credits include Felicity, Alias, Lost, Frince, Revolution, Person of Interest, Almost Human, Believe, and the next installments of the Star Wars and Mission: Impossible film franchises.

According to Box Office Mojo, the four sci-fi and action movies directed by Mister Abram between 2006 and 1003 have hauled in a worldwide box office of more than 1.5 billion bucks. Your Mama really has no idea what Mister Abram's annual income is—we imagine it is shockingly considerable—but back in 2010 he was listed at #9 on Vanity Fair's lists of top earners in Tinseltown. And that was before some of his super-sized silver screen mega-hits so none of the children should be too worried about his financial ability to buy and maintain a property like this in perpetuity. Anyhoo...

The white, clapboard-sided residence, on a .6 acre bluff-top lot behind secured gates on what is arguably one of Pacific Palisades swankier streets,* measures 8,030 square feet with a total of seven bedrooms and nine toilets in seven full and two half bathrooms.

Guests are greeted and meant to be impressed in the double-height foyer where a densely balustraded staircase curves elegantly up to a second floor gallery overlook. There are formal living and dining rooms, the former with fireplace and a long wall of floor-to-ceiling book shelves and the latter with a fireplace and floral Chinoiserie-style wall coverings. Additional (and less formal) living spaces include a study/office, a family room, and a window-lined sun room where the sellers installed a pool table.

The kitchen is certainly large and luxuriously functional with marble counter tops raised panel cabinetry, an over-sized center work island, a temperature controlled walk-in wine storage room, and a full complement of high-end appliances that include a pair of fridge-freezers and a built-in microwave oven. However, the best and most notable feature as far as this opinionated property gossip is concerned is a cozy, built-in demilune breakfast banquette with tufted upholstery and wide view over the grassy backyard.

The master suite is comprised of a bedroom large enough to accommodate a generous seating area, French doors that lead to a private terrace, extensive fitted walk-in closets, and a marble-lined bathroom with twin sink vanities, a soaking tub, separate glass-enclosed and steam-equipped shower, and a second partially frosted glass enclosure that doesn't completely hide the crapper. There are two offices with built-in decks as well as four or, maybe, five additional secondary guest/family bedrooms plus staff quarters.

At the front of the hedged and gated spread a large lawn is divided by a stone pathways and, attached to the side of the house, a porte cochere that marks the entrance to a small rear motor court and attached three car garage. At the rear, a deep, fireplaced loggia makes a soft transition from the interior spaces to the back yard where a broad lawn stretches out to a short hedge and a long eastern view over Steven Spielberg's private equestrian facility in Sullivan Canyon and towards the tight knot of towers that make up Century City.

*Other high-profile homeowners in the immediate area include Showbiz movers and shaker Ben Affleck and his wife Jennifer Garner of—coincidentally—Alias fame and fortune.

listing photos: Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Kristen Wiig Lists SoHo Mini-Loft

SELLER: Kristen Wiig
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $2,595,000
SIZE: 1,400+ square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: We have veteran informant The Rolling Stone to thank for cluing in Your Mama about funny lady Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids, The Spoils of Babylon) putting her downtown New York City mini-loft on a high floor of a pre-war building in the heart of SoHo's tourist packed main drag up for sale on the open market with an asking price of $2,595,000.

Property records show the Saturday Night Live stand out turned Emmy- and Oscar-nominated television and movie star paid exactly $1.5 million for the 1,400-and-something square foot corner co-cooperative in July 2009. The seller was busy television director Alan Taylor (Game of Thrones, Madmen, Sopranos).

Online listings show the south and east facing 10th floor aeries is completely free of furnishing and other day-core—Miss Wiig has obviously already decamped the two bedroom and one bathroom unit (for parts unknown)—and has all open views over the celebrity-approved Police Building and a (fairly) direct view of the 104-story One World Trade Center, a newly erected and upwardly thrusting skyscraper otherwise more patriotically known as—ahem—the Freedom Tower.

An angled front door opens directly into the main living space, an open-concept, corner living/kitchen/dining area of almost 35 feet long with six over-sized sash windows that reach almost down to the floor and extend almost all the way to the the 11.5- foot ceilings. Charcoal colored hardwood floors, laid at a 45-degree angle to the corners of the room, off-set art-friendly snow white walls and exposed duct work and track lighting.

In the rear corner of the spacious space, a relatively compact but well-equipped kitchen has upper-grade stainless steel appliances, butcher block counter tops, and—thank heavens for small favors—a handy-dandy center work island that does double duty as a two stool snack and booze bar.

There are (unnecessary and, in Your Mama's humble and meaningless opinion, awkward) clerestory windows between the main living area and the long and narrow second bedroom with a windowed loft area that gives the sleeping chamber quirky pizzazz and extra-added functionality. At the opposite, southwest corner of the mini-loft the master suite comprises a relatively small bedroom, a wall of built-in wardrobes, and a walk-in closet larger than many Manhattan bedrooms. The mini-loft's lone pooper isn't accessible directly from the master bedroom—although a door could probably be cut through from the walk-in closet—but it is discreetly adjacent and offers up a single sink, cast iron tub, and separate rain head equipped stall shower. The bathroom is also where, as per the floor plan, the stacked washer and dryer are installed.

Although the elevator building is pet friendly, offers basement level storage, has a live-in super, and is a co-operative—hence board approval is required to purchase, listing details suggest the $838 monthly maintenance fees are pretty damn low by Manhattan standards, likely due to the apparent lack of a full- or even part-time doorman.

True story of no import or consequence, back in the Dark Ages, when Your Mama and the Dr. Cooter shopped for a suitable rental apartment in which to begin our long-standing cohabitation we peeped and considered a roomy, 2,200 square foot full floor open loft on the second floor in this very building. One benefit was its voting booth-sized terrace in the air shaft at the rear of the apartment. It's death nail, however, besides being on the loud and dark side, was that we didn't cotton to the notion of having constantly deal with the dirty business of our long-bodied bitches, Linda and Beverly, on a wide but often crowded stretch of Broadway. In case any body cares—and who would?—we opted instead for a much more conventional and quieter three bedroom and three bathroom duplex in a storied prewar doorman complex in Chelsea. But we digress...

NOTE (Later same day): Since we've had a house full of house guests—namely sweet Miss Anne, Soozy Soo and the indefatigable Fiona Trambeau—we're a bit behind the 8-ball and now see the (also indefatigable) kids at Curbed beat us to this particular celebrity real estate punch by an hour or two.)

listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran

Monday, February 24, 2014

Monday Morning Mash Up

In case you missed these celebrity and otherwise high profile real estate ditties last week...

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Rupert Murdoch lost his titanic Fifth Avenue penthouse in his d.i.v.o.r.c.e from third wife Wendi Deng. In need of a new and equally impressive pied-a-terre in New York City he's agreed to fork over $57.25 million for an ultra-modern quadruplex penthouse atop a newly erected slender glass tower on East 23rd Street at the southern foot of Madison Avenue  in the Flatiron District.

What Mister Murdoch actually bought is a full floor apartment (with three bedrooms) and, just above that, a five bedroom and 5.5 bathroom triplex penthouse with 6,850 square feet of interior space and a 586 square foot terrace.

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In other high-priced New York City real estate news, the New York Post broadcast the identity of the all-cash buyer of the $50.9 million penthouse atop the newly converted Walker Tower building in the Chelsea 'hood is British food and beverage mogul Neil Moffitt

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Amid rumors of retirement, Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner of Ohio dropped $835,000 on a three bedroom and three bathroom condominium with almost 2,100 square feet at the Tampico complex in Marco Island, FL. (Breitbart News via Politico)

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As revealed by the lady property gossip at the New York Post, Actor Timothy Hutton listed his forty acre spread in New York's picture perfect Hudson River Valley for $1.895 million. The bucolic property includes a renovated late 18th-century farmhouse with four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, a swimming pool with adjacent cabana, and a four-story post-and-beam structure with caretaker's residence and additional living space.

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As per celebrity gossip juggernaut TMZ, teen-aged pop music hellion Justin Bieber wants to unload his house in Calabasas, CA, and is shopping for big new digs near Thousand Oaks and in the Atlanta, GA, area. Unfortunately for Mister Bieber, residents of the upscale Buckhead area in Atlanta, where he looked at a number of huge houses, are less than thrilled with the idea of him moving to the area. Indeed, the Buckhead Neighborhood Coalition planned a protest for this morning to let The Beebs know he's not wanted in the 'hood. (Oops, turns out the protests were a fake. Oh well, it seemed sorta plausible, didn't it?)

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In December 2012 married Tinseltowners Felicity Huffman and William H. Macy paid $3.8 million for a low-slung house next door to their long-time home in the Hollywood Hills. They gave the place a quick redo and, as was first reported by the long-legged blond at Trulia Luxe Living, put the property up for lease for $20,000 per month.

Friday, February 21, 2014

Lyor Cohen buys Steve Ells's Downtown Townhouse

BUYER: Lyor Cohen
SELLER: Steve Ells
LOCATION: New York City, NY
PRICE: $11,400,000
SIZE: 4,440 square feet, 3 full and 2 half bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: In the fall of 2004 high end New York City developer Adam Gordon paid exactly $3 million for a 19th-century townhouse on a charming cobble stoned street in New York City's far West village. He completely revamped the townhouse with the assistance of accomplished, modern-minded architect Steven Harris who, among other architectural feats and endeavors, restored the original street façade and replaced the rear façade with a dramatically transparant four story wall of glass. Mister Gordon put the meticulously rehabbed urban residence up for sale in May 2006 for $15 million and, after a couple of downward price adjustments, sold it in January 2008 for $13,425,000 to Chipotle burrito joint founder and co-CEO Steve Ells.

We're not sure if Mister Ells ever moved in to the townhouse but we do know, thanks to the kids at Curbed, that he hasn't lacked for high-priced places to live in the West Village over the last five or six years. In March 2008 he shelled out $5.753 million for a three bedroom full-floor loft on Waverly Place that he sold in early 2011 for $6.1 million and in December 2009 he shelled out $11 million for a terraced penthouse atop a dignified pre-war building on lower Fifth Avenue that, as far as Your Mama can tell, he continues to own.

We also know, as per the lady property gossip at the New York Post, that Mister Ells leased the far West Village townhouse last year to music industry mogul Lyor Cohen for an unknown monthly sum. Right about the time it became public that Mister Cohen was leasing, the townhouse popped back up for sale with an asking price of $13.995 million. Eight months later the price optimistically jumped to $14,500,000 and, as we first learned from the increasingly gabby informant Polly Wannacracker and subsequently confirmed with property records, the townhouse was sold in early February, 2014, to its tenant, Mister Cohen, who, it seems, drove a real estate hard bargain because the recorded sale price is $11,400,000.

Digital marketing materials show the 24-foot wide red brick Greek Revival style townhouse was originally built in 1858, measures 4,440 square feet, and sits on a relatively quiet, tree-lined street. There are five full floors of luxury living space—plus a partly finished basement—with with four bedrooms, three full and two half bathrooms, four fireplaces, and state-of-the-art mechanical systems.

While it's true the multi-floor residence lacks an elevator it otherwise boasts a well resolved and practical layout. A raised stoop entry leads into a narrow, parlor floor entry and stair hall with powder pooper. Immediately to the left there's a compact, book-shelf lined library and at the rear a roomy formal living room has an entire wall of glass that looks over an unusually private rear garden. Booze lovers will note that in between the library and living room there's a fully-stocked bar area that's somewhat erroneously marked as a "study" on the floor plan.

The garden floor has a sleek, street-side kitchen where, instead of a pot rack, there's a bunch of copper pans hung in a gridded pattern. At the back, the dining room—listing photos show it done up as a den—has another full wall of glass that opens to a bi-level garden with reflecting pool that, thanks to the 35-foot surrounding walls is completely, run-around-naked private.

The entire third floor is given over to the master suite that in addition to a garden view bedroom with a full wall of glass has a walk-though dressing area lined with closets, a separate walk-in closet, and a spacious bathroom that spans the full width of the townhouse. There are three more guest/family bedrooms on the fourth floor, the largest with a private bathroom while the smaller two share an itty-bitty hall bathroom.

The penthouse level features a glass pavilion with fireplace and direct access to two well-planted terraces. The larger north facing terrace has a view Empire State Building and the covered, south facing terrace has an outdoor fireplace and view of the preposterously tall Freedom Tower that now rises next to the site of the former World Trade Center.

Mister Cohen, in case you didn't know, previously owned a six-floor limestone townhouse on the Upper East Side that he bought in late 2000 for $9,175,000, listed in 2011 for $28,000,000 and sold in late 2012 to private equity bigwig Joseph Baratta for, according to property records, $24,912,140. Mister Cohen also owns a waterfront spread in the North Haven area of the Hamptons that he scooped up in 2008 even though, at the time, he already owned a huge house on Jobs Lane in Bridgehampton.

listing photos and floor plan: Corcoran

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Charlie Day Buys in Los Feliz and Lists in Silver Lake

SELLER: Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis
LOCATION: Los Angeles, CA
PRICE: $799,000
SIZE: 1,467 square feet, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

YOUR MAMAS NOTES: Now that married actors Charlie Day and Mary Elizabeth Ellis have settled into the six and half million dollar house in the celeb-saturated foothills of Los Feliz in Los Angeles that they surreptitiously purchased late last year—more on that in a minute—they've hoisted their much more modest starter home in the hipster haven of Silver Lake on the market with an asking price of $799,000.

Miz Day, 38, has been shaking his Tinseltown money maker since the early Aughts. The music-minded actor quickly landed a recurring role on the (long ago canceled) police procedural Third Watch and in 2005 he hit Showbiz pay dirt when he created the long-running and lucratively syndicated sitcom It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In addition to writing, producing and co-starring in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Mister Day also starred in the successful silver screen comedy Horrible Bosses and the money minting sci-fi action flick Pacific Rim. He voiced one of the main characters for the international superhit animated movie Monsters University and, in 2011 and 2012, he produced unsuccessful single seasons of a sitcom (How to Be a Gentleman) and an animated comedy (Unsupervised).

Mister Day met his missus, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, in New York in 2001 and in 2004 the then-dating couple played incestuous siblings on the high-larious (and cancelled) Reno 911. They married in 2006 and in 2011 they made a baby. Mavel tov! Along the way Miz Ellis popped up in brief roles in a bevy of television programs (Perfect Couples, Georgia, Happy Endings and Brooklyn Nine-Nine) and has maintained recurring roles in New Girl and her own hubby's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Anyways, property records show Mister Day and Miz Ellis purchased their Silver Lake starter home as an unmarried couple in June 2004 for $660,000. Current listing information shows the tree-house like hillside residence was originally built in 1951 and has three bedrooms and two bathrooms in 1,467 of lightly updated but well maintained square feet.

Even—and perhaps especially—in Los Angeles it's quite desirable to have a protected, off-street spot or two to park one's four wheeled mode of personal transport. However, butter beans, anyone with eyeballs can plainly see the bus shelter-like structure with the cantilevered roof that was designed and—ahem—erected to solve that issue at the front of the Day-Ellis residence was, to put it mildly, ill-conceived. Thankfully a smart architect can fix that problem quickly, if expensively, with a more appropriate and less offensive design.

Anyways, once past the bus shelter/car port it's an awkward half flight down to the front door. Inside there are restored (or, at least, refreshed) hardwood floors throughout the main living spaces including in the living room with where there's also a wood-burning fireplace and an entire wall of sliding glass doors that open to a sheltered deck with through-the-trees canyon view.

The kitchen, accessible directly from the living room or through the compact formal dining room, has what appears to be original cabinetry painted olive and set off by winter white solid surface counter tops. The stainless steel appliances are adequate quality and, over the sink, we spy an Old School jalousie window. Call us crazy—and Lord knows we've been called far worse—but Your Mama feels a jalousie window over the kitchen sink. An aggressively utilitarian door—fitted with a cat door—conveniently links the kitchen to a roomy, tree-shaded deck perfect for early morning yoga and afternoon barbecues.

Two guest/family bedrooms—one with direct access to a dining deck through sliding glass doors—share a small hall bathroom with vintage, baby blue tile work in the tub/shower combination. It's decidedly outdated but it all looks in remarkably good condition. The master suite isn't especially large but it does have a canyon view bedroom, a separate dressing room, and an updated and upgraded bathroom with two sinks set into a floating cabinet and a tile-lined combination tub and shower.

Presumably the couple have already moved into the much larger and more expensive house in the Los Feliz area which, according to real estate yenta Yolanda Yakketyyak (and confirmed by Manny Motormouth), they quietly acquired in an off-market deal in November 2013 for $6,525,000. Our research and resources show they bought the 5,610 square foot house, with five bedrooms and six bathroom on on a nearly three-quarter acre city view lot, from recently ousted Universal Pictures honcho Adam Fogelson.* Some of their nearby neighbors include Zac Efron, Adam Goldberg, Go-Gos' Siobhan Fahey of the Go-Gos, Evanescence's Ben Moody, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, and Alexander Skarsgård not to mention the house that Constance Zimmer just sold for fifty grand more than its $1,175,000 asking price.

*Mister Fogelson, for those who like to dig a little deeper, went on to drop $5.15 million for a 7,616 square foot fixer-upper abode on a very private and gated 1.4 acre parcel in Toluca Lake. 

listing photos: Figure 8 Realty

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Your Mama Hears...

...from a trusted and impeccably well-connected Platinum Triangle real estate insider that the much whispered about sixty-some million dollar sale of the Singleton mansion in L.A.'s hoity-toity Holmby Hills* and the $75-85 million dollar deal (allegedly) going down for the fabled Owlwood estate nearby are not the only super-sized deals in the works in that particular and particularly posh part of Los Angeles.

Buckle yer real estate safety belts, butter beans, because Your Mama now hears that after more than eight years on and off the market wealthy divorcée Suzanne Saperstein's palatial limestone château in the Holmby Hills, dubbed Fleur de Lys and currently listed off-market as "The Most Celebrated Estate in Los Angeles" with a stomach churning $125 million price tag, is quietly in escrow for $85 million with a super-rich Chinese businessman. (Rumor and gossip, kids, rumor and gossip.)

Miz Saperstein and her Texas-based ex-husband, David Saperstein, custom built the proudly immoderate 35,000+ square foot residence that, so the stories go, was inspired by the 17th century Château Vaux-le-Vicomte, about 50 miles southeast of Paris near the commune of Melun. When it was completed in 2002 the Saps filled the hotel-sized house with 17th and 18th century antiques, some of which were sold off in an April 2012 auction that brought in more than $8 million. The Sapersteins divorced 2005 after he hooked up with their Swedish-born nanny—who is now his third wife—and haute couture collecting Second Miz Saperstein was granted ownership of the grandiloquent estate that sprawls across more than four painstakingly manicured and maintained acres.

Current digital marketing materials for the wildly ostentatious property states the nearly five acre estate has a zig-zagging tree-lined driveway nearly a half mile long that passes through a pair of pillars into a motor court almost as large as the Place Vendôme in Paris. A smaller secondary motor court provides access the estate's garages.

As per listings and previous reports, Fleur de Lys has 12 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, a count that may or may not account for staff quarters and separate guest accommodations. There are vast formal living and dining rooms, a two-story library with hand-carved book cases, a multi-level wine cellar and tasting room, a state-of-the-art 35mm digital movie theater, and a gilt-trimmed ballroom that can accommodate upwards of 300 people. The are several kitchens on the property including a commercial grade catering kitchen capable of churning out petit fours and hors d'oeuvre for 1,000 or more party guests.

The fully landscaped grounds include flat lawn larger than a soccer pitch, extensive formal gardens, a world-class fitness facility and spa, a lighted tennis court and a swimming pool complex that includes a pool house larger than most people's entire houses.

*Although we heard from several sources the Singleton mansion, currently listed on the open market for $75 million, was in the process of being bought by Tinseltown mover and shaker Jerry Bruckheimer, we now hear that's not the case. According to Peter Propertyseller the house is actually being bought, as we were first told by Our Fairy Godmother in the Holmby Hills, by a fella from London for somewhere in the lows sixty millions. We shall see, butter beans, we shall see.

**The name that keeps popping up in relation to the much tittered about (alleged) sale of Owlwood is real estate investor Richard Weintraub and his wife Liane. The couple currently own La Villa Contenta, an extravagant, six-plus acre bluff top spread in Malibu that they first listed on the open market back in 2010 with an asking price of $75 million. The asking price has since plummeted to a still sky-high but much lower $54 million. The 12,000+ square foot main residence on 1.62 gated and landscaped acres is also listed separately from the remainder of the estate with an asking price of $23.8 million and the estate's positively Baroque onyx- and shell-encrusted natatorium is also listed separately with an asking price of $22.5 million.

listing photo: Westside Estate Agency

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Your Mama Hears...

...from high brow Connecticut real estate insider Phatlady Sings that the mysterious buyer(s) of Le Beau Château, the long-vacant New Canaan, CT, estate of deceased copper heiress Huguette Clark, are unapologetically urbane interior designer wife Delphine Krakoff and her veteran luxury goods executive and upmarket clothing and accessories designer husband Reed Krakoff.* (At the time of this February 11 (2014) report the property was still pending and as of today property records do not reflect a transfer of ownership therefore we could only—but won't—guess at the agreed upon sale price. We can't confirm or deny it but our informant, a gal with whom we've done business several times in the past, snitched to Your Mama that word on the New Canaan real estate street is that the contracts are signed but the deal won't close for another couple months so for now it's all just some juicy East Coast real estate rumor and gossip.)

The fascinating and fastidiously reclusive Miz Clark voluntarily and famously spent the last 22 years of her long life living under fake names in a guarded room at a New York City hospital. She purchased the thickly wooded 52 acre spread in New Canaan back in 1952, reportedly as a kind of bomb shelter in the event of some sort of Cold War cataclysm. She added an entire wing shortly after she purchased the property and around the turn of the century she reportedly spent almost two million bucks on updates and upgrades, not to mention dutifully paid the $160,000+ annual property taxes. Miz Clark, however, never spent a single night in the house or on the property. As per her quirky wishes, the mansion was none-the-less maintained in fully functioning (if outdated) order by caretakers who lived for decades in a pair of identical, two bedroom brick-built cottages set on opposite sides of the gated driveway entrance and who never once met their elusive and idiosyncratic employer.

As far as this property gossip knows, the Miz Clark's long-vacant New Canaan estate first popped up on the open market in 2005, years Miz Clark passed in 2011 just shy of her 105th birthday. The original asking price was $34 million but by August of 2010 the price had plummeted to $24 million. Much to Your Mama's freely admitted surprise and despite the deep and, in some cases, bottomless pockets of New Canaan's financial elite nobody (serious) was willing to shell out twenty-some million clams for a thickly wooded 50+ acre estate that ensures an immaculate privacy and sylvan seclusion just over an hour's drive from Midtown Manhattan and about a half hour to the exceedingly affluent hedge funder hot spot of Greenwich. Hence the price eventually sank to its last asking price of $15,900,000.

The sprawling and thickly wooded property has an already approved subdivision plan that allows for ten separate lots that range from just over four to almost eight acres. While it's certainly true that by any standard a 52 acre private estate is beyond extravagant and wholly unnecessary but there were (and are) many people, both local and far flung, who would like to see the estate's ground be preserved in its pristine entirety. All signs and allusions by the listing agent in previous reports suggest the new owners—who may or may not be Mister and Missus Krakoff—plan to keep the property fully or at least largely intact. Furthermore, according to the listing agent, who declined to identify the buyers in this report in the New Canaan News, the buyers—allegedly Mister and Missus Krakoff, according to our Miz Sings—are "creative" people who have a sincere appreciation for the property's unusual provenance and plan to restore and renovate both the residence and grounds. And, "Hallelujah" went the preservationists.

Online marketing materials show the aristocratic 22-room French chateau-style abode was originally built in 1937 by a noted New York architecture firm and has nine bedrooms and six full and three half bathrooms in 14,266 square feet—or 12,766 square feet, depending on what online listing you look at. The house could certainly use some spit and polish—and we're certain the new owners will spare no expense on an extensive spit and polish job—but it retains much if not all of its original and elegant architectural detailing both inside and out. In the right hands—say in the decoratively cunning hands of the Krakoffs—this house and it's largely pristine grounds could be a show stopper, we tell ya, a got-damn show stopper.

There are spectacular, over-sized chevron pattern wood floors throughout much of the grandly proportioned main floor living spaces that include a ballroom sized 36-foot long formal living room, a 600+ square foot formal dining room, a 33-foot long library, and a voluminous family room with double-height peaked ceiling, secondary staircase, a puny-looking and oddly located fireplace, and a towering arched window. Adjacent to the entry vestibule there's a soaring stair hall with a wrought-iron railed floating staircase so sensually curved and gorgeous it'll make the hairs on the arms of even the most modern minded amongst the children stand straight up on end. The roomy kitchen appears preserved in architectural amber and appears to favor utility over charm with plain white cabinets and unadorned white walls, a sarcophagi-sized center work island, utilitarian stainless steel counter tops, and a Smart Car-sized (and probably still working) range.

Other notable features, according to listing details Your Mama perused, 11 fireplaces, an elevator, a walk-up attic, a convenient second floor laundry room, a wine cellar, a trunk room, a walk-in vault, and garaging for five cars. A motor court at the front and a broad lawn at the back quickly give way to a dense pine forest with seasonal stream and waterfall. What the property does not currently have is air conditioning, a swimming pool or a tennis court. Your Mama thinks it's pretty safe to assume the new owners will install all three.

Much in the news Miz Clark left an estate valued at more than $300 million. The estate's considerable assets were hotly contested by distant family members, Miz Clark's own rather shady seeming attorney and accountant, and a small army of private nurses and assistants who tended to the aging heiress's needs in the later decades of her long life.

Before she took to hospital living Miz Clark lived in one (or more) of a trio of apartments in a distinguished pre-war cooperative building at 907 Fifth Avenue. Two were contiguous (but essentially uncombined) on the 8th floor and another was on the 12th floor. The 12th floor unit sold for $25.5 million, the larger of the 8th floor units (plus one of the bedrooms of the adjacent apartment) was sold for $22.5 million and the third unit—on the 8th floorsold in April 2013 for $6.8 million after first being listed for $12 million. Bellosguardo, Miz Clark's epic 23+ acre ocean-front estate in Santa Barbara which she had not visited since the 1950s but paid 40 forty grand a month to staff and maintain, will—if everything goes as planned—be preserved and opened to the public as an arts foundation as was specified in Miz Clark's will.

Mister and Missus Krakoff, the children surely have heard by now, recently sold their high cultured and painstakingly curated six story brick and limestone neo-Georgian townhouse on New York City's swanky East 70th Street in an off-market deal for a mouth drying $51,000,000. (As far as we know, the recently published 15 or 18 thousand square foot townhouse's new owner has yet to be unearthed, leaked or otherwise made public.)

With a remarkable flair for and ease with grand-scale living plus a penchant for properties with notable pedigrees, back in 2006 Mister and Missus Krakoff paid $24 million for Lasata, a spectacular and fully landscaped 11-acre spread in East Hampton, NY with a dignified 8,500 square foot residence the contains six principal bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms. The casually genteel Further Lane estate is perhaps most famous as the former summer home of Jackie Kennedy Onassis's paternal grandparents where the former first First Lady spent many of her childhood summers. The luxuriously stylish and rigorously astute art collectors also maintain a land-locked contemporary with five bedrooms and 5.5 bathrooms in the less fashionable (and more affordable) north end of Palm Beach (FL) that property records show they scooped up in April 2010 for $3,590,000.

UPDATE, LATER SAME DAY: It's come to our attention that in addition to their stateside residences Mister Krakoff and the Paris-bred Delphine are known in upper crust international circles to have acquired the spacious Paris apartment of famously fat-living Americans John and Susan Gutfreund. The Krakoff's share their aristocratic 18th-century hôtel particular in the 7th arrondissement, known as the Hôtel d'Orrouer, with fashion world mandarin Hubert de Givenchy. Your Mama discussed the recherché Rive Gauche residence back in the spring of 2010 with it was listed on the open market for an undisclosed amount that a Parisian informant whispered to Your Mama was somewhere in the neighborhood of €15,000,000. Your Mama consulted a high brow social butterfly with whom we are acquainted and were told that the Krakoff's gutted the entire apartment—including the magnificent double wide staircase—and refashioned the apartment into a "minimal modern showroom." C'est la vie, children, c'est la vie, right?

*A color blocked silk cashmere shift dress with leather detailing retails online for $1,190 and a clunky, lime green pair of platform sling backs with 4.5 inch heels goes for $750.

listing photos: Christie's International Real Estate