Never Say Never About the Sale of Neverland Ranch

More reports are trickling out about Michael Jackson's flagging and sagging finances. According to a thorough and thoroughly compelling report on Fox News, the once black man, who looks an awful lot like a white lady now days, has defaulted on a $23,000,000 loan that was guaranteed by "Neverland Ranch," his 2,700 acre Santa Ynez Valley playpen for the kiddies. Uh oh.

If the former King of Pop does not cough up the cash to repay the loan, and the near quarter million dollars in interest too, the creditor can and will foreclose on "Neverland Ranch" and force the sale of the property to pay the debt. Oh dear. Most people have read that Miss Thing has financial issues, but it appears things have become dire and the article reports that the child lover may in fact file for bankruptcy within 90 days to get out from under his considerable financial debt and burden.

Many times since Miss Jackson's last legal tangle over an alleged inappropriate relationship with a young boy, the ranch has been rumored to have been sold or just about sold. In April of this year The NY Post reported that "distressed debt guru Bill Huff is in serious negotiations to buy the property." But the sale never happened. Other rumors included tall tales bout the massive ranch being sold on a reality television program. That obviously never came to fruition either.

Since being acquited of child molestation charges, Miss Jackson has been gallivanting across the globe living in in far flung locales such as Bahrain, where he was a guest of a filthy rich royal/patron, and also in Ireland, where he was rumored to have been a guest of Lord of the Dance Michael Flatly. More recently the beleaguered former superstar and father of three very blond babies was living in Las Vegas, where he first shacked up in a leased 16,461 square foot pile a couple miles off The Strip. It was later reported that the Jackson clan moved to another even larger and more lavish Las Vegas estate reportedly owned by Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei.

Jackson's relationships with his Middle Eastern potentate patrons seems to have gone awry. His prince (Abdullah of Brunei) is now suing the pop star for $7,000,000, and the Jackson four plus handlers have decamped from Prince Jefri's Las Vegas estate and are reported to be holed up in a luxury rental in Maryland. Maryland?

Everyone knows that Miss Jackson continues to own the heavily mortgaged Jackson family house on Hayvenhurst in Encino where his parents currently reside, no doubt living on the dwindling dollars of their one time cash cow son. (It's actually been gossiped to Your Mama that big mean daddy Jackson does not actually live at the Jackson family house anymore.) It's also been widely rumored and reported over the years that the the pale faced singer also owns an Upper East Side townhouse in Manhattan as well as a Beverly Hills mansion. Your Mama doubts that very much though. The man can barely pay for the make-up on his face let alone the maintenance on properties he does not use.

But then again he hangs on to the scene of the alleged crime in Santa Ynez, so what do we know?

Should "Neverland Ranch" be sold, either voluntarily or as part of a foreclosure proceeding, Your Mama has no doubt the entire mess will be torn down. What mega rich mogul wants Michael Jackson's broke down and leftover Ferris wheel and tarnished Tilt-a-whirl, not to mention the hordes of crazed and deluded fans that camp out on Figueroa Mountain Road?

Let's Talk About the Languishing Marketplace

Some real estate soothsayers say the "bubble" is about to burst. Some say it has already popped and are expecting dramatic drops in the price of housing over the next 12 months. And some others say it's all nonsense and the sky-high prices will hold even if fewer folks can afford to buy. Your Mam doesn't have a clue what's to come, but what we do know is that even the rich and famous are not immune to the fluctuations in the housing market. This morning Your Mama is going to look back at three celebrity owned properties that we've previously discussed and which continue to languish on the market, perhaps victims to the upheaval in the mortgage and lending industries and perhaps an indication of a slow down in the electric Los Angeles market.

1. Let's start with one of Hollywood's queens of kookiness Sharon Stone. In February of 2006, the acturuss, who was once offered $1,500,000 to make a "short visit" a Russian tycoon's house, went and bought a big Beverly Hills (Post Office) estate at the tippy top of N. Beverly Drive. For whatever reason, our favorite capricious minx never moved her questionable clothing or children into the place. Just four months after purchasing the 6,640 square foot house for $10,995,000, someone encouraged lovable Miz Cray-zee to put the place back on the market for $12,500,000.

Now babies, we don't know if Miz Stone ever intended to live up in this house or if her bizness manager (or another of her many people) thought she should try to cash in on an exploding real estate market in the Platinum Triangle and encouraged her to buy the place as a flip investment. But what is clear is that the vajayjay baring AIDs activist is going to lose at least a million clams on her impulsive and not well timed real estate maneuver.

After taking the house off the market in the Spring of 2007, Miz Stone put it back on the market over the summer at $11,500,000, a full million dollar price reduction. But alas, no buyers came a-runnin'. Recently, she again lowered the asking price for the 5-acre estate to $10,495,000, a full $500,000 LESS than she paid for the place. Take out the real estate fees, which are likely to be in the neighborhood of $500,000, and poor Miz Stone will be dipping into her Hermes pocketbook to to the tune of $1,000,000. You know she's all sorts of pissed. Maybe she should have taken the Russian tycoons more than generous offer after all.

2. Dirty looking comedian Jack Black should be sitting on top of the world. He's got hit movies, rakes in piles of cash, and has a new-ish wifey and baby. However, his real estate world is not so happy. Yes, the funny man did recently sell a Laurel Canyon house he once owned with his previous lady friend, and yes, he's got a $3,000,000 celebrity worthy new house on Monte Cielo Drive in Beverly Hills which he recently renovated and happens to sit next door to John O'Hurley's optimistically priced house.

But he's also got a N. Beachwood Drive house that he can't seem to unload. The freshly renovated, 2,694 square foot house first appeared on the open market in May 2007 with an asking price of $1,699,000. At one point over the summer it appeared that the house had found a buyer, but the deal must have fallen through because it's still sitting on the market with a reduced and current asking price of $1,529,000.

We're quite certain Mister Black put considerable money into renovating the place, but given that he paid only $720,000 for the property in 2001, there's perhaps a chance he can make some money on this transaction.

3. Staying in the Beachwood Canyon area, we move to Danny Masterson's quaint cottage on Holly Mont Drive. When this property first hit the open marketplace in late April, it had an aggreessive asking price of $1,595,000. It appears that on more than one occasion the actor/Scientologist/DJ/real estate investor had the place sold. But apparently the deal(s) fell apart, because the modest house remains on the market for $1,480,000. We can only imagine that Mister Masterson is eager to unload the place given that he and his gurlyfriend, the once wild child Bijou Phillips, bought the old Chuck Berry house a few blocks away for $2,995,000.

Like Jack Black, Mister Masterson may have some wiggle room before he is forced to take a loss on the transaction. He paid just $580,000 for the house back in 1998.

More Ellen Real Estate Intrigue

Poor Ellen Degeneres. Not only did she catch a lot of flak and break down in tears on her talk show over those nasty adopted dog doings, the glossy tabs are now reporting that she and her lesbian lover Portia di Rossi are headed towards splitsville. Say it isn't so. Seriously, Your Mama does not want to see these two lovebirds bust up. Your Mama has no inside sources with Miz Degeneres and we don't even pretend know a thing about either of those matters that has not already been reported far and wide.

More intriguing to Your Mama than whether Ellen did the right thing with the dog (we fall on the side of the dog's best interest), or whether she and the Missus are getting a dee-vorce (we hope not), is the ever changing make up of her Southern California real estate empire.

Yesterday Your Mama briefly discussed the newly renovated Beverly Hills house that the talk show queen and her acturuss lady friend have recently purchased from Will and Grace co-creator Max Muchnick,which got us looking into some of the other properties the real estate maven currently owns, sold and/or has on the market.

The last of Ellen's Woodrow Wilson Drive collection of properties was recently sold off to 25 year old soap stud Adrian Bellani who took over the role of Miguel when uni-brow Jesse Metcalfe left the jaw dropping daytime drama Passions in a not very successful attempt to move on to bigger and better things. The sale price was not disclosed, but the asking price for the modestly sized and envy producing house was $1,995,000. Another of her Woodrow Wilson properties was sold to dee-vorcing couple Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams, so it'll be interesting to see if that place comes back on the market as part of that settlement.

Just a few miles from Oprah Winfrey's $50,000,000+ fiefdom, Ellen and Portia are still attempting to cash in on their massive Montecito mansion which remains on the market for a spine tingling $24,000,000. The children will recall that the couple reportedly purchased this house for $15,750,000 (property records do not disclose the purchase price) in late 2006 and before they could even get their bras and panties into the dressing room drawers, put the place back on the market for $8,250,000 more than they paid for the meticulously renovated and landscaped 4-acre estate.
A little father north, Ellen and Portia owned two Santa Ynez ranches. According to property records, Miz D. purchased the 20 acre bucolic and picturesque getaway ranchette on Roundup Road (pictured above) in December of 2005 for $2,800,000 and sold it 13 months later, in March 2007, for $3,050,000 to a couple of infomercial entrepreneurs.
Now children this is where things get complicated and interesting. Property records indicate that Miz D. had purchased another much larger ranch in Santa Ynez in May of 2005 when she paid an undisclosed amount of money for a 119 acre property on Armour Ranch Road (pictured above). The sprawling complex includes a 2 bedroom 2.5 bathroom main house, a 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom guest house, a 2 bedroom and 1 bath manager's house, equestrian facilities, a lap pool, and and entertainment pavilion overlooking the tennis court. It has been widely reported, including by Your Mama on this very blog, that Miz D. sold this equestrian estate, which had been on the market for $11,900,000. And indeed property records do indicate a sale in December of 2006 to an business entity in Gig Harbor, Washington for an undisclosed amount.

Interestingly, the gor-gee-us hideaway is back on the market for $16,500,000, and even more interesting is that it's being marketed with all the same information, photos and magnificent interior design as when it was sold by Miz D. Hmm.

Here's were things get really perplexing. In November of 2005, Miz D. purchased a Marmol Radziner designed quasi-ranch style house on Zorada Drive on a private knoll in the Hollywood Hills for an undisclosed sum of money. It is widely believed this is the house Miz D. and her lady friend Portia called home for the last couple of years.

In March of 2006 Miz D. purchased an adjacent property, also with a Zorada Drive address, and also for an undisclosed amount of money. The 2,755 square foot house was given the usual and spectacular Ellen D. interior make over and was back on the market in May 2007 for $2,300,000. The listing disappeared from the MLS after several weeks and Your Mama presumed it had been sold.

And it appears that is has. Property records reveal that in September 2007, ownership of BOTH Zorada Drive properties were transferred to a business entity in...are you ready kids?...in Gig Harbor, Washington. In fact, they appear to have been sold to a business concern with the very same Gig Harbor address associated with the Santa Ynez property on Armour Ranch Road.

Which is strange and puzzling. Could it be that Miz D. simply transferred all the properties to another private trust? Or could it be that all three properties were purchased by the same person or business concern? That would certainly appear to be the case. Which of course has Your Mama wondering, why? And who? An investor? A super rich fan? A Microsoft executive? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone?

Whatever the case in term of why and who, it supports the information we received earlier this week about Ellen and Portia moving to a never on the open market and newly renovated house in Beverly Hills. Bitches gotta live somewhere, and the Montecito mansion is waaay too far for Ellen to commute to her talk show day in and day out unless by helicoptor. And everyone knows Ellen drives a Porsche and not a helicopter.