On Nov. 19, Christie's in London will auction off a stunning collection of photographs including some provocative shots of the world's most beautiful women. From a purely aesthetic standpoint the highlight of these is this 2000 portrait of Brazilian bombshell Gisele Bundchen by Mark Seliger, estimated at $9,000 to $12,000 - a relative bargain compared to Martin Schoeller's 2003 Angelina Jolie with Blood, est. at $23,000 - $39,000.

Also included in the sale: Albert Watson's 1993 nude Kate Moss, Marrakech, est. at $23,000 - $31,000; David LaChapelle's 1999 Britney Spears, Baby, est. $23,000 - $31,000; Michel Comte's 1996 James King, New York City, est. $6,000 - $9,000; and Gavin Bond's 2007 snap of Victoria's Secret stunner Adriana Lima, est. $5,000 - $8,000.

For at least the third time in the past year and a half since she bought the home, Britney Spears's six-bedroom home in the gated Summit community in the Beverly Hills post office area is back on the market. This time the faux Tuscan home is listed at $7.9 million, the highest we've seen it at (Spears bought for $6.75 million when it was on the market for $7.2 million). She picked up the home furniture and all so the listing pics aren't too much different from the ones back in 2006 (except for the addition of a kid's play area in the front yard. Spears's father Jamie, who still has legal control over Britney until the end of the year, asked the court's permission to sell the home. Rumor has it that she is headed to Calabasas where the paparazzi are a little less invasive. The property website is here.
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I know this is the second day in a row we are featuring a furniture-less New York apartment, but this one offers something different, the chance to see a before and after. This apartment in the Silk Building at East Fourth Street and Broadway used to belong to Britney Spears, and it took her forever and a day to unload it, dropping the list price from nearly $6 million to $4 million before selling it. The couple who bought the apartment in 2006 have now put the home on the market for $6.595 million. The current owners, Jessica Klein, a television writer and producer, and her husband, Isaac Levenbrown, spent several hundred thousand dollars sprucing up the home. And since we have some before pics from Britney's old listing we can see some of the changes. The floors have been darkened, the master bath has been changed and the kitchen has had a really beautiful upgrade.

The apartment, which has three bedrooms and a 24-foot-long terrace, was also once owned by Russell Simmons and before that by Keith Richards. I'm not quite sure what makes this apartment so attractive to the rich and famous but for $6.595 million you can get yourself a heap of celebrity provenance.

[via the NY Times Big Deal]

There is apparently a point at which some excessively rich individuals decide to do away with decent standards of dress altogether. They are literally so loaded they can afford to look homeless; their rags become a sort of reverse status symbol. In fact, as author Paul Fussell noted in Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, shabby clothes "advertise how much of conventional dignity [the upper classes] can afford to throw away. The wearing of clothes excessively new or excessively neat and clean suggests that your social circumstances are not entirely secure."

We'd like to think that's the reason behind the appearance of the celebs on Nerve's new list of the "Top 10 Rich People Who Look Poor." It would certainly seem to be for notoriously-underdressed billionaire Condé Nast owner Si Newhouse, who clocks in at # 7. But we think it's more than likely that the Olsen Twins (#6), Britney Spears (#3) and Amy Winehouse (#1), who's reportedly worth $20 million, are actually just slobs. Check out the full list here.

In the last few months, Britney Spears has been spotted around Los Angeles in a variety of vehicles. Now it looks like some of those cars may soon be for sale. Access Hollywood reports that a judge has granted Jamie Spears, Britney's father and co-conservator of her estate, the authority to sell off some of her cars. Britney Spears was also recently order to pay ex-husband Kevin Federline $375,000 to cover his extensive legal fees in the former couple's ongoing dispute over the custody of their two young sons. No word on which of Britney's cars will be sold yet but I'm betting there may be a Mercedes or two with a pop star pedigree on eBay soon.

As part of the triumvirate of Hollywood bad girls that includes Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton, Britney Spears has not had great luck with cars. Her most recent white Mercedes has been involved in all sorts of minor scrapes and paparazzi incidents. It's no surprise that the free-spending popwreck opted for a new car, and why not go for an upgrade, a brand new Mercedes SL65. After all, a girl who makes over $700,000 a month can afford a $200,000 car. But why the same color, white, as the one before? And, considering her own bad vehicle luck why would she opt for the very same type of car that Lindsay Lohan got her DUI in? Personally I'd like to see Britney in a Lexus hybrid, nice and safe for the kids and a bit kinder to the environment, considering the girl is always on the move, yet still high end enough for a big spender. What kind of car do you think Britney should drive?

Star Magazine is reporting that Britney Spears has bought this Mediterranean villa in Beverly Hills listed. The six-bedroom home is listed $7.2 million and the listing currently shows "sale pending" at the agent listing. Star reports that Britney looked at it on December 7 and stayed in the house for five hours, even getting ready for her evening out there.

The home was built in 2001 and has over 7400 square feet, of space including a double-height living room, office, media room and attached maid's quarters. Our friend Zillow reports that it was sold in 2002 for $2,650,000. Overall it's not a bad house, it's posh and spacious if perhaps a bit unremarkable. Sounds perfect for her.

Britney Spears, possibly looking for a car that would get her away from the paparazzi quicker than her SUV, picked up a gorgeous, silver 1956 Porsche 356A Speedster this week. The classic car is the design that catapulted the Porsche into popularity in the US. The car looks like it's in prime condition and is probably worth in the neighborhood of $70,000, though it is certainly worth a lot in terms of style.

Of course, like so many young drivers, Brit doesn't know how to drive a manual transmission; the guy beside her is her instructor.

[via Pink is the New Blog, image x-britney]

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Bad-plastic-surgery poster child Jocelyn Wildenstein becomes the latest person to opt in to the Plaza, spending nearly $10 million for around 3,000 square feet of space. She recently sold her large townhouse at 12 E. 82nd St. for over  $13 million.
--Britney Spears was in New York last week and didn't stay in her own apartment, which as we have noted before, has lingered on the market for two years.
--15 Central Park West, which was formerly the Mayflower Hotel, recently sold a penthouse for more than $40 million.
--Cher has sold her Miami home for $8.8 million. The six-bedroom home has a gym, a spa, a wine cellar and an infinity pool.
--Catesby Kilmer, a socialite who has been jailed for stealing money from her boss, is selling her Southampton house. It is listed at $2.5 million and will be our estate of the day later today.
--Donald Trump believes that Las Vegas is still the place to be. He and partners Jack Wishna and Phil Ruffin plan to build Trump International Tower II, a new luxury development. Did he learn nothing from his own ex-wife's failed project in Sin City?
--Philanthropist Carroll Petrie has bought a new summer home which had a $4.75 million asking price. She sold her former home on Gin Lane for around $14 million last year.

From the NY Times' Big Deal:
--Mandy Patinkin is moving out of his rent-stabilized apartment where he stayed for 28 years. After looking at 53 apartments in nine days he and his wife settled on an Upper West Side three-bedroom co-op which was listed at $1.695 million.
--Jamie-Lynn Signer has purchased a two-bedroom apartment on Leonard Street in TriBeCa for  $2.15 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
Kelsey Grammer has sold his  Beverly Hills-area home for about $25 million. The house has seven bedrooms, an elevator, a gym, a lanai, a library, a media room, an office, a wine cellar and five fireplaces.
--Sam Gores, president of the talent and literary agency Paradigm has bought a Wallace Neff-designed home in Beverly Hills for $16.5 million. The grounds include a studio/guest house, a greenhouse., a formal Italian garden, a reflecting pond and a pool.
--The former La Habra Heights home of potato chip queen Laura Scudder is on the market for $3.5 million. The home has rough-hewn beams, tiles from the Caribbean and a massive fireplace (shown above). The listing is here.

Britney Spears has dropped the asking price on her New York penthouse yet again. The penthouse, which originally was listed at $6 million. The latest price is $4.55 million (last time I saw this place is was listed at $5.25 million). She originally bought the place, which had belonged to both Keith Richards and Russell Simmons for $3 million. The apartment has three bedrooms and is located in the Silk Building in East Greenwich village. I seem to recall that Britney never lived here and it looks like they have filled the apartment with generic furniture in order to make it seem more cozy. Listing pictures after the jump.

[via Contact Music]

Since we all now know that Britney Spears is pregnant again, it's no surprise to see that she's out buying some new baby things. At least, she's browsing for baby things because she doesn't yet know the gender of the baby. She headed out to Petit Tresor in Los Angeles to look at their elegant and adorable line of baby furniture. Britney's hoping for a girl, so you can be sure that she had her eyes on some of the frilly, girly designs in the boutique. For now, though, she kept her son, Sean Preston under wraps in a Carezza Minifur Blanket. The blanket is made of soft Italian yarn, in blue or pink, with sabbia suede on one side. Price: $149.

[Image MSNBC]

From the New York Post's Gimme Shelter

--Modelizer and international gadabout Flavio Briatore is buying a $25 million apartment in the soon-to-be-refurbished Plaza hotel. He bought an apartment in One Beacon Court last year for $11 million.
--That $27.5 million two-bedroom Haupt apartment might end up being a packed house. Word is a couple with four children are buying  which might cause a fracas with the coop board.
--Lovely Lands End may be no more. The mansion in Sands Point, Long Island may end up being razed in favor of a small development of five luxury houses. 


From the LA Times Hot Property:

--Dr. McDreamy, Patrick Dempsey has just sold his Hollywood Hills home for $2.5 million.
--Doris Day's  Beverly Hills home is on the market for $5.25 million. The listing for the classic home can be found here.
--Don't go feeling sorry for soon-to-be-divorced Nick Lachey,he closed escrow last week on the Bel-Air home of Seal and Heidi Klum.  Lachey's "Newlyweds" home was a Mediterranean McMansion whereas his new home is a spare four-bedroom contemporary. Lachey paid around $5 million for the home.


From the Toronto Star:

Singer Avril Lavigne is selling her Toronto home. The two-bedroom home has over 2,400 square feet of space including a master suite with a Jacuzzi tub. The house has been on the market a little less than two months and the price has already been dropped to $599,000 from $618,000.

From the National Ledger:
The UK paper The Sun reports that Britney Spears has purchased a $5.1 million mansion in Hawaii.