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Grape Leaf Inn, Estate of the Day


Should you purchase today's estate please let your friends at Luxist know, we'd love to come visit. The Grape Leaf Inn in the lovely wine country town of Healdsburg, California. The 13-room bed and breakfast which has been voted as best B&B in the area by a local news station. The inn is a restored Queen Anne Victorian with stained glass and original wood details. Wide porches face tranquil gardens. Currently all the rooms are named after wine varietals and each has its own theme. Many rooms have fireplaces and spa tubs. There is also a wine cellar which is currently used to hold tastings. This property is listed at $4.4 million.

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Cabbage Patch Kid King Snaps Up Madoff Penthouse

Two down one to go. As we first heard a couple of weeks ago, Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff's New York City penthouse, the place where he spent months under house arrest, has finally been sold. The NY Post has the scoop on the buyer. It's Al Kahn, the CEO of 4Kids Entertainment. You may not know the name but you know his brands which include Cabbage Patch Kids, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Pokemon as well as the American Kennel Club and the Cat Fanciers' Association. The sale price hasn't been revealed but the apartment was most recently listed at $8.9 million, $1 million off the original price. As with Madoff's Montauk house, which sold for $9.41 million last year, proceeds will benefit those swindled by Madoff.

One property remains, Madoff's Palm Beach, Florida house. A quick peek at Corcoran's listing reveals that the house has had another price cut. Just a couple of weeks ago it was listed at $7.9 million but is now listed for $7.25 million.




Joan Collins Takes A Turn As Jewelry Model

Actress Joan Collins is getting back into modeling at the age of 76. The glamorous golden girl will be the face of Alexis Bittar jewelry in ads that will launch on billboards in New York City during Fashion Week. The fact that Collins is most famous for her role as the devilish diva Alexis Carrington on the 1980s drama "Dynasty" is a fact not lost on either the designer or the star. As People.com has it Collins decided that 'Alexis for Alexis' was brilliant. Collins has been a costume jewelry collector for years and states that Alexis Bittar is her favorite designer. The glitzy oversized Bittar pieces seem to suit her well.

Conan O'Brien Lists His New York City Penthouse

Conan O'Brien, is finally, sadly out at NBC (and with a sweet $45 million kiss off to boot) but that doesn't mean he is returning to New York City to live. In fact the New York Post reports that O'Brien's massive Central Park West penthouse duplex at the Majestic is "quietly being shopped around" for a heavy price tag of $35 million (alas no listing yet). The prime co-op unit is composed of two units, an 18th-floor penthouse that O'Brien bought in 2007 for around $10 million plus an already combined unit residence on the 17th floor. The south-facing home has three terraces and views of Central Park West. The twin towered Art Deco styled Majestic has 238 apartments. It was once home to some of the former heads of the Luciano crime family (later called the Genovese crime family) including Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello. The Real Estalker reminds us that in early 2008, O'Brien and his wife Liza paid $10.75 million for a six-bedroom home in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles, could he be staying in Los Angeles to take the helm at another late night show? Stay tuned.

Lake Las Vegas Ritz-Carlton Set To Close


More bad news out of the Lake Las Vegas development. We've been watching the resort area slowly implode since last June and now USA Today's Hotel Check-In says that the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas will shut down at the start of May putting around 400 people out of work. The 348-room resort is owned by Village Hospitality, an arm of Deutsche Bank which has decided to case funding the hotel.

It's the latest blow to an area that has been hard hit in the recession. The resort destination, 17 miles away from the Las Vegas strip, features a manmade lake surrounded by an Italian-style village. It started off with grand fanfare as a quiet luxury alternative to the high-powered glitz of the Las Vegas strip. Real estate boomed and several different hotels settled in. But in the developer, Transcontinental Corp., lost the property in foreclosure after defaulting on $540 million in loans and the new owners of Lake Las Vegas filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008. The Reflection Bay Golf Course at Lake Las Vegas closed last August leaving just one course, the private SouthShore course in Henderson, available for play. The Lake Las Vegas real estate market remains clogged with multimillion homes. The resort area faces many challenges including a still-slumping Las Vegas tourism market, a second home market that refuses to rebound and a water bill that runs into the millions jacking up the homeowners association fees.

Austrian Millionaire Raffles Off Luxury Home


They say money can't buy happiness and one millionaire asserts that it is true. The Daily Telegraph reports that Austrian millionaire Karl Rabeder has decided to give away everything it spent him a lifetime to accumulate. He has already unloaded a collection of six gliders and an Audi A8. His stone farmhouse in Provence on 42 acres is listed for sale and his villa in Tirol is being sold in a raffle with tickets available for 99 euros each. The Tirol home is a 3,455 sq ft villa with Alps views. It has a swimming pond, a beach volleyball court and an outdoor entertainment pavilion.

Rabeder sold his successful furnishings and accessories company in 2004 and supports several orphanage projects in Central and South America. He and his wife have created a micro-credit organization. They plan to use the proceeds of the house lottery, on the one hand, to pay back existing house construction loans and cover the startup costs for MyMicroCredit which will fund self-employed entrepreneurs in several South American countries. A total of 21,999 lottery tickets will be sold.

It's not the first time we've seen this type of thing. Last year after a divorce English banker Andrew Paul started the Win A New Life website to give way his his home, car and boat in a competition that anyone could enter for £20. Up for grabs were his £1.1m five-bedroom house, a £160,000 Aston Martin DBS and his £200,000 Sealine 35 Sport motor boat. He was looking to sell 200,000 tickets but did not sell the required amount of tickets for the first prize of his belongings so a cash sum was given out instead.

The Queen Elizabeth 2 Finally Going Up For Sale


For a long time it has seemed that Dubai's acquisition of the Queen Elizabeth 2 cruise ship has been ill-fated. Dubai World acquired the ship for a reported $100 million and planned to turn it into a glamorous floating hotel in Dubai. But the anticipated renovation never took place and rumors began last year that the ship would eventually be for sale amid the general financial turmoil that has hit Dubai. Now various sources are reporting that in order to pay down some of Dubai World's massive $22 billion debt it is seeking to unload a variety of assets including the QE2. Also up for sale could be the global circus troupe Cirque du Soleil. The sell-off began last week when Dubai World's investment subsidy, Istithmar sold off a 13 percent stake in Indian domestic airline SpiceJet.

The real question is, who's buying? The Queen Elizabeth 2 was launched in 1967 and she would need a major, costly refit to be attractive as a tourist cruise ship again. Some fear that the venerable vessel may be looking at the scrap heap and other are calling for England to buy the ship to save her.

eBay Launches Diamond Ring Designer With $25,000 Ring Contest


Auction giant eBay is getting into the ring design business and they are launching with a "Build Your Bling" contest that has participants designing their own diamond rings. One winner will receive a ring from Gemstoneking, Inc. based on the winning design the winner submitted, up to $25,000 in value. The new eBay Diamond Ring Designer system is an online ring design system similar to Blue Nile and others that has slider selections for choosing diamonds by shape, size, color, clarity and cut. Once you've selected your stone (or stones) you are then presented with a variety of potential settings in gold or platinum. These systems are always fun to play with because the user can easily see how a change in cut or clarity affects diamond price and offer a stress-free way to browse diamond rings.

Entrants can enter from now until February 19 to submit a design and entry for consideration. Other eBay users will vote on the best designs and the participant with the greatest number of votes will be the winner. Two runner-ups will win eBay gift certificates and all three may have their entries on a winners page. The winner will be chosen on February 26.

Bal Harbour, Estate of the Day


Today's home in Bal Harbour, Florida has a tropical feel that seems almost more Hawaiian in style. The seven-bedroom home is on over an acre wither bay and ocean views. The home's many features include a billiard room with an exotic fish aquarium, garden room with access to the pool, a chef's kitchen with two pantries an a master suite with his and hers bathrooms and walk-in closets. The outdoor space boasts an infinity pool that overlooks the bay. A Tiki hut has a built-in barbecue, under-counter refrigerator and built-in seating. The property also has a half court basketball court and a two-bedroom, two-car garage guest home, a fully equipped home gym, and a massage room. There is also boat dockage. This home is listed at $17 million.


Gallery: Bal Harbour

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Miley Cyrus Plans Auction For Haiti

Miley Cyrus is doing her part for Haiti earthquake relief with an auction that starts tomorrow. The auction on eBay includes many donations from her celebrity friends. Britney Spears has donated the Versace dress she wore during her much celebrated return to glamour at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards. Nicole Ritchie will contribute a few pieces from her House of Harlow jewelry line. Miley herself is giving the Herve Leger dress she wore to the Grammy Awards this year as well as a pair of tickets to the premiere of her new movie, "The Last Song." All proceeds will support the Red Cross's efforts in Haiti as the Caribbean nation continues to recover from last month's devastating earthquakes.

Following the Hope for Haiti telethon, donations have continued to roll in from the rich and famous. Check out a few of the big givers in the gallery below.


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