Ever wonder what it is that sparks the mind of an entrepreneur? After all, lots of people have big imaginations and great ideas, but only a relatively small number of them actually follow through, create a company and design a product. Of course, we can add Henrik Fisker to that list of entrepreneurs, and we're definitely looking forward to seeing what else springs from his fertile mind.

So, back to the original question. In the case of Henrik Fisker, the inspiration for the Karma extended-range electric car came from none other than Leonardo DiCaprio. Actually, the actor's Prius hybrid, to be specific. Says Fisker:

A couple of years ago it started, by people who were maybe a little ahead of their time. You saw some movie starts like Leonardo DiCaprio buying a Prius... He could have bought any car in the world, and I remember seeing that on television and thinking to myself, you know, when you've got a guy who could buy any Ferrari or Rolls Royce and he's buying a Prius, you know something is changing dramatically.

Interesting little tidbit, no?

[Source: Reuters | Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

Leonardo DiCaprio has switched watch alliances. DiCaprio, who recently worked with Jaeger-LeCoultre will now be a global ambassador for TAG Heuer. DiCaprio will be appearing in advertisements with several of TAG Heuer's products, including the Carrera Day-Date chronograph. He replaces Brad Pitt whose contract with the company recently expired.

DiCaprio will use part of his fees as well as royalties from designated TAG Heuer products, to support a major environmental organization. His own foundation works on fostering environmental awareness. Di Caprio joins Tiger Woods, Jeff Gordon, Uma Thurman and others representing the brand.

From the Real Estalker:
--Leonardo DeCaprio is selling one of the three homes he owns in Malibu. He bought this home for $6.35 million last year and has listed it for $8.999 million. The property website is here.
--Christina Aguilera has cut the price on her West Hollywood home. It's our estate of the day later today.
--Actress CCH Pounder has put her Los Angeles home on the market. It was our estate of the day on Saturday.
--Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony have put their Bel-Air home on the market for $8.5 million. The listing is here.
--Rumor has it that Matt Damon and his family have been checking out $20 million apartments in New York City.
--Former fashion photographer Dewey Nicks and his wife Stephanie have put their Beverly Hills home on the market for $5.625 million. The property website is here.
--Director Paul Haggis has picked up a three-bedroom home in Santa Monica for $2.365 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--A home that belonged to fashion designer Bob Mackie is from 1997 to 2005 is now back on the market at $2.5 million. The listing is here.
--Kinka Usher who makes commercials through his House of Usher production company (and also directed the movie "Mystery Men") is moving to the Pacific Palisades, where he just bought a newly constructed home for $3,.525 million.
--Monica Keena who Kristen, Eric's girlfriend on HBO's "Entourage" has bought a house in the Hollywood Hills for $1.05 million.
--Actress Cynthia Watros-Gilliland who played Libby, a psychologist, on "Lost," has sold her 1923 Hancock Park home for $5.2 million.
--Director Jonathan Turteltaub has sold his West Hollywood home for $3.2 million.


From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--The Plaza's Astor Suite has gone back on the market with a new broker and a $17 million price cut. The 5,000-square-foot, fifth-floor unit, owned by European Esprit founder Juergen Friedrich is now for sale for $38 million. He bought last year for $27 million and briefly listed it for $55 million earlier this fall.
--Justin Timberlake picked up his loft condo at the Pearline Soap Factory in TriBeCa for $4.774 million.
--A gorgeous three-bedroom co-op on the seventh floor of the Dakota is listed at $14.5 million. The owners are securities trader Roy Welland - also the proprietor of restaurant Cru - and his wife, Christal Henner-Welland, the sister of actress Marilu Henner.
--Writer and director James Toback has listed his 15th-floor two-bedroom apartment in the Majestic for $3.75 million. The listing is here.
---Italian wine maker Marcello Zaccagnini, the e owner of Zaccagnini Winery, has purchased a condo at the Platinum building on West 46th Street and has has created an exclusive Platinum label for one of his best reserves, montepulciano d'Abruzzo. He's distributing 500 bottles to residents of Platinum as housewarming gifts. He bought a two-bedroom residence for more than $2.8 million on one of the new high-rise development's top floors.

From Berg Properties BIg Time Listings:
--Johnny Knoxville has sold his three-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills for $1.816 million.
Zachary Quinto, who stars on TV's "Heroes" and in the upcoming Star Trek movie has paid $865,000 for a 1,505-square-foot house in Los Angeles' Los Feliz area.
--A BBC executive has sold a home in the Hollywood Hills which comedian Carol Leifer once owned for $2.05 million and the buyer may be a celebrity.
Public records show that comedian Norm Macdonald paid $1.75 million for his two-bedroom condominium unit in Santa Monica. --Basketball star Elton Brand has sold his Hollywood Hills home for $4.55 million and has paid $3.35 million to purchase a home Gladwyne, Pennsylvania.
-- Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman sold a two-bedroom condominium unit in Los Angeles' Encino area for $725,000.
--Public records show that country stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood paid the $4.95 million asking price for their home in Malibu purchased earlier this year.
--A look at the real estate dealings of "House M.D." actress Olivia Wilde and her filmmaker husband who own a loft in Venice, California.
--Real estate developer Robert Bisno has listed his home in the Beverly Park area of Beverly Hills for $29.5 million. The listing is here.
--Actor George Hamilton has paid $525,000 to purchase a condominium unit in West Palm Beach, Fla.
--Public records reveal that Teri Garr's home in Los Angeles' Brentwood area sold for $3,944,500.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Former quarterback Michael Vick has cut the price of his luxury Atlanta home to $4.1 million, from $4.5 million. We'll check this out as our estate of the day on Monday.
--Nicolas Cage listed an apartment in midtown Manhattan for $9.75 million for about one week and then pulled it off the market.
--A Florida cattle and quail-hunting ranch, half-owned by a onetime top pick in the National Football League draft, has gone on the market for $50 million. We'll be looking at this one out on Tuesday.

From Newsday's Real LI:
----The Skidmore house, which is dated circa 1761 and is the oldest house in Northport, NY is listed for $449,000.
--A Cove Neck estate owned by Grammy-winning record producer Ric Wake was reclaimed by the bank at auction earlier this week in Nassau County Supreme Court. The "upset price" for the home had been set at $4.4 million. Wake had the home on the market for the past year, listed at $6.5 million.
--A townhome once owned by ESPN analyst and former New York Jet wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson is on the market for $1.199 million.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--David Smilow, the co-founder of TeleBank, which was sold in 2000 to E*Trade for more than $1 billion, has put his duplex penthouse at 140 Perry Street on the market for $19.5 million. The listing is here.
--via Curbed, Lenny Kravitz is still trying to sell his penthouse at 30 Crosby in Soho. It was most recently listed for $18.75 million but is now on the market for just $14.995 million. The listing is here.
Sundance Film Festival co-director Geoffrey Gilmore and film producer Julie le Brocquy have paid $2.475 million for a three-bedroom condo at 25 Central Park West.
--via Page Six, two months after buying a townhouse in Brooklyn, real estate maven Barbara Corcoran has reportedly purchased two more multiple-residence brownstones in the borough.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--A penthouse at the Time Warner Center is now listed for $65 million. It was our estate of the day on Friday.
----11 Spring Street, which was listed at $39.8 million total for three units is now listed at $36.5 million. The Candle Building is a former carriage house and stable that can be left as three units or combined into one massive home. The listing is here.
--Karen Fleiss, a hedge fund manager and her husband, David, an Upper East Side orthopedic surgeon put their eight-bedroom duplex at 1030 Fifth Avenue on the market for $47.5 million in June since then it's gone down to $39.9 million in August and then to $34.5 million in October. Now Corcoran's Sharon Baum and Brown Harris Stevens' Fritzi Kallop listed the bottom floor alone for $15 million.
----Last year, Fortress Investment Group cofounder and COO Randal Nardone signed a $22 million contract for a glass-walled duplex at the new Tribeca condo 101 Warren Street. He finally closed earlier this month but in that year his stock has plummeted and he is no longer on the Forbes billionaires list.

Leonardo DiCaprio's gorgeous Israeli model girlfriend Bar Refaeli appears in the ad campaign for Sean Combs' modestly-named new fragrance, "I Am King." The pix (above) portray Puffy (or Diddy or whatever he's calling himself this week) tooling around in Saint-Tropez and Monaco on helicopters, yachts and so forth with Refaeli (left) and another model in typical mega-mogul fashion. New York magazine reports the new cologne will launch exclusively at Macy's in December with a global launch set for February, and a women's fragrance ("I Am Queen") to follow in 2009; global sales are expected to total $100 million in the first year alone.

Leonardo DiCaprio's gorgeous Israeli model girlfriend Bar Refaeli has landed the fall ad campaign for classic California surf company Hurley. The ads (above) which showcase Refaeli's ample charms will debut in magazines this fall, and she will also appear in the brand's Spring 2009 runway show during Los Angeles Fashion Week in October. You can watch a video of her shooting the campaign here. Refaeli, the first Israeli model to appear in Sports Illustrated's Swimsuit Issue, was also recently named Best Body of 2008 by Arena magazine, and will appear in Tommy Hilfiger's Iconic America TV special this fall.



[via Kempt]

Jaeger-LeCoultre has teamed up with actor and environmentalist Leonardo DiCaprio on the new "Time to Care" program, which will benefit the Leonardo DiCaprio Fund at the California Community Foundation. Two special timepieces will be sold in the fall of 2008 and all the proceeds will go to DiCaprio's fund.

The first unique piece for sale will be a one-of-a-kind Master Compressor Extreme Lab, worn by DiCaprio to the premiere of his documentary as shown in the picture above. This piece will be the first watch in the Extreme Lab series to be delivered anywhere in the world, and is valued at approximately $300,000. It will be engraved with Leonardo DiCaprio's signature and is crafted in carbon fiber and titanium. It has an automatic tourbillon, two time zones, a pointer-type AM/PM indication at 12 o'clock and a patented jumping date display between 15 and 16 linked to local time. The watch features the first mechanical movement to operate without any lubricant and it is resistant to extreme temperatures of -40 degrees to +60 degrees Celsius.

The second unique timepiece for sale will be a one-of-a-kind edition of the Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 valued at approximately $400,000, It will contain the first-ever spherical tourbillon and will be the first watch in the Reverso Gyrotourbillon 2 series to be delivered anywhere in world. The platinum watch also contains a 50-hour power reserve. It is fashioned from over 371 parts and was specially created to commemorate the 175th anniversary of Jaeger-LeCoultre this year.

The watches will be sold at the new Jaeger-LeCoultre Boutiques in Boca Raton and Beverly Hills which are scheduled to open summer and fall of this year, respectively.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Former West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton has listed his West Virginia home, shown here, for $3.65 million. Caperton, who was governor of the West Virginia for two terms starting in 1989, is currently the president of the College Board and has overhauled the SAT system, adding writing component to the test. . This home built in 1997 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia has a decidedly wacky bent. It hasa lookout tower and is painted red, blue, yellow and gray. Check out the listing here.
--A penthouse located at South Beach's Setai condo-hotel has gone to contract for $24 million, breaking the city's record for a condominium.
--"Friends" supporting actress Jane Sibbett has put her Topanga, California home, known as Trust Ranch, on the market for $7 million. Sibbett, who played Ross's lesbian ex-wife, Carol, on the sitcom,and she and her husband writer/producer Karl Fink are buying a farm in Hawaii for about $2 million. The four-bedroom home sits on 17 acres and the design is based on the golden ratio, a mathematical proportion considered aesthetically pleasing. The listing is here.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Conflicting figures about regarding Leonardo DiCaprio's penthouse apartment in the Hudson Blue building in New York. The latest is that DiCaprio's new abode will be a one-bedroom condo with a private 800-square-foot rooftop terrace with a hot tub which cost the actor under $3 million.
--Aw, Martin Scorcese is a good dad, he's helping eldest daughter, Catherine, purchase a condo with a $799,000 in Williamsburg.
--Model and actress Emma Heming has paid $1.85 million for a two-bedroom condo in Chelsea.
--Broker, Melanie Lazenby, whose father, George Lazenby, played James Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" has listed a rather Bond-like $11.5 million duplex penthouse condo. The listing is here.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--The widow of real estate developer Charles Evans( brother to producer Bob Evans and the producer of the 1982 drag classic Tootsie) has sold their triplex apartment which was listed at $29.5 million.
-- Broadway producer Marty Richards has accepted an offer for his co-op at the iron-gated River House on East 52nd Street. The apartment, which we mentioned recently has been on the market off and on for around seven years was listed for $22.7 million.
--André Balazs, the hotelier turned condo developer is making great deals on the William Beaver House. Over the summer he reportedly sold the penthouse for $4.7 million, now he has sold the 47th floor's A and B apartments for $5 million.
--Octogenarian photographer Frederick Eberstadt has sold his longtime apartment at 791 Park Avenue to Alexandra Heyman Nash, a children's photographer for $6.7 million.
--Ex-White House senior staff member Dina Habib Powell and her husband, Richard have spent $3.85 million on an apartment at The Metropolitan.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Wayne Gretzky has paid $875,000 for a house in Westlake Village, California. He recently sold his home in Thousand Oaks to baseball star Lenny Dykstra for a reported $18.5 million.
--The mansion in Encino that singer Macy Gray sold earlier this year for $4,750,000 is back on the market after a major rehab for $11,700,000. Is it worth it? You be the judge, check out the property website here.
--Former Guns N' Roses guitarist and songwriter Izzy Stradlin (also known as Jeffrey Isbell) has paid $1,098,000 for a home in Ojai. Check out the listing sheet here.
--The official sale price on Gene Wilder's Bel-Air home was $2,725,000.
--A home in Bannockburn, Illinois once owned by Bears coach Mike Ditka is on the market for $2.29 million. The listing is here.
--"Simpsons" actor Dan Castellaneta has sold his beautiful five-bedroom, contemporary-style house in Santa Monica. It had been listed at $3,295,000.
--Actor Michael Urie from "Ugly Betty" has paid $749,000 for a 10th-floor condo in the Hollywood Versailles Tower in Hollywood.
--Actor Goran Visnjic of "ER" has sold his Spanish villa-style house in Sherman Oaks for $1,780,000 to hockey star Sheldon Souray.

From the Real Estalker:
--Rumor has it that New York "It Boy" Fabian Basabe and his La Perla lingerie heiress wifey Martina Borgomanero have left new York and moved into a condo on lower Sunset Plaza Drive in West Hollywood.
--The Real Estalker Mama takes a look at the Calabasas home Jag star Catherine Bell put on the market. When we first saw it on the market at the end of August it was listed at $3.25 million but now sits at $2.895 million. Check out the pictures at the listing here.
--The estate of Cheng Ching Wang, the late father of designer Vera Wang, is leasing out the 33-acre estate in Pound Ridge for $25,000 a month.
--Cheng Ching Wang's home in Palm Beach, Florida is also on the market for $23 million. The impressive five-bedroom estate is listed here.
--Looks like A-Rod won't be buying Shaq's Star Island mansion in Miami after all. Various sources are reporting that Alex Rodriguez walked away from the $32,000,000 home and are staying in the Coral Gables area where they currently own a $12,000,000 home.
--The answer to a "Who's House Is This" posted by Mr. Big Time, appears to be Go Go's guitarist Jane Wiedlin who reportedly left this charming modern home in Silverlake to move downtown into a sixth floor condo at the Little Tokyo Lofts which she bought for $695,000.
--Back to Cheng Chin Wang, his estate also sold off an eight-bedroom home on Gin Lane in Southhampton, NY for $11.5 million this summer.
--What to make of guitar god Slash's lawsuit against his real estate agent? We'll take a look at the home as our estate of the day.
--Singer Carole King has put her Stanley, Idaho ranch on the market for $19 million.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Earvin "Magic" Johnson and his wife, Cookie, have purchased a $7.6-million vacation home in Dana Point with views of the ocean.
--Professional golfer Corey Pavin and his wife, Lisa have purchased a home in Brentwood for $3 million.
--A home once lived in by Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman was just sold by veteran TV director Reza Badiyi for $1.8 million.

Leonardo Dicaprio's green leanings are well known. Now it is being rumored that he will be working with the Four Seasons Hotel group to create a green hotel on land he owns in Belize. He is reported to want to start building at the beginning of 2008. The green features haven't been announced. Belize has been in the news recently for a huge new development. DiCaprio wouldn't be the first celeb to open a resort in Belize, director Francis Ford Coppola owns a resort there.

We already knew Nicolas Cage was spendy, Ferraris, his own Bahamian island and a Bavarian castle have been among his legendary purchases. But this week saw a bidding war between Nicolas Cage and Leonardo DiCaprio over a dinosaur skull. The Daily Telegraph reports that the two stars locked horns at a Beverly Hills auction over a 67 million-year-old dinosaur skull. Cage eventually won, for $276,000.

The article in the Telegraph goes on to chronicle the hot trend in all sorts of dino artifacts reporting that other dinosaur collectors include director Ron Howard and Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft chief and amateur paleontologist. Like art prices, the prices of fossils have had a steady uptick over the past ten years. This has been good news for the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, a commercial fossil company which has been involved in a variety of excavations including two Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons. The Great Plains area has yielded a variety of fossils and dinosaur bones.

In Italy, Greece and other European countries, some farmers have occasionally supplemented their incomes with finds from their land. The same seems to be true for some farmers in the US with dinosaur bones. For some, finding the bones can be a windfall in a time when drought has plagued the land. The article tells the story of Bucky Derflinger, from South Dakota who managed to buy a 4,000-acre cattle range with his share of the money from finding dinosaurs on his father's land. So perhaps in some very roundabout way, Cage and the other celebs snatching up dino remains at exorbitant prices are actually helping American farmers.

From the NY Post's Gimme Shelter:
--Developer Harry Macklowe bought up around $60 million worth of apartments in the Plaza that he plans to combine into one huge residence. There's just one problem, a $4 million apartment is in the way and so Macklowe may need to pay double the original list price for the apartment in order to complete his dream home. It's unclear if Macklowe is the mystery $50 million man who we first talked about buying in at the Plaza. Given the blockbuster prices in the building there may be more than one.
--Natalie Portman has put her home in Sea Cliff, Long Island, shown above, on the market for $2.2 million. The listing for the three-bedroom shingled home is here and the virtual tour is here.
--Park Avenue's grandest-looking mansion has gone back on the market after a gut renovation. It is now listed for $35 million.
--Leonardo DiCaprio has signed a rental agreement for a three-bedroom duplex on Walker Street with a $35,000-a-month asking price.

Also from the Post:
--Billy Joel is in contract to buy Roy Schieder's Sagaponack home. The home was most recently listed at $18.75 million.

From the Real Estalker:
--A look at the Steel House, a mid-century modern owned by James Valentine of Maroon 5.
--Stephen Gyllenhaal and Naomi Foner (parents of Jake Gyllenhaal) are offering a three-bedroom home on Mulholland Drive for rent for $20,000 per month.
--You can rent the house on Mulholland Drive in Beverly Hills that was used to film "The Apprentice" last season for $45,000 per month.
--Aaron Kamin of the band The Calling has listed his West Hollywood home for $2.3 million.
--Actress Joely Fisher has listed her four-bedroom house in Encino for $4.75 million. It's out estate of the day later today.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Tommy Tune has paid $1.29 million for a tower apartment at 400 East 52nd Street, called the Southgate. The one-bedroom, 750-square-foot apartment has a wrap terrace and cracked walls.
--170 East End Avenue, a soon-to-open condo designed by Madison Avenue Armani boutique veteran Peter Marino, has three deep-pocketed buyers. Contemporary art dealer Dominique Lévy has paid about $12 million for a combined-unit duplex on the eighth floor. Developer Eric Hadar bought a mirror-image 5,000-square-foot duplex for around the same amount. Vornado Realty Trust president Michael Fascitelli spent $16 million on a 7,000-square-foot space with a two-hoop basketball court.
--Adam Sender, a hedge-fund man with an absurdly gorgeous art collection, has bought a 36th-floor duplex in Downtown by Philippe Starck for $8.1 million.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Four-time U.S. Olympic gold medalist Lenny Krayzelburg has paid $2,610,000 to purchase a 3,454-square-foot house in Los Angeles' Hollywood Hills.
--Director M. Night Shyamalan has listed his mansion in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania for $7.999 million. The four-level mansion has seven bedrooms. Shyamalan hasn't gone Hollywood, he still has a nearly 123-acre estate in Williston Township that he bought in 2004 for $17.9 million.
--Actress Anita Barone who is in the Fox sitcom "The War at Home," and her actor husband Matthew Glave have sold their three-bedroom house in the Hollywood Hills to actor and comedy writer Paul Soter for $1.11 million and have paid $1.678 million for a five-bedroom house in Los Angeles' Encino area.

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--Josh Duhamel has sold his home in Brentwood for close to the asking price of $2.4 million.
--Steve Lavin, former UCLA head basketball coach turned ESPN and ABC college basketball analyst, has listed his Newport Beach home at $3.995 million. The listing is here.
--Kristine Lefebvre and her husband, chef Ludovic Lefebvre have sold their four-bedroom, 3 1/2 -bath room Studio City home for about $1.5 million.
--The Zubin Mehta Malibu estate has been sold for $14 million.
--Del Shores, playwright and gay pop-culture icon, and his partner, actor-producer Jason Dottley, have listed their 1929 Laurel Canyon, Spanish-style home at $1.65 million. The listing is here.

I already covered the jewelry worn by some of Hollywood's best at the Academy Awards but what about the watches. No diamonds for Leonardo DiCaprio but National Jeweler reports that Leo was wearing the Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Minute Repeater for the big night. The round watch is done in platinum and has a 15-day power reserve movement that chimes the hours, quarter hours and minutes. The watch is valued at $175,000 and is a limited edition of 200 pieces. He wore the same watch to the Blood Diamond premiere in Los Angeles but he also owns a Master Compressor Geographic and the Reverso Septantieme both from Jaeger-LeCoultre. I wonder if Leo has his eye on a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso Triptyque.