Weekend Update

1.
All the children who hang around Your Mama's little online endeavor know we've spent way too much time discussing the real estate doings of Rockstar Energy Drink founder Russ Weiner, who currently has three high-priced homes on the market. But we can't help ourselves and we're going to discuss him yet again. A few days ago we saw him shave millions off the asking prices of his two most expensive properties, and this week we saw the third property get a serious asking price haircut too.
Located up on Franklin Avenue in the Hollywood Hills, the four floor flesh colored house now carries an asking price of $2,995,000 and the listing SCREAMS that the current asking price reflects an over all $2,000,000 price reduction since the hillside house first hit the market a very looong time ago.

Your Mama is sure all you Chicken Little's out there are peeing in your pants with happy because you think this proves your point about the real estate sky falling. And maybe it is. However, in our ever so humble opinion, this house was over-priced from the get go, so the gigantic price reduction just brings the price down to where it should have started to begin with. Your Mama thinks we just might see this Weiner dude finally sell one of the big white elephants in his real estate stable.

The 4,400 (approx.) square foot house sports 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, and a pool on the roof,. But its saving grace just may be the elevator, because Your Mama would need to be strapped into an oxygen mask in order to be hoofing and hiking up and down all those damn stairs.

2.
Yesterday, gossip juggernaut TMZ reported that on the mental mend Britney Spears was served with legal papers demanding she immediately fork over more than two weeks of unpaid rent (and a $2,100 late fee) on the Malee-boo mansion she leased back in October of 2007. Either that or she needed to "surrender and deliver up possession of said Premises," which is legal-speak for scram, skee-daddle and give the keys back to the landlord.
Mercedes luvvin' Miss Thing leases the Ramirez Canyon Road estate for a reported and rumored $35,000 per month. Unfurnished. Back in early October, when the pop star turned tabloid train wreck was acting like she had a few screws loose, the Malibu Minx whispered in our big ear that Miss Spears signed a 9 month lease with the option to buy. That would indicate she's got at least a few more months to be writing big checks, and Your Mama highly doubts her conservator daddy Jamie will allow her to purchase the 8,500 (approx.) square foot house no matter how much she kicks, screams and whines.

Your Mama has no idea if the single mommy of two was behind in her rent or not, but we have heard through the gossip grapevine that the house is almost entirely without furniture or other such items and that she rarely goes there anymore and stays there overnight even less, which if true makes it a giant waste of money.

TMZ's sources told them that Miss Spears is now current on the rent. Phew! We can all breathe a little easier knowing she'll not be evicted from a house she does not live in.

Photo: Pacific Coast News

3.
All these rumors and reports coming out about Ukrainian bizness woman and noted philanthropist Olena Franchuk spending a blistering and record busting £80,000,000 on a detached house in the super swanky Kensington section of South-West London has become an angry bee in Your Mama's bonnet. Many of the children who have emailed and commented seem to think the reported sale and exorbitant price is nothing more than a fabrication designed to garner publicity for either Miz Franchuk or for Spink Property, the well known and high end developer who has recently executed a major renovation of the five story house on Upper Phillimore Gardens.

Thanks to the entirely legal machinations of an informant we'll call Little Dutch Boy, Your Mama received before and after floor plans (below) for the posh property that were filed with the planning commission of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. As many of those that follow high priced London real estate seem to know, much of the heavy duty engineering for the humongous underground extension with it's indoor swimming pool and interior link from the main house to the mews cottage, car park and garage was indeed undertaken by a previous owner.

However, plans reveal that Spink Property planned to completely gut and reconfigure the underground extension including filling in the old swimming pool, installing another entirely new one, and completely relocating the exterior courtyard, which smartly acts as a light well to the lower level
So kids, if we know that if these Spink people, who do undeniably refined and contemporary work, went through the considerable trouble of such a massive re-configuration of the lower level, then we have to assume they've gone to the same exhaustive and expensive lengths to transform the rest of the house and property with an equally rigorous, sophisticated and pricey architectural program. Your Mama really does not know if Spink's total overhaul justifies an £80,000,000 sale price, but it does show that the house has been totally updated with all the latest gizmos, gadgets and security systems which will appeal to international people with a never ending supply of money to buy up properties at record breaking prices.

Given that Miz Franchuk's huzband Viktor Pinchuk is a billionaire and a major (MAJOR!) contemporary art collector, it does, however, make a certain amount of sense that the modern minded 40-something year old couple might purchase a giant house done over by Spink Property who are well known for fitting old school London properties with all new, extremely expensive and very modern interiors.

None the less, at this point and time, Your Mama has no ability to confirm whether this Franchuk chick really did buy this house for £80,000,000 or any other sum of money. We are, unfortunately, at the information mercy of all the London-based property gossips. That is unless Miss Elton John wants to pick up her Swarovski crystal encrusted princess phone and ring Your Mama with the inside beef about his friend's alleged purchase. We're waiting...

4.
And lets not forget this little tidbit about The White Lady.