Katie Holmes

Suri Cruise is getting started early on her designer handbag collection, and (no surprise) so far she has the very same taste as her mother Katie Holmes. Suri was spotted carrying a tiny metallic Salvatore Ferragamo "Sophia" bag (not the bag shown here) recently as she was carried aboard a helicopter in Jamaica by dad Tom. Mom, bringing up the rear, was toting her own larger version of the same "Sophia" design. Color and all.

Yes she's a cutie, and no we don't know the whole story, but is it really necessary to give a little girl a purse worth almost a $1000 when everybody's traveling and in jeans and t-shirts? Maybe if she's going to the Oscars.

Via LuxuryLaunches

Los Angeles, Ca.-based Sprinkles has been nominated for a Readers' Choice Award for Best Cupcake.

Sprinkles is a favorite of Hollywood stars from Tyra Banks, Russell Crowe and Paris Hilton to Katie Holmes, Oprah Winfrey and Teri Hatcher, all of who proclaim love for the sumptuous treats. "I love Sprinkles Cupcakes," says Banks. "I am addicted to them." Ryan Seacrest is a fan, too. "These are not just cupcakes, they're a lifestyle," he says. Barbra Streisand once sent a box of Sprinkle's cupcakes to Oprah Winfrey. Oprah enjoyed them so much she ordered enough to share with her entire studio audience. Sprinkles is also known for its star topped variety served at Oscar parties.

Luxist readers describe the cupcakes this way:

"Amazingly delicious and beautiful with a variety of flavors."
"The best cupcakes anywhere! Long lines, but worth the wait. Their butter with vanilla frosting will change your life."
"The original luxury cupcake store."
"Their entire range of flavors is executed masterfully, from classics like Red Velvet to more exotic editions like chai latte. The cake is light and not too sweet with rich frostings that balance each other perfectly."

Company founders Candace and Charles Nelson opened the first Sprinkles in Beverly Hills in April 2005. People thought the couple were crazy to open a cupcakes-only bakery in the middle of "thin city" at a time with low carb mania was at its peak. Despite naysayers, they sold out within hours of opening, and sales haven't slowed since. Today, Sprinkles is known as much for its long lines and devoted fans as for its delicious cupcakes. Sprinkles is credited with inspiring a national cupcake craze as reported by the New York Times, USA Today, the Today Show and Nightline.


Sprinkles evokes the memory of European bakeries flooded with the smell of baked goods and awash in natural light, with a modern touch. Its cupcakes are baked in small batches throughout the day, so that they will be as fresh as possible for Sprinkles' devoted customers. The cupcakes are handcrafted from the finest ingredients, including sweet cream butter, bittersweet Belgian chocolate, pure Madagascar Bourbon vanilla, fresh bananas and carrots, real strawberries and natural citrus zests.

Sprinkles offers more than 20 tantalizing flavors (15 or so of which are on sale on any given day), from simple vanilla to creative chai latte. Topped with Sprinkles' trademark modern dots, rich chocolate sprinkles from France or seasonal sugar decorations, Sprinkles Cupcakes are perfect for occasions of any kind.

Sprinkles' famous gift box is a sleek rectangular box that holds one dozen freshly baked cupcakes. The bakery also offers a tray, produced by Heller in a variety of colors, that fits right into the gift box and can be kept to display the cupcakes.

Sprinkles also offers signature cupcake mixes in red velvet, vanilla, dark chocolate and lemon. The mixes are made from the same high quality ingredients used in Sprinkles bakeries and are complete with Sprinkle's trademark modern dots. In addition to Sprinkles shops, the mixes are sold at Williams-Sonoma's 250 stores nationwide and in Canada.

Its original store is two blocks west of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, but today, Sprinkles has six additional locations in Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Newport Beach, Scottsdale and Palo Alto. More locations will be opening soon in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Denver, Kansas City, London, Las Vegas, Miami, Minneapolis, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, San Diego, Seattle, Tokyo and Washington, D.C.

Vote for the company you believe makes the best cupcakes. Readers' Choice Winners will be announced on March 1st.

Oops -- I bet Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise didn't realize that "Suri" means "pickpocket" in Japanese, "horse mackerels" in Italian and "turned sour" in French (via Reuters). There's a British company called Today Translations whose luxury service could have helped them avoid the unfortunate situation.

For £1,000 (approximately $1,675.40), they'll check potential name disasters in 100 languages or more (at an additional cost, of course). They intend to attract celebrity clientele, whose celeblings often become international travelers before their first birthdays. Tom and Kate could have checked a hundred names without feeling a cramp in their coffers.

Who knows, Suri may be able to pull off "Pickpocket" ... it's actually kinda cool, but if you want to avoid embarrassing your future children. check out Today Translations.

[via Reuters]

A celebrity launching a fashion line? It seems this is one trend that will never end.

There it was earlier this week, the big bulletin that Katie Holmes is hooking up with her stylist Jeanne Yang to produce Holmes & Yang, a women's line slated to debut at the Maxfield boutique in Los Angeles this fall.

The list of celebs-cum-designers must be a mile long now: Jessica Simpson, Gwen Stefani, Sarah Jessica Parker, Justin Timberlake, Milla Jovovich, Sienna Miller, Mary Kate and Ashley Oslen, Chloë Sevigny, Pamela Anderson, Victoria Beckham, Gwen Stefani, Beyoncé, Fergie and, of course, Paris Hilton just to rattle off a few.

Celebrities with fashion labels is so commonplace (even Ryan Seacrest went there), Perez Hilton recently started www.cocoperez.com to document all the goings-on of the modern day deities turned taste makers.

The whole celebrity/fashion setup can't help but reek of making-a-buck. Very few of the glitterati, if even one, will ever pick up a needle and thread. We all know how challenging it is to make a garment (thank you, Project Runway). And then there's that unexplainable sixth sense fashion designers seem to have. Stylists exist because celebrities are more often than not a fashion hazard waiting to happen. Demi Moore's biker shorts at the Oscars, anyone? A good stylist will steer a celeb away from a career-debilitating swan dress. So why should anyone trust good taste to the latter?

"I can honestly say I'm not a big fan of celebrities as clothing designers," says celebrity stylist Monica Schweiger. "I mean in most cases, the celebrity designer more than likely has no actual design training and may not even have a unique style opinion-other than their stylist. It's kind of like taking the celebrity poster girl ad concept one step further-instead of putting the face on the ads lets just put their name on the brand."

Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are on the move again and old friend James Packer is helping them find a place to stay. The Australian billionaire is offering the couple his private suite on the 39th floor of the Crown Towers hotel complex while they are in Melbourne next month. Katie Holmes will be in Australia filming the production of the horror movie Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark. The large suite is being renovated for the Cruise family and the Daily Telegraph reports that an equivalent suite rents for $27,500 a night.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Florida car dealer, Terry Taylor has listed his Palm Beach home, shown above, at $72.5 million which is almost three times what he paid in 2003. The main house was built circa 1924 and designed by veteran Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner. It has nine bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, a movie theater with a ticket window and concession stand, an exercise room, a wine cellar, pool, large pool house and two three-car garages, each with a second-floor guest apartment. The listing is here.
--Joseph Simmons, better known a Rev. Run, has relisted his suburban New Jersey house for $5.2 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--William Chadwick has put his home in the pricey Carbon Beach area of Malibu on the market for $65 million. It was our estate of the day on Friday.
--"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane picked up a home in Beverly Hills that wasn't listed for $13.5 million.
Television producer Jay Tarses has sold a home he built in 1987 in Pacific Palisades for $2.995 million. The home was first listed in January for $3.489 million.
--Singer Doug "SA" Martinez of the band 311 has listed his funky Spanish colonial in Los Feliz. It's our estate of the day later today.
--Philippe Naouri -- a.k.a. the Vintage Denim King has put his Hollywood Hills contemporay on the market for $3.185 million. The listing is here.

From the Real Estalker:
--Rage Against the Machine drummer Brad Wilk has picked up a home in Calabasas that was listed at $5.89 million. Britney Spears has also been said to be looking at homes in the same area of Calabasas.
--Hugh Laurie has paid $3.84 million for an English Country style residence located in the Outpost Estates section of the Hollywood Hills from music manager Pat Magnarella who bought the home in 2001 for $2 million.
--Actor Justin Long has picked up a two-bedroom bachelor pad in the Blue building on Norfolk Street in New York for $2.425 million.
--Businessman Peter Morton has put a seven bedroom home on the market in Beverly Hills for $22.5 million. The listing is here and notes that the home has such a view that the property will be shown only on a clear day.
--Ambleside, the Indian Hill, Ohio residence of late Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott has hit the market for $5.4 million. The listing is here.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Katie Holmes has been spotted duplex penthouse at Trump park Avenue with a $200,000-a-month price tag.
--A new listing in the famed Dakota building is hitting the market with a $7.5 million asking price.
--Alex Rodriguez, aka A-Rod, was seen a few weeks ago checking out units at 15 Central Park West just two blocks from where Madonna lives. He's been checking out the four-bedroom duplex that Lindsay Rosenwald has put unofficially on the market for $90 million through Brown Harris Stevens.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Nicole Kidman has purchased record producer and songwriter Ron Fair's house in Beverly Hills, Calif. for an undisclosed price after it had been listed for $4.795 million.
--Los Angeles anchorman Harold Greene and his wife, Charlene have put their Toluca Lake home on the market for $2.299 million. The listing is here.
--Basketball star Elton Brand has placed his three-bedroom, Hollywood Hills home on the market for $4,998,500, two years after he first had listed the house at close to $5 million. The listing is here.



From Golf Magazine:
--Golfer Phil Mickelson's house, built on 4.55 acres in Rancho Sante Fe, California is on the market for $10,750,000 - $12,225,876. The listing is here.

From News Australia:
--Russell Crowe is renting a home for around £20,000 in London's Mayfair district while he films a movie in England.

From the Real Estalker:
--Pete Sampras and his wife Bridgette cut the price on their Beverly Hills mansion from $25 million to $23 million. It seems to have worked. The home is now listed as "looking for backup."
----Actor Willem Dafoe has put his house in Accord, New York on the market for $850,000. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.
--Kimora Lee Simmons has put her Beverly Hills home on the market for $7.75 million. It is our estate of the day later today.
--Technology guru Halsey Minor, ho bought a Bel Air home for $20 million in 2006 now has put the home on the market for just $12.9 million. Why? Rumor has it that the much of the home as been stripped down and is empty and dirty. The listing is here.
--TV personality Debbie Matenopoulos and music executive Jay Faires have put their home, Wolf's Lair, shown at right, on the market. The Norman-style castle was built in the 1920s and includes a guest house with interiors by architect John Lautner, a heart-shaped pool and eight bedrooms total on the property. The couple reportedly bought in 2002 for $2.9 million and have now listed it at $7.5 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
-- Baseball pitcher Jaret Wright has sold his Dover Shores home in Newport Beach home for $1.67 million.
--Novelist Jackie Collins has eased out a Bel-Air area property she owns for $20,000 a month.
----Looks like Avril Lavigne has finally unloaded her home in the Mulhollland Estates area of Beverly Hills. the home which was first listed in March 2007 for $6.9 million has reportedly received a $5.2 million cash offer.
--Carla J. Christofferson, co-owner of the L.A. Sparks and a partner with the O'Melveny & Myers law firm, has listed her 5,300-square-foot Hollywood Hills home for $5.5 million. The restored 1928 California Spanish-style five-bedroom home includes a THX theater with a 96-inch projection screen. The virtual tour is here.

From Big Time Listings:
--Mr. Big Time takes a look at the real estate doings of Robert Downey Jr. and Hilary Duff.
--Actor and comedian Brad Sherwood has placed his four-bedroom house in Los Angeles' Encino area on the market for $4 million. The listing is here.
--Actor and movie director Michael Apted and his wife, writer Dana Stevens, have paid $1,784,000 for a three-bedroom house in Del Mar, Calif., in San Diego County.
--It's time to play "Which celebrity's house is this?" checking out a six-bedroom house in Brentwood which recently sold after having been on the market for $8,499,000.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Katie Holmes, who is set to appear in a Broadway show in the fall, is on the hunt for a rental on the Upper East Side, she's been spotted cruising apartments with monthly rates over $60,000.
--Entertainment lawyer Paul Schindler has sold his four-story co-op apartment on the Upper East Side for $16.5 million. He and his wife closed on a $13.4 million apartment at the Plaza.
--Ted Koppel has dropped the price of his Potomac, Maryland home. He first listed it in 2005 for $4.1 million and is now asking $1.94 million for the six-bedroom home which as an indoor pool, a gym with a sauna, maid's quarters and a horse barn.
--The Park Avenue apartment of the late socialite and philanthropist Frances Todman has sold for $22 million.
--From Page Six, Philip Seymour Hoffman and his girlfriend Mimi O'Donnell are buying a three-bedroom co-op loft n Manhattan's West Village that had been listed for $4.4 million. Big Time Listings unearthed the listing here.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The New York State Court of Appeals has said that a shipping heir named Alistair Economakis and his wife, Catherine can proceed with their plans to take over 47 East Third Street, a a 15-unit, 60-room, 11,600-square-foot rent-stabilized tenement building and turn it into a luxury mansion without getting approval from the state's low-income housing agency. They bought the building and have taken over six apartments, which leaves nine units with tenants who've refused to get bought out.
--Nightlife king Simon Hammerstein has bought his first New York apartment, paying $1.27 million for a loft at 265 Water Street.
--Chinese pianist Lang Lang and his parents have picked up a duplex opposite Carnegie Hall, paying $1.895 million last month for a duplex at City Spire on West 56th Street.
--The brother of Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, the only president in Kazakhstan's 17-year post-U.S.S.R. history, Bolat Nazarbayev and his wife have paid around $20 million for a corner unit facing Central Park at the Plaza.
--Joy and Leonard Toboroff, the 74-year-old vice chairman of a Houston-based oil/gas-drilling outfit named Allis-Chalmers Energy are selling their duplex apartment that stretches across two Tribeca buildings, 39 and 41 North Moore Street with a list price of $17.9 million. The listing is here.

Celebrities and their motorcycles have had a long and enduring affair. From before the iconic movie, Easy Rider, celebrities, mostly men, have taken to the open road. Why the link between the famous and the fast? Certainly wherever there is money there are toys to spend it on but could there be more to the lure. I asked Mike Werner, the man behind Bikes in the Fast Lane Motorcycle News for his take on the link between the two. Mike has an interesting theory. He says there are three basic types of celebrity motorcycle riders: the ones who are riding to look cool and may have many bikes but not so many miles on the bikes, the "real biker" celebs who were into biking before they became famous and now have the money and time to indulge their passion and the ones who started off riding as a fashion statement but then found themselves getting really into motorcycles. Mike Werner cited Robert M. Pirsig, the author of the much-loved book Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance who said that the allure of riding a motorcycle is that you are one with the road in a way you cannot be in a car, you are exposed to the weather and the air and the smell of the road.

Motorcycles also offer an escape from the world of celebrity, the chance to feel free and slip away from the world. It's no surprise that many of the celebrity motorcycle riders are also pilots. Each offers both the exhilaration of potential danger as well as the feeling of mastery, to be both in control and yet aware that you are not completely in control, that the environment you are in also controls you. I suspect that being famous can be similar in some ways, a odd juxtaposition of power and powerlessness.

Paris Hilton, to my knowledge, has never been seen, outside of the red carpet of course, on the $250,000 custom motorcycle she is shown riding in the picture above. The gallery below includes just some of the celebrities famous for loving and riding (at least to premieres) their motorcycles.

One of the perks of being married to Tom Cruise has to be the shopping. Since Katie Holmes met and married the diminutive action star she's logged so much time at Barney's they should thank her in their annual business report. Recently though, it was the Beverly HIlls Neiman Marcus that got the Katie touch. In Touch reports that she had a $300 lunch with friends there on December 15 and then went on a massive shopping adventure that totaled around $100,000. Katie's picks includes a $30,000 rose-gold Cartier wristwatch, a black Giorgio Armani suit for $5,400, Gucci snakeskin sneakers for $990, a Prada ski coat for $1,395 and four pairs of Barker Black handmade English shoes at $825 each all for her hubby.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Christie Brinkley has found a new home in the Hamptons, picking up a waterfront estate in North Haven which had a $10.995 million price tag. Her ex-husband, Peter Cook has also bought a place in North Haven for close to $1.2 million.
--Broadway producer Jeffrey Finn has purchased a one-bedroom pied-a-terre at the Platinum condo complex for just over $1.4 million.
--Rachel Hunter is looking for a fixer upper in the Hamptons. Good luck with that.
--Hotel developer Robert Burns wins the dubious distinction of spending the most money on a Hamptons rental. He is renting an oceanfront Southampton home for a record $1.2 million for the year. He is currently working on building a new mansion in the area.

Bonus from the NY Post:
--Is Alex Rodriguez of the NY Yankees looking to buy the Lake Carrington Estate? The home in Greenwich, Connecticut is billed a "couture-ready" mansion, a nine-acre lakefront property dominated by a Georgian-style stone mansion spanning 35,000 square feet. The listing is here.

From The Real Estalker:
--Scarlett Johansson has picked up a home in the Hollywood Hills for around $8 million.
--Ricky Martin has listed his Miami mansion, shown above, for $16.9 million. No interior pics but the listing is here (that's one deep blue pool).
--Keyshawn Johnson's condo at The Californian in Los Angeles is for sale for $3.595 million.
--Rumor has it that Britney Spears may have sold her Malibu mansion.
--It was nearly two years ago that we first learned Kathleen Turner was set to put her Amagansett home on the market for $7.95 million, now we finally have the listing which is for $6.995 million. Check out the charming beach home here.
--Real estate goddess Ellen Degeneres is at it again putting another tempting home on the market. This Hollywood home is listed for $1.995 million. Ellen and her team do some mighty fine renovating. Check out the calm white splendor at the property website.
--Numerous websites are reporting that Britney Spears may be buying Ray Liotta's old nest in the Pacific Palisades. We'll be checking out this home later as out estate of the day.

From Celebrity Babylon:
--Rumor has it Tom Cruise has picked up a plot in Montecito from Rob Lowe and his wife and may be building a getaway house.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Trusts and partnerships linked to billionaire hedge-fund manager Bruce Kovner paid about $70 million earlier this year for a bunch of oceanfront properties in California's Santa Barbara County. The Kovner-related entities paid $35 million for a three-acre lot with a large Tuscan-style home, $20 million for a four-bedroom house on three acres and then $15 million for six acres.
--New York attorney and real-estate investor Alan Schnurman has just gotten approval to sell eight lots in a Hamptons subdivision, 41 acres in all, for $64.5 million. He bought the land in 2005 for around $25 million. Schnurman's got some success behind him, he recently sold six lots in Bridgehampton for $37.5 million that he bought in 2005 for $12 million. That buyer in turn has put the lots on the market for almost $50 million. The listing is here.
--As we already knew, Anne Heche's home is on the market for $3.795 million.
--As the Real Estalker predicted weeks ago, Paris Hilton has put her home on the market. The price is $4.25 million. She bought in 2004 for around $2.9 million. The listing is here and warns that there is "a pre-screening process" for getting your look at the place. Also, The Gilded Moose has a great commentary on the interior.
--Basketball player Rasheed Wallace has listed his nearly 10,000-square-foot residence in Portland, Oregon for $5.2 million, making it one of the most expensive listings in the area. Rather bland for a sports star's house, you can check it out here.

From TMZ:
--Johnny Depp has picked up a penthouse in the Eastern Columbia building in downtown Los Angeles for about $2 million. The striking turquoise Art Deco building is an LA landmark but the neighborhood is still in transition.

From Berg Properties Celebrity Big Time Listings:
--Jazz singer Lalah Hathaway has sold her Los Angeles home for $848,000 to yoga instructor and model Rainbeau Harmony Mars.
--Michael Jordan's ex-wife has paid $4,720,500 for a mansion in Chicago's River North neighborhood.
--The hunt is on, which house is the house Orlando Bloom bought in the Hollywood Hills for $2.8 million.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Howard and Yvonne Tsao, who graduated from the NYU Stern School of Business barely a year ago, just paid $11.75 million in cash for a 58th-floor spread at the Park Imperial on West 56th Street.
--More news from the infamous 30 Crosby Street, home to Lenny Kravitz and formerly infamously, Courtney Love. Trader Richard Barabino, who sold his second-floor loft there for $6.5 million, will really miss the show-off factor of the apartment and also the help which he refers to has being "like little puppies wagging their tails eager to do something to help you out."
--Steven Kessner, a real estate magnate named by The Village Voice in June 2006 as one of "NYC's 10 Worst Landlords," has bought his son Robert a $1.395 million apartment at 300 East 85th Street, a tower called the America.
--Jeweler-craftsman John Landrum Bryant and his heiress wife, Patricia Bauman, have paid $7.1 million for a four-bedroom apartment in the Beekman that includes a garden, wine cellar, two wet bars and a master bedroom with a kitchenette and fireplace. They plan to put in a jade stone fireplace.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Mel Gibson has sold his Malibu beachfront home for nearly $30 million. He bought the home in the fall of 2005 for $24 million. Also, in May, he bought a 400-plus-acre agricultural and cattle ranch in Costa Rica for $25.8 million, according to La Nación, a Costa Rican publication.
--Former Dodger and Angel center fielder Steve Finley and his wife, Amy, have listed their Rancho Santa Fe estate at $20.5 million. The home has 12,000 square feet and is on seven acres. You can find the listing on the Barry Estates website.
--The Malibu home of the late Daniel Jacoby, an Internet banking pioneer, has been sold for about $12 million.

The latest TomKat rumor involve a pricey piece of real estate. It his being reported that newlyweds Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes have gone British for their latest purchase, snapping up a six-bedroom home known as Rede Place in Dormans Park, Sussex, England. The couple paid around $4.75 million for the home which has an indoor swimming pool, game room, greenhouse and a staff cottage.

Why this area? The Church of Scientology has long had ties to nearby East Grinstead. The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard was the owner of Saint Hill Manor which remains a powerful Scientology center.

I've refrained myself from joining the hordes chronicling every move of newlyweds Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes thus far but news of a yacht always draws me back into the fray. The two are spending their honeymoon yachting around the Maldives aboard luxury yacht the Arctic P. The Arctic P was the yacht of the late Kerry Packer and now belongs to his son, James Packer, who was a guest at the couple's wedding in Italy on Saturday. The Artic P is a 288-foot former salvage tug which Packer customized into a luxury yacht.

More pics of the Arctic P are available at Yacht Images and also here. Due to her tug past, she's not exactly the most gorgeous megayacht I have ever seen but I am sure the accomodations are luxurious.

The latest extravagant gift for little Suri Cruise, the daughter of Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, is a pink airplane pram. Tom Cruise was given the gift when he appeared on Ellen DeGeneres's show. According to the Celebrity Baby Blog, the pram is a modified version of the Fantasy Flyer shown here. The little plane was customized with extensions to the wheel legs, a handle, a hood and Suri's name stenciled along the side. Cruise also received a tiny black satin flight suit and sunglasses.  The Fantasy Flyer, in its unmodified form, sells for $305 at Elegant Child.

Lulla Smith designs high-quality bedding, with a focus on cribs, baskets and bassinets, for some of the hottest celebrities in Hollywood, including Courtney Cox and David Arquette as well as Heidi Klum and Seal. This week, Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise added themselves to Lulla's client list by ordering dozens of sets of crib linens and three bassinets for their new daughter, Suri. The bassinets are Lulla's Greenwich style, with a Dupioni silk covering. They can range in price from $596 to $1,200, depending on fabric and whether a custom design is desired.