RichardGere

From the LA Times Hot Property:
--PBS commentator Huell Howser has listed his 60-acre Newberry Springs compound including the Volcano house, shown above, for $750,000. The listing is here.
--Writer-director-producer Aaron Seltzer has sold his Studio City home for $2,397,500. It was listed at $2.949 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.

--Fashion designer Randolph Duke first put his award-winning Hollywood Hills house on the market for $8.5 million last year but it recently sold for $5.3 million. It was listed at $6.5 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day.

--Fashion photographer David LaChapelle has sold his 1920s Spanish-style home in the Sunset Strip area for $1.6 million. It was listed at $1.65 million earlier this year.

--Actress Cobie Smulders has purchased a Los Feliz-area triplex for $991,000.
Actor Oliver Hudson and his wife, actress Erinn Bartlett, have purchased a home in Brentwood for about $2 million.

From Cityfile's Buyers and Sellers:
--via New York Magazine, the townhouse at 160 East 95th Street that Walter Cronkite helped his son Chip buy for $1.725 million in 2000 is on the market for $4.25 million. The listing is here.
--via New York Magazine, the former home of photographer David Gahr has gone on the market for $3.2 million. The listing is here.
--via the NY Times, the penthouse duplex at 1020 Fifth has undergone a $5 million price cut. The 7,000-square-foot apartment, which is owned by heirs to the Kress retail fortune and first went on the market for $46.5 million in 2008 and is now listed for $34 million.
--John Novogratz, a senior managing director at Millenium Partners has paid $3.44 million for an apartment at 39 Vestry Street.
--via the NY Times, Richard Gere has finally unloaded his spread at Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chupi. The 3.500-square-foot space, which Gere bought for $13 million in 2007 and listed for $17.995 million in 2008, has reportedly sold for $12 million.

--Abigail Wexner, the wife of apparel billionaire Les Wexner, has sold a two-bedroom apartment at 910 Fifth Avenue for $2.4 million.
--Barbara Gutmacher Girard has listed her two-bedroom apartment at The Plaza for $8.995 million.The listing is here.
--Literary agent Dan Strone, whose clients include Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Chris Rock, has paid $1.8 million for a two-bedroom apartment at 29 East 64th Street.
--Gisele Bundchen has found a buyer for her townhouse at 42 Barrow Street. Bundchen bought the home for $5.8 million in 2005 and it had been listed for $13.95 million since September.
--Entrepreneur David Smilow has found a buyer for his duplex penthouse at 140 Perry Street. The apartment was once listed for $19.5 million, was taken off the market in April and went into contract to sell earlier this week.
--via Newsday, Dr. Arthur Agatston, the cardiologist best known for having created the South Beach Diet, and his wife Sari have paid $7 million for a mansion in East Hampton.
--via Newsday, caterer Rhona Silver's seven-bedroom Long Island home has gone on the market. The home has been the setting for more than a few rap music videos over the years and is listed at $5.5 million.
--Barry Weiss, the music executive who replaced Clive Davis as the CEO of BMG in 2008, has picked up a new apartment paying $4.995 million for a penthouse at the Harrison at 205 West 76th Street.
--via the Real Deal, Showtime chief executive Matt Blank has paid $11.2 million for a 10th-floor condo at the Superior Ink building at 400 West 12th Street. [Real Deal]
--via Curbed, hedge fund mogul Bill Ackman personally auctioned off the guest suite he owns at The Majestic on Central Park West for $320,000, just $20,000 above the minimum bid.

From the NY Observer's Manhattan Transfers:
--Former Random House chief executive Peter Olson and his wife, iVillage.com co-founder Candice Carpenter Olson, have sold their duplex apartment at 799 Park Avenue for $4.5 million to Essie Nail Polish founder Essie Weingarten and her husband, Massimo Sortino.

From the NY Post:
--Madonna may be buying Kelly Klein's horse farm, Wild Ocean Farm in Bridgehampton for under $10 million. Madonna is also attempting to purchase an additional 24 acres nearby listed for $2.4 million.
--Celebrity chef Todd English has been spotted checking out apartments in the Novare building.

From Berg Properties Big Time Listings:
--Kiefer Sutherland has sold a condo unit in Manhattan's Greenwich Village for $3.5 million and his loft/recording studio in Los Angeles' Silver Lake area for $3 million.
--Jakob Dylan has sold his seven-bedroom home Los Angeles' Brentwood area for $8.225 million. It was listed at $11 million when we checked it out as an estate of the day last year.

--Mark Ruffalo has sold his three-bedroom home in the Hollywood Hills for $1.65 million.

From the Wall Street Journal's Private Properties:
--Fashion designer Tory Burch has listed a property in the Hamptons for $17.9 million. She bought the home in 2008 from her ex-husband for $22.5 million and planned to tear it down. The property is being offered with the approved plans for a new house. The listing is here.
--As my colleague Jared Paul Stern mentioned earlier this week designer Yves Saint Laurent's Paris home is on the market. It is listed for $34.6 million.
--Bank of America has sold a historic Manhattan townhouse for $29.4 million. It was not on the market, was purchased in a direct deal by a partnership led by Jules Demchick , president of JD Carlisle Development.

From ShelterPop:
Best and Worst Celebrity Real Estate Deals 2009

Tiger Woods' Real Estate Portfolio: What's Up for Grabs in a Divorce

Tracking Nicolas Cage's Many, Many Homes

As Newsday reports, Richard Gere already has a home in North Haven, New York and so he's a motivated seller when it comes to his Water Mill home. Richard Gere and wife Carey Lowell have lowered the asking price for the seven-bedroom farmhouse from $8.8 million to $7.2 million,

Gere had his New York apartment in Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chupi on the market for almost a year (it was last listed at $15 million but the listing has now disappeared). The charming Too Many Maples in Water Mill was bought by Gere and Lowell for $2.75 million back in 2001. The home is on a 1.2 acre lot that includes a swimming pool, guest house and artist's studio. The gracious country residence has been given a comfortable renovation that has the offhand casual appeal that it often takes quite a bit of money to attain. Antique wood floors and vintage light fixtures add to the classic style. Details like a farmhouse style table in the dining room and white marble counter tops set the stage for lazy food-filled weekends while the wide porch offers the perfect place to wile away the afternoon. What say you, is this photogenic home owned by a photogenic couple right priced now or will they have to dip closer to the $5 million mark in order to get it to contract?

A bunch of celebrities including Mariah Carey, Seal, Richard Gere, Sharon Stone and Paris Hilton wound up at the Mardan Palace Hotel in Antalya, Turkey this Memorial Day weekend. The NY Post reports that Carey picked up a $1.5 million paycheck for performing at the opening of the hotel which bills itself as "Europe's most expensive hotel." The Post says Tom Jones also got the same fee. Other celebs reportedly earned more modest sums simply for showing up. Pics from the event in the gallery below.

Richard Gere has put another of his homes up for sale. Gere had his New York apartment in Julian Schnabel's Palazzo Chupi on the market for almost a year (it was last listed at $15 million but the listing has now disappeared). Now one of his homes in the Hamptons, the charming Too Many Maples in Water Mill, New York is listed. The Real Estalker reports that the renovated farm house was bought by Gere and his wife Carey Lowell for $2.75 million back in 2001. The seven-bedroom home is on a 1.2 acre lot that includes a swimming pool, guest house and artist's studio. The gracious country residence has been given a comfortable renovation that has the offhand casual appeal that it often takes quite a bit of money to attain. Antique wood floors and vintage light fixtures add to the classic style. Details like a farmhouse style table in the dining room and white marble counter tops set the stage for lazy food-filled weekends while the wide porch offers the perfect place to wile away the afternoon. The home is listed at $8.8 million.
Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

A came across this organization when writing about Pippa Small's jewelry and thought I just had to include it in our Charity of the Day series. Survival International's mission is to protect tribal people's land and culture across the globe from encroaching governments and corporations whose expansion may very well wipe out these native populations. These secluded communities won't be able to preserve their way of life if other ambitious parties are not held in check. Support for this organization is possible through active participation such as sponsoring events, writing letters or becoming a campaigner (joining Richard Gere and Pippa Small as well) or through various levels of donations. Their website does a fantastic job of sharing their cause and enlightening those of us who wouldn't have known the depths of this struggle otherwise.

Larger-than-life artist/auteur Julian Schnabel has slashed the price on a duplex in his controversial Pepto-Bismol-pink Palazzo Chupi by more than $2 million. The apartment in question, one of several luxe spreads in the building, was originally listed at $27 million earlier this year, then quickly increased to $32 million, but Schnabel just lowered the asking price to $29.5 million, the Wall Street Journal reports. Richard Gere bought one of the lower-floor apartments for $12 million last year and recently put it back on the market for $18 million.

The apartment's Old World features include 14-ft. tall plaster walls, massive hand carved fireplaces, handmade bronze railings, solid stone and tile floors, and wood ceilings, all hand-selected by Schnabel -- as do those in the rest of the building, which is featured in Vanity Fair's May issue. The price cut is probably indicative of the slightly slumping Manhattan real estate market, which many feel to be mostly recession-proof. You can view the listing here.

For months the possibility of living with Richard Gere has been one of the quiet selling points for Palazzo Chupi, director Julian Schnabel's monument to his own Schnabeliciousness in New York's West Village. Now that dream is over, Gere's full-floor, four-bedroom apartment is listed with Sotheby's. Gere's apartment has some benefits over the over two apartments which are listed at $27 million and $32 million, mainly that it's a little less over-the-top and doesn't have that odd avocado-colored kitchen. Curbed states that Gere bought the apartment in September for $12 million and has listed at $17,995,000. Is New York ready for "Venice in Manhattan?" We'll have to wait and see how long these places stay on the market.

UPDATE: As of January 2009, Gere's home is listed at $15 million.

Richard Gere's plans to become the latest  celebrity to open a hotel have hit a snag. The NY Daily News reports that Gere and his business partner Russell Hernandez  paid $2.7 million for a 14-acre property in Bedford, New York. They plan to turn a fixer-upper old housing into a hotel and restaurant but need town approval in order to compete renovations because the buildings on the property are historic landmarks. Gere can't get town approval until it is proven that the plan will include handicap access. Hopefully by keeping his ambitions small,Gere will have better luck than some other celebs such as  George Clooney and his ill-fated Las Ramblas project.