Sunday, October 24, 2010

Weekend Wrap Up

1.
It seems that Democratic movers and shakers Bill and Hilary Clinton can't make up their damn real estate minds. For the last six or so months the couple have been traipsing through some the finest homes in the best zip codes in Westchester County (NY) looking to upgrade from their already quite luxurious residence in Chappaqua, NY.

According to a recent report, Bill and Hil have toured 20-acre Clover Hill Farm in Bedford, NY no less than nine times and yet they can't seem to pull the trigger and make a stoopid offer. One local broker snitched to The Post that some other real estate people in the area have grown sick and tired of the Clinton's tire kicking and if they weren't Bill the former president of the United States and Hil the current Secretary of State "no one would show them anything anymore." Ouch.

Over the course of the 9 times they've (allegedly) toured Clover Hill Farm the price has sank from $10,900,000 to $8,900,000. Maybe they're just a couple of Bargain Betties and they're waiting for the price to drop another two million?

2.
Oscar winning romantic comedy queen Julia Roberts (Eat, Pray, Love, Erin Brockovich, Pretty Woman) picked up a penthouse pad in a post-war building on lower Fifth Avenue in New York City. The Greenwich Village aerie, with its roof top terrace, according to The Post, cost the toothy west coast based superstar $3,895,000. They also reported that Miz Roberts will hang on to her long time Gramercy Park pied a terre.

Miz Roberts lives primarily at a big ranch in New Mexico and a quite large, recently completed cliff top estate in Malibu, CA.

3.
Writer Michael Gross, who literally wrote the book on the famed 740 Park Avenue building in New York and is working on a similar book about the lives of Los Angeles' richest and biggest living residents revealed that philanthropic entrepreneurs Lynda and Stewart Resnick–they own Teleflora, POM Wonderful, Fiji Water and a number of other things–have added a fourth contiguous property their their already massive three parcel spread in Beverly Hills.

Mister and Missus Resnick own Sunset House, a a famous and famously astonishing 1929 Beaux-Arts mansion on Sunset Boulevard. Over the years the mad-rich couple purchased the estates on either side of their palatial pad and razed the residences and in their places added citrus and pomegranate groves, formal gardens, a football field sized lawn large enough to pitch the largest party tent money will rent, and a vast parking area.

According to listing information, Mister and Missus Resnick paid $7,935,110 for the 8,287 square foot house that sits on a 1.05 acre corner lot and includes 2 bedrooms (plus 2 staff rooms) and a total of 8 poopers. The private and gated estate has a circular drive, massive service court, 3 car garage, large lawns and a swimming pool but that's probably of little import because Your Mama expects they'll knock the house down.

According to Mister Gross, the house the Resnicks bought was owned in the mid-1970s by actor James Caan.

4.
Now that he's purchased Diane Keaton's Ralph Flewelling designed Colonial Rivival residence in Beverly Hills, über successful Tinseltown scribe Ryan Murphy (Popular, Running With Scissors, Nip/Tuck, Glee) has re-listed his Los Angeles home in the hills above the star studded Chateau Marmont hotel.

Mister Murphy unsuccessfully attempted to sell his sleek but warm concrete, wood and glass Carl Maston designed digs in May of 2008 when it was listed for $4,195,000. This week it was hauled back on the market with a much lower asking price of $3,250,000.

5.
After a big ol' dust up with their neighbors who installed scaffolding to the exterior of their building in preparation for an extensive renovation, art Collector Charles Saatchi and his celebrity chef wife Nigella Lawson have, according to the Daily Mail, opted to cash out of their large London crib rather than suffer through a long and loud renovation next door. They are said to have heaved their sprawling apartment on swank Eaton Square in Belgravia on the market with an asking price of £36,000,000–a skin blistering $56,433,600 according to Your Mama's currency conversion contraption–which is a seriously higher price than the £3,800,000–that's just under six million American clams–that Mister Saatchi paid for the place just nine years ago.

We're not sure what he did over the last 9 years to justify a ten fold increase in value but for those numbers it better have some solid gold Jeff Koons designed terlits.

6.
Daphne Guinness, fashion daredevil, international gadabout, and heiress to the Guinness beer fortune, has also got trouble with her New York City neighbors who, according to The Post have filed suit against the sassy sartorial icon for repeatedly flooding their multi-million dollar apartment no fewer than four times due to an over-flowing bathtub.

The quartet of floods have not only inconvenienced the downstairs neighbors–hedge hog Karim Samii and his wife Tina–but caused extensive damage to the sheet rock, moldings and a vanity table. The Samiis say they've become afraid to leave their apartment lest Miz Guinness once again turn the water on to fill her tub and then just forget about it. They've asked for more than a million bucks to pay for damages and compensate for their emotional distress. They have also asked the court to bar Miz Guinness from taking or filling her bathtub until something is done that will keep her bathtub from over flowing.

According to StreetEasy, Miz Guinness purchased her 4,118 square foot spread in April of 2008 for $11,734,719 and the Samiis theirs a month earlier for $12,852,946.

Miz Guinness did not, surprisingly, have any comment for The Post.

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